Slough of Despond

And then I have to push through the self-doubt what I call the Slough of Despond and emerge from the other side.

Interview: Pat Murphy 2008

And he said unto me, This miry slough is such a place as cannot be mended; it is the descent whither the scum and filth that attends conviction for sin doth continually run, and therefore it is called the Slough of Despond; for still, as the sinner is awakened about his lost condition, there ariseth in his soul many fears, and doubts, and discouraging apprehensions, which all of them get together, and settle in this place.

The Pilgrim`s Progress 1666

And he said unto me, This miry slough is such a place as cannot be mended; it is the descent whither the scum and filth that attends conviction for sin doth continually run, and therefore it is called the Slough of Despond; for still, as the sinner is awakened about his lost condition, there ariseth in his soul many fears, and doubts, and discouraging apprehensions, which all of them get together, and settle in this place.

The Pilgrim's Progress from this world to that which is to come, delivered under the similitude of a dream, by John Bunyan John Bunyan 1658

Like the Denver Bibliophile, I was deeply unamused by my slog through The Lord of the Rings--great world-building, prose like wading through the Slough of Despond--but nobody interested in the history of fantasy would dare ignore it.1

The Little Professor: 2009

Like the Denver Bibliophile, I was deeply unamused by my slog through The Lord of the Rings--great world-building, prose like wading through the Slough of Despond--but nobody interested in the history of fantasy would dare ignore it.1

Iconoclasm 2009

I met Pilgrim's Progress there, and I'll always associate the Slough of Despond with the beach on a rainy day and my parents trying to explain why Judaism doesn't need such a concept.

Even in a little thing gillpolack 2009

I agree - I felt like I was in the Slough of Despond wading through some of the battle passages and pages and pages of description.

Iconoclasm 2009

I met Pilgrim's Progress there, and I'll always associate the Slough of Despond with the beach on a rainy day and my parents trying to explain why Judaism doesn't need such a concept.

gillpolack: murasaki_1966 gave me more words to play gillpolack 2009

So, the Bride had mounted into her handsome chariot, incidentally accompanied by the Bridegroom; and after rolling for a few minutes smoothly over a fair pavement, had begun to jolt through a Slough of Despond, and through a long, long avenue of wrack and ruin.

Little Dorrit 2007

It's a day-to-day news story and he hasn't entered the stage yet in this financial opera ... but the Slough of Despond can become a reference point to you all.

The reasons for the Global Financial PANIC 2007 2007