I always thought fainting showed an inherent weakness of character, but I understood it now. It was an act of self-preservation. Confronted by emotion too extreme to handle, the body shuts down to keep from running around like a chicken with its head cut off, potentially injuring itself.
Quotes about fainting (13 Quotes)
There was a discordant hum of human voices! There was a loud blast as of many trumpets! There was a harsh grating as of a thousand thunders! The fiery walls rushed back! An outstretched arm caught my own as I fell, fainting, into the abyss. It was that of General Lasalle. The French army had entered Toledo. The Inquisition was in the hands of its enemies.
He caught her as if he were used to catching fainting girls, as if he did it everyday.
When from the first to last, betwixt us two,
Tears our recountments had most kindly bath'd,
As how I came into that desert place-
In brief, he led me to the gentle Duke,
Who gave me fresh array and entertainment,
Committing me unto my brother's love;
Who led me instantly unto his cave,
There stripp'd himself, and here upon his arm
The lioness had torn some flesh away,
Which all this while had bled; and now he fainted,
And cried, in fainting, upon Rosalind.
MOUSE, n. An animal which strews its path with fainting women. As in Rome Christians were thrown to the lions, so centuries earlier in Otumwee, the most ancient and famous city of the world, female heretics were thrown to the mice. Jakak-Zotp, the historian, the only Otumwump whose writings have descended to us, says that these martyrs met their death with little dignity and much exertion. He even attempts to exculpate the mice (such is the malice of bigotry) by declaring that the unfortunate women perished, some from exhaustion, some of broken necks from falling over their own feet, and some from lack of restoratives. The mice, he avers, enjoyed the pleasures of the chase with composure. But if Roman history is nine-tenths lying, we can hardly expect a smaller proportion of that rhetorical figure in the annals of a people capable of so incredible cruelty to a lovely women for a hard heart has a false tongue.
Through torrid tracts with fainting steps they go, Where wild Altama murmurs to their woe.
..fiery yearnings their own phantom-futures make, and deem it present. So, after all these fearful, fainting trances, the verdict be, the golden haven was not gained - - yet, in bold quest thereof, better to sink in boundless deeps, than float on vulgar shoals and give me, ye gods, an utter wreck, if wreck I do.
And those who believe say Why has not a chapter been revealed But when a decisive chapter is revealed, and fighting is mentioned therein you see those in whose hearts is a disease look to you with the look of one fainting because of death. Woe to them then Obedience and a gentle word (was proper) but when the affair becomes settled, then if they remain true to Allah it would certainly be better for them.
My God,
Uphold my fainting soul.
Rulers, who neither see, nor feel, nor know, but leech-like to their fainting country cling, till they drop, blind in blood, without a blow, -- a people starved and stabbed in the untilled field...
It was pitch black. The children were sick and wetting their pants. Some elderly people were fainting, dehydrated.
My God, my Father, while I stray Far from home, on life's rough way, O teach me from my heart to say, 'Thy will be done.' Though dark my path and sad my lot, Let me be still and murmur not But breathe the prayer divinely taught, 'Thy will be done.' What though in lonely grief I sigh For friends beloved no longer nigh, Submissive still, would I reply, 'Thy will be done.' If thou shouldst call me to resign What most I prizeit ne'er was mine, I only yield Thee what was Thine 'Thy will be done.' If but my fainting heart be blest With thy sweet spirit for its guest, My God, to Thee I leave the rest 'Thy will be done.' Renew my will from day to day Blend it with Thine, and take away All that now makes it hard to say, 'Thy will be done.'
Never as then, amid suicides, hysteria, and groups of fainting people, have I felt the sensation of real death, death without hope, death that is nothing but rottenness, for the spectacle was terrifying but devoid of greatness.