Quiet Desperation

I often find myself fearing my (or my husband's) midlife crisis. I desperately want to live a life I am proud of, one that is satisfying and exhilarating, but I am more often than not, disappointed.

I am currently reading Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver and a theme I am picking up on is lives of quiet desperation. The narrator is a country farm wife who married young and compares herself to young college students who have traveled and learned things, who have nice clothes and eat exotic food. 

I had a lapse and couldn't remember who coined "lives of quiet desperation," so I looked it up and found this: