The mind grows sicker than the body in contemplation of it’s suffering.
—Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) (c.43 BCE–c.18 CE) Roman Poet
Suffering by nature or chance never seems so painful as suffering inflicted on us by the arbitrary will of another.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
To choose a hardship for ourselves is our only defense against that hardship. This is what is meant by accepting suffering. Those who, by their very nature, can suffer completely, utterly, have an advantage. That is how we can disarm the power of suffering, make it our own creation, our own choice; submit to it. A justification for suicide.
—Cesare Pavese (1908–50) Italian Novelist, Poet, Critic, Translator
What is the noble truth of suffering? Birth is suffering, ageing is suffering and sorrow and lamentation, pain, grief and despair are suffering.
—Buddhist Teaching
The worst pain a man can suffer: to have insight into much and power over nothing.
—Herodotus (c.485–425 BCE) Ancient Greek Historian
If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your own estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.
—Marcus Aurelius (121–180) Emperor of Rome, Stoic Philosopher
You can’t drown your sorrows, they always float to the surface.
—Unknown
For suffering and enduring there is no remedy, but striving and doing.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
Man cannot remake himself without suffering, for he is both the marble and the sculptor.
—Alexis Carrel (1873–1944) American Surgeon, Biologist
Wisdom comes alone through suffering.
—Aeschylus (525–456 BCE) Greek Poet
I have suffered too much in this world not to hope for another.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78) Swiss-born French Philosopher
Night brings out stars as sorrow shows us truths.
—Philip James Bailey (1816–1902) English Poet
It is the lot of man to suffer.
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–81) British Head of State
It is better that ten guilty persons escape than one innocent suffer
—William Blackstone (1723–80) English Judge, Jurist, Academic
Most people get a fair amount of fun out of their lives, but on balance life is suffering, and only the very young or the very foolish imagine otherwise.
—George Orwell (1903–50) English Novelist, Journalist
Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope
—The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith
He jests at scars that never felt a wound.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
To become a spectator of one’s own life is to escape the suffering of life.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
One must really have suffered oneself to help others.
—Mother Teresa (1910–97) Roman Catholic Missionary, Nun
Suffering is permanent, obscure and dark, And shares the nature of infinity
—William Wordsworth (1770–1850) English Poet
Suffering is by no means a privilege, a sign of nobility, a reminder of God. Suffering is a fierce, bestial thing, commonplace, uncalled for, natural as air. It is intangible; no one can grasp it or fight against it; it dwells in time—is the same thing as time; if it comes in fits and starts, that is only so as to leave the sufferer more defenseless during the moments that follow, those long moments when one relives the last bout of torture and waits for the next.
—Cesare Pavese (1908–50) Italian Novelist, Poet, Critic, Translator
What was hard to suffer is sweet to remember.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
There is not much sense in suffering, since drugs can be given for pain, itching, and other discomforts. The belief has long died that suffering here on earth will be rewarded in heaven. Suffering has lost its meaning.
—Elisabeth Kubler-Ross (1926-2004) American Psychiatrist
A cold in the head causes less suffering than an idea.
—Jules Renard (1864–1910) French Writer, Diarist
If I did not believe, if I did not make what is called an act of faith (and each act of faith increases our faith, and our capacity for faith), if I did not have faith that the works of mercy do lighten the sum total of suffering in the world, so that those who are suffering on both sides of this ghastly struggle somehow mysteriously find their pain lifted and some balm of consolation poured on their wounds, if I did not believe these things, the problem of evil would indeed be overwhelming.
—Dorothy Day (1897–1980) American Journalist, Christian Activist
We learn from our mistakes, and the amount we learn is in direct proportion to the amount we suffer from having made the mistakes.
—Tommy Prothro (1920–95) American Sportsperson
Though all afflictions are evils in themselves, yet they are good for us, because they discover to us our disease and tend to our cure.
—John Tillotson
We need to suffer that we may learn to pity.
—Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–38) English Poet, Novelist
What really raises one’s indignation against suffering is not suffering intrinsically, but the senselessness of suffering.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
An unquestioned mind is the world of suffering.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
A man will renounce any pleasures you like but he will not give up his suffering.
—Georges Gurdjieff (1877–1949) Armenian Spiritual Leader, Occultist
The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love and to be greater than our suffering.
—Ben Okri (b.1959) Nigerian Novelist, Poet, Short-Story Writer
One writes of scars healed, a loose parallel to the pathology of the skin, but there is no such thing in the life of an individual. There are open wounds, shrunk sometimes to the size of a pin-prick but wounds still. The marks of suffering are more comparable to the loss of a finger, or the sight of an eye. We may not miss them, either, for one minute in a year, but if we should there is nothing to be done about it.
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) American Novelist
Oh, fear not in a world like this, and thou shalt know erelong, know how sublime a thing it is to suffer and be strong.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
Pain is never permanent.
—Teresa of Avila (1515–82) Spanish Carmelite Nun, Mystic
We are threatened with suffering from three directions: from our own body, which is doomed to decay and dissolution and which cannot even do without pain and anxiety as warning signals; from the external world, which may rage against us with overwhelming and merciless forces of destruction; and finally from our relations to other men. The suffering which comes from this last source is perhaps more painful than any other.
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian Psychiatrist, Psychoanalytic
It is not true that suffering ennobles the character; happiness does that sometimes, but suffering, for the most part, makes men petty and vindictive.
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) British Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Playwright
Without out suffering, our work would just be social work, very good and helpful, but it would not be the work of Jesus Christ, not part of the Redemption. All the desolation of the poor people, not only their material poverty, but their spiritual destitution, must be redeemed. And we must share it, for only by being one with them can we redeem them by bringing God into their lives and bringing them to God.
—Mother Teresa (1910–97) Roman Catholic Missionary, Nun
The capacity to give one’s attention to a sufferer is a very rare and difficult thing; it is almost a miracle; it is a miracle. Nearly all those who think they have this capacity do not possess it. Warmth of heart, impulsiveness, pity are not enough.
—Simone Weil (1909–1943) French Philosopher, Political Activist
Rather suffer than die is man’s motto.
—Jean de La Fontaine (1621–95) French Poet, Short Story Writer
I like a look of Agony, because I know it’s true—men do not sham Convulsion, nor simulate, a Throe—
—Emily Dickinson (1830–86) American Poet
The experiences of camp life show that a man does have a choice of action. There were enough examples, often of a heroic nature, which proved that apathy could be overcome, irritability suppressed. Man can preserve a vestige of spiritual freedom, of independence of mind, even in such terrible conditions of psychic and physical stress. We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken away from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s way. The way in which a man accepts his fate and all the suffering it entails, the way in which he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity—even in the most difficult circumstances—to add a deeper meaning to life.
—Viktor Frankl (1905–97) Austrian Psychiatrist, Psychotherapist
The chief cause of suffering for human beings is an inability to have things be the way they are.
—Unknown
You don’t have to suffer to be a poet. Adolescence is enough suffering for anyone.
—John Ciardi (1916–86) American Poet, Teacher, Etymologist, Translator
To bear other people’s afflictions, everyone has courage and enough to spare.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
If suffer we must, let’s suffer on the heights.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
To make sacrifices in big things is easy, but to make sacrifices in little things is what we are seldom capable of.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Pain is part of being alive, and we need to learn that. Pain does not last forever, nor is it necessarily unbearable, and we need to be taught that.
—Harold Kushner (b.1935) American Jewish Religious Leader, Priest
He who suffers much will know much
—Greek Proverb
A thought is harmless unless we believe it. It’s not our thoughts, but our attachment to our thoughts, that causes suffering. Attaching to a thought means believing that it’s true, without inquiring. A belief is a thought that we’ve been attaching to, often for years.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author