Everything in life that we really accept undergoes a change. So suffering must become love. That is the mystery.
—Katherine Mansfield (1888–1923) New Zealand-born British Author
We can rest contentedly in our sins and in our stupidities, and anyone who has watched gluttons shoveling down the most exquisite foods as if they did not know what they were eating will admit that we can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.
—C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) Irish-born British Academic, Author, Literary Scholar
A Decalogue of Canons for observation in practical life. 1. Never put off till to-morrow what you can do to-day. 2. Never trouble another for what you can do yourself. 3. Never spend your money before you have it. 4. Never buy what you do not want, because it is cheap; it will be dear to you. 5. Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst and cold. 6. We never repent of having eaten too little. 7. Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly. 8. How much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened. 9. Take things always by their smooth handle. 10. When angry, count ten, before you speak; if very angry, an hundred.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
You will not grow if you sit in a beautiful flower garden, but you will grow if you are sick, if you are in pain, if you experience losses, and if you do not put your head in the sand, but take the pain and learn to accept it, not as a curse or punishment but as a gift to you with a very, very specific purpose.
—Elisabeth Kubler-Ross (1926-2004) American Psychiatrist
Pain of mind is worse than pain of body.
—Publilius Syrus (fl.85–43 BCE) Syrian-born Roman Latin Writer
No one is immune to pain, and it shouldn’t be denied when it exists. The key is to know that you can lead a productive and meaningful life no matter what the external circumstances are. What positive thinking does is offer a power boost to help you handle whatever life throws at you. Your “bad breaks” do not dominate your life; your indomitable strength does. And when you feel that indomitable strength, you really can handle any of your fears from a position of power—the kind of power that really can make good things happen.
—Susan Jeffers (1938–2012) American Psychologist, Self-Help Author
Hurt’s a reason to change, but all the hurt in the world don’t change facts.
—Stephen King (b.1947) American Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Screenwriter, Columnist, Film Director
Pain is never permanent.
—Teresa of Avila (1515–82) Spanish Carmelite Nun, Mystic
The least pain in our little finger gives us more concern and uneasiness than the destruction of millions of our fellow-beings.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
Life is pain and the enjoyment of love is an anesthetic.
—Cesare Pavese (1908–50) Italian Novelist, Poet, Critic, Translator
Remember that much of the trick of moving from pain to power is taking action. ACTION IS VERY POWERFUL!
—Susan Jeffers (1938–2012) American Psychologist, Self-Help Author
There is no detachment where there is no pain. And there is no pain endured without hatred or lying unless detachment is present too.
—Simone Weil (1909–1943) French Philosopher, Political Activist
Pleasure that is obtained by unreasonable and unsuitable cost, must always end in pain.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.
—Buddhist Teaching
What is deservedly suffered must be borne with calmness, but when the pain is unmerited, the grief is resistless.
—Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) (c.43 BCE–c.18 CE) Roman Poet
That’s what every uncomfortable feeling is for—that’s what pain is for, what money is for, what everything in the world is for: your self-realization.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
Pain may be said to follow pleasure, as its shadow; but the misfortune is, that the substance belongs to the shadow, and the emptiness to its cause.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
The secret in handling fear is to move yourself from a position of pain to a position of power. The fact that you have the fear becomes irrelevant.
—Susan Jeffers (1938–2012) American Psychologist, Self-Help Author
Wisdom is nothing more than healed pain.
—Robert E. Lee (1807–70) Confederate General during American Civil War
Given the choice between the experience of pain and nothing, I would choose pain.
—William Faulkner (1897–1962) American Novelist
There are few pains so grievous as to have seen, divined, or experienced how an exceptional man has missed his way and deteriorated
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
For we are born in other’s pain, and perish in our own.
—Francis Thompson (1859–1907) English Poet, Ascetic
On the outskirts of every agony sits some observant fellow who points.
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English Novelist
It takes courage to push yourself to places that you have never been before… to test your limits… to break through barriers. And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight inside the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
—Anais Nin (1903–77) French-American Essayist
One pain is lessened by another’s anguish.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
This horror of pain is a rather low instinct and… if I think of human beings I’ve known and of my own life, such as it is, I can’t recall any case of pain which didn’t, on the whole, enrich life.
—Malcolm Muggeridge (1903–90) English Journalist, Author, Media Personality, Satirist
The pain that’s created by avoiding hard work is actually much worse than any pain created from the actual work itself. Because if you don’t begin to work on those ideas that God has blessed you with, they will become stagnant inside of you and eventually begin to eat away at you. You might seem OK on the outside, but inside you will be ill from not getting those ideas out of your heart and into the world. Stalling leads to sickness. But taking steps, even baby steps, always leads to success.
—Russell Simmons (b.1957) American Music Promoter
Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.
—Lance Armstrong (b.1971) American Professional Racing Cyclist
Pain is less subject than pleasure to careless expression.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
The same refinement which brings us new pleasures, exposes us to new pains.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician