But there is suffering in life, and there are defeats. No one can avoid them. But it’s better to lose some of the battles in the struggles for your dreams than to be defeated without ever knowing what you’re fighting for.
—Paulo Coelho (b.1947) Brazilian Songwriter, Novelist
The wise man does not expose himself needlessly to danger, since there are few things for which he cares sufficiently; but he is willing, in great crises, to give even his life—knowing that under certain conditions it is not worthwhile to live.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
The tragedy of life is not so much what men suffer, but rather what they miss.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away blessed be the name of the Lord.
—The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith
Night brings out stars as sorrow shows us truths.
—Philip James Bailey (1816–1902) English Poet
He jests at scars that never felt a wound.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
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
You can’t drown your sorrows, they always float to the surface.
—Unknown
Who feareth to suffer suffereth already, because he feareth.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
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
Is suffering so very serious?. I have come to doubt it. It may be quite childish, a sort of undignified pastime—I’m referring to the kind of suffering a man inflicts on a woman or a woman on a man. It’s extremely painful. I agree that it’s hardly bearable. But I very much fear that this sort of pain deserves no consideration at all. It’s no more worthy of respect than old age or illness.
—Colette (1873–1954) French Novelist, Performer
As long as you think that the cause of your problem is “out there”—as long as you think that anyone or anything is responsible for your suffering—the situation is hopeless. It means that you are forever in the role of victim, that you’re suffering in paradise.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
All violence is the result of people tricking themselves into believing that their pain derives from other people and that consequently those people deserve to be punished.
—Marshall Rosenberg (1934–2015) American Psychologist, Peace Advocate
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
In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.
—Aeschylus (525–456 BCE) Greek Playwright
How little it takes to make life unbearable: a pebble in the shoe, a cockroach in the spaghetti, a woman’s laugh.
—H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic
To become a spectator of one’s own life is to escape the suffering of life.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Man cannot remake himself without suffering, for he is both the marble and the sculptor.
—Alexis Carrel (1873–1944) American Surgeon, Biologist
Don’t look forward to the day you stop suffering, because when it comes you’ll know you’re dead.
—Tennessee Williams (1911–83) American Playwright
You know quite well, deep within you, that there is only a single magic, a single power, a single salvation…and that is called loving. Well, then, love your suffering. Do not resist it, do not flee from it. It is your aversion that hurts, nothing else.
—Hermann Hesse (1877–1962) German-born Swiss Novelist, Poet
I can sympathize with everything, except suffering.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
You desire to know the art of living, my friend? It is contained in one phrase: make use of suffering.
—Henri Frederic Amiel (1821–81) Swiss Moral Philosopher, Poet, Critic
It is the lot of man to suffer.
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–81) British Head of State
You can hold yourself back from the sufferings of the world, that is something you are free to do and it accords with your nature, but perhaps this very holding back is the one suffering you could avoid.
—Franz Kafka (1883–1924) Austrian Novelist, Short Story Writer
The salvation of the world is in man’s suffering.
—William Faulkner (1897–1962) American Novelist
When you suffer, think not on how you can escape suffering, but concentrate your efforts on what kind of inner moral and spiritual perfection this suffering requires.
—Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian Novelist
You are outside life, you are above life, you have miseries which the ordinary man does not know, you exceed the normal level, and it is for this that men refuse to forgive you, you poison their peace of mind, you undermine their stability. You have irrepressible pains whose essence is to be inadaptable to any known state, indescribable in words. You have repeated and shifting pains, incurable pains, pains beyond imagining, pains which are neither of the body nor of the soul, but which partake of both. And I share your suffering, and I ask you: who dares to ration our relief? We are not going to kill ourselves just yet. In the meantime, leave us the hell alone.
—Antonin Artaud (1896–1948) French Actor, Drama Theorist
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
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
Pain is never permanent.
—Teresa of Avila (1515–82) Spanish Carmelite Nun, Mystic
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