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 (1935–2023) American Rabbi, 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
It is by a wise economy of nature that those who suffer without change, and whom no one can help, become uninteresting. Yet so it may happen that those who need sympathy the most often attract it the least.
—F. H. Bradley (1846–1924 ) British Idealist Philosopher
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
I have suffered too much in this world not to hope for another.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78) Swiss-born French Philosopher
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
Take heart. Suffering, when it climbs the highest, lasts but a little time.
—Aeschylus (525–456 BCE) Greek Playwright
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
It is the lot of man to suffer.
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–81) British Head of State
Affliction is a treasure, and scarce any man hath enough of it.
—John Donne (1572–1631) English Poet, Cleric
The sufferings that fate inflicts on us should be borne with patience, what enemies inflict with manly courage.
—Thucydides (c.455?c.400 BCE) Greek Historian
Humanity either makes, or breeds, or tolerates all its afflictions, great or small.
—H. G. Wells (1866–1946) English Novelist, Historian, Social Thinker
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
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 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
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
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
People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.
—Thich Nhat Hanh (1926–2022) Vietnamese Buddhist Leader, Teacher, Peace Activist
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
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 dominant characteristic of an authentic spiritual life is the gratitude that flows from trust.
—Brennan Manning (1934–2013) American Theologian, Author
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
Suffering is not good for the soul, unless it teaches you to stop suffering.
—Jane Roberts (1929–84) American Poet, Spirit Medium
You must submit to supreme suffering in order to discover the completion of joy.
—John Calvin (1509–64) French Theologian, Reformer
There is no true love save in suffering, and in this world we have to choose either love, which is suffering, or happiness. Man is the more man—that is, the more divine—the greater his capacity for suffering, or rather, for anguish.
—Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936) Spanish Educator, Philosopher, Author
An unquestioned mind is the world of suffering.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
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
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
Who feareth to suffer suffereth already, because he feareth.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
He jests at scars that never felt a wound.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
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