- I hate all pain,
- Given or received; we have enough within us
- The meanest vassal as the loftiest monarch,
- Not to add to each other's natural burden
- Of mortal misery.
Though the rich of this earth find no difficulty in creating misery, they can't bear to see it.
BERTOLT BRECHT, The Threepenny Opera
God, wishing His elect to realize their own misery, often temporarily withdraws His favours: no more is needed to prove to us in a very short time what we really are.
TERESA OF AVILA, The Interior Castle
Misery knows none but equals.
PAUL HERVIEU, Les Tenailles
There is always more misery among the lower classes than there is humanity in the higher.
VICTOR HUGO, Les Misérables
Misery loves company, particularly when she is herself the hostess, and can give generously of her stores to others.
What misery to live in this world! We are like men whose enemies are at the door, who must not lay aside their arms, even while sleeping or eating, and are always in dread lest the foe should enter the fortress by some breach in the walls. O my Lord and my all! How canst thou wish us to prize such a wretched existence?
TERESA OF AVILA, The Interior Castle
Misery's fine -- as long as you know you can get out of it when you want to.
ARTHUR ADAMOV, Ping Pong
- But misery still delights to trace
- Its semblance in another's case.
WILLIAM COWPER, The Castaway
Those who have suffered, who have known poverty or oppression, are generally the most prone to kindness. Perhaps it is well to endure some misery if only to learn this lesson.
ARTHUR LYNCH, Moods of Life
