To hurt is as human as to breathe.
J. K. ROWLING, The Tales of Beedle the Bard
The worst takes its time to come, and then to pass.
The more a human creature has tasted of bitter things the more it hungers after the sweet things of life.
There would be far less suffering amongst mankind, if men -- and God knows why they are so fashioned -- did not employ their imaginations so assiduously in recalling the memory of past sorrow, instead of bearing their present lot with equanimity.
GOETHE, The Sorrows of Young Werther
Some people seem to be born to suffer.
AUGUST STRINDBERG, Easter
Suffering is part of the human condition, and it comes to us all. The key is how we react to it, either turning away from God in anger and bitterness or growing closer to Him in trust and confidence.
BILLY GRAHAM, Just As I Am
Your trouble's easy borne when everybody gives it a lift for you.
There is an elasticity in the human mind, capable of bearing much, but which will not show itself, until a certain weight of affliction be put upon it; its powers may be compared to those vehicles whose springs are so contrived that they get on smoothly enough when loaded, but jolt confoundedly when they have nothing to bear.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON, Lacon
Misery loves company, particularly when she is herself the hostess, and can give generously of her stores to others.
JOHN KENDRICK BANGS, "The Spectre Cook of Bangletop"
Suffering must be the inevitable tariff exacted from spirit for residing in human form.
MARK FROST, The List of Seven
I marvel now that it was not obvious how inextricable suffering and fear are. It was not until fear left that I noticed, slowly, how it seemed to have taken suffering with it. It took a while to figure out that (for me, anyhow) suffering is mostly caused by fear--not by the circumstances themselves, but by my response to them.
JAN FRAZIER, When Fear Falls Away
When our life is a continuous trial, the moments of respite seem only to substitute the heaviness of dread for the heaviness of actual suffering; the curtain of cloud seems parted an instant only that we may measure all its horror as it hangs low, black, and imminent, in contrast with the transient brightness; the waterdrops that visit the parched lips in the desert bear with them only the keen imagination of thirst.
GEORGE ELIOT, Janet's Repentance
Pain and illness, the deaths of those one loves, and discomforts and disappointments mar the happy norm, but they do not alter the fact that happiness is the norm, nor affect the tendency of the continuum to restore it, to heal it, after any disturbance.
JEAN LIEDLOFF, The Continuum Concept
- Mortal! that cull'st the flowers of life,
- Think not to escape the thorn.
WILLIAM B. TAPPAN, "The Thorn of Life"
Learn to bear suffering, and it shall bear thee.
The beginning of hardship is like the first taste of bitter food--it seems for a moment unbearable; yet, if there is nothing else to satisfy our hunger, we take another bite and find it possible to go on.
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
- Seek not life's jewels where the poppies grow,
- Nor where Desire, all passion-poisoned, rears
- Her luring domes, but in the heart of woe,
- With shores far washed by sanctifying tears.
EDWARD ROBESON TAYLOR, "Life's Jewels"
Tears are the Soul's baptism of cleansing.
EDWIN LEIBFREED, "The Song of the Soul"
To be most fertile, the soil must first be torn up; and shall not thy soul accept suffering for the sake of better growth?
Deep, unspeakable suffering may well be called a baptism, a regeneration, the initiation into a new state.
We need to be aware of the suffering, but retain our clarity, calmness and strength so we can help transform the situation.
THICH NHAT HANH, Teachings on Love
Trouble's made us kin.
When suffering knocks at your door and you say there is no seat for him, he tells you not to worry because he has brought his own stool.
CHINUA ACHEBE, attributed, Chinua Achebe: A Celebration
Complete success alienates a man from his fellows, but suffering makes kinsmen of us all.
ELBERT HUBBARD, The American Bible
No man ever grows to a full man's estate without the ministration of suffering.
HENRY WARD BEECHER, Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit
It requires more courage to suffer than to die.
