best quotations about
Suffering |
and Pain
| 92 quotes | Visits: 10,678 |
Quotations
 | Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great men must, I think, have great sadness on Earth. — Fyodor Dostoyevsky, 1821-1881, Russian writer 14 likes |
 | To live is to suffer; to survive is to find meaning in suffering. — Victor Frankl, 1905-1997, Austrian neurologist 12 likes |
 | It requires more courage to suffer than to die. — Napoleon, 1769-1821, French Emperor 10 likes |
 | Suffering has been stronger than all other teaching, and has taught me to understand what your heart used to be. I have been bent and broken, but –I hope– into a better shape. — Charles Dickens, 1812-1870, British writer 9 likes |
 | Seeing much, suffering much, and studying much, are the three pillars of learning. — Benjamin Disraeli, 1804-1881, British Prime Minister 8 likes |
 | The more one has suffered, the less one demands. To protest is a sign one has traversed no hell. — Emile M. Cioran, 1911-1995, French-Romanian philosopher 8 likes |
 | He who fears he will suffer, already suffers because of his fear. — Michel de Montaigne, 1533-1592, French thinker 8 likes |
 | It is not actual suffering but a taste of better things which excites people to revolt. — Eric Hoffer, 1902-1983, American writer & philosopher 8 likes |
 | The wound is the place where the Light enters you. — Rumi, 1207-1273, Persian mystic & poet 8 likes |
 | Once I wanted total happiness – now I will settle for a little less pain. — Ashleigh Brilliant, 1933-, British cartoonist & epigrammatist 8 likes |
 | The strong usually suffer without complaining, while the weak complain without suffering. — Pierre Claude Boiste, 1765-1824, French lexicographer 7 likes |
 | Those who have suffered much become very bitter or very gentle. — Will Durant, 1885-1981, American historian & philosopher 6 likes |
 | It is only when you suffer that you really understand. — Jules Verne, 1826-1905, French writer 6 likes |
 | So you have no more happiness to give... Well then – there still remains your pain. — Lou Andreas-Salomé, 1861-1937, Russian-German writer & psychoanalyst 5 likes |
 | Years of secret suffering had taught me superhuman self-control. — Vladimir Nabokov, 1899-1977, Russian-American writer 5 likes |
 | The two foes of human happiness are pain and boredom. — Arthur Schopenhauer, 1788-1860, German philosopher 5 likes |
 | It is only by way of pain one arrives at pleasure. — Marquis de Sade, 1740-1814, French writer 5 likes |
 | Remembering is only a new form of suffering. — Charles Baudelaire, 1821-1867, French poet 5 likes |
 | Anaesthesia: wounds without pain. Neurasthenia: pain without wounds. — Karl Kraus, 1874-1936, Austrian writer 5 likes |
 | To see others suffer does one good, to make others suffer even more: this is a hard saying but an ancient, mighty, human, all-too-human principle which even the apes might subscribe. — Friedrich Nietzsche, 1844-1900, German philosopher 5 likes |
 | The great object of life is sensation- to feel that we exist, even though in pain. — Lord Byron, 1788-1824, British poet 4 likes |
 | I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened. — Mark Twain, 1835-1910, American writer 4 likes |
 | It is not true that suffering ennobles the character; happiness does that sometimes, but suffering, for the most part, makes men petty and vindictive. — Somerset Maugham, 1874-1965, British writer 4 likes |
| Accept suffering and achieve atonement through it — that is what you must do. — Fyodor Dostoyevsky, 1821-1881, Russian writer 4 likes |
| Don’t get lost in your pain, know that one day your pain will become your cure. — Rumi, 1207-1273, Persian mystic & poet 4 likes |
 | At the end of my suffering there was a door. — Louise Glück, 1943-, American poet, Nobel 2020 4 likes |
 | To suffer without complaint is the only lesson we have to learn in this life. — Vincent Van Gogh, 1853-1890, Dutch painter 4 likes |
 | Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it. — Helen Keller, 1880-1968, American writer 3 likes |
 | Fear and hope share life; pleasure and pain occupy only moments. — Duc de Levis, 1764-1830, French politician & author of maxims 3 likes |
 | I sometimes think that I enjoy suffering. But the truth is I would prefer something else. — Fernando Pessoa, 1888-1935, Portuguese poet & writer 3 likes |
 | The happiest is he who suffers least; the most miserable is he who enjoys least. — Jean Jacques Rousseau, 1712-1778, Swiss-French philosopher 3 likes |
 | Illness is the doctor to whom we pay most heed; to kindness, to knowledge, we make promise only; pain we obey. — Marcel Proust, 1871-1922, French writer 3 likes |
 | Yes, it is necessary to suffer, even in vain, so as not to live in vain. — Antonio Porchia, 1885-1968, Italian-Argentinian poet 2 likes |
 | Don’t build a wall around your suffering. It may devour you from the inside. — Frida Kahlo, 1907-1954, Mexican painter 2 likes |
 | Life is pain and the enjoyment of love is an anesthetic. |
| But the real, tremendous truth is this: suffering serves no purpose whatever. |
 | To be alive at all is to have scars. |
 | Ah! What pleasure it must be to a woman to suffer for the one she loves! |
 | Hope is one of those remedies which does not heal but which allows one to suffer longer. |
 | I have the true feeling of myself only when I am unbearably unhappy. |
 | The memory hurts wherever you touch it. |
 | It is easier for the imagination to compose a hell with pain than a paradise with pleasure. |
| In some ways suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning, such as the meaning of a sacrifice. |
| If there is meaning in life at all, then there must be meaning in suffering. |
| Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose. |
| To suffer unnecessarily is masochistic rather than heroic. |
| Nearly everybody has his box of secret pain, shared with no one. |
 | The deepest way to feel something is to suffer from it. |
| In love, there is always one who suffers and another who is bored. |
 | As long as one suffers one lives. |
 | The worst suffering is in the loneliness that accompanies it. |
| Death is not such a serious thing; pain, yes. |
 | People are not soured by misfortune, but by the reception they meet with in it. |
 | A man is the sum of his misfortunes. One day you’d think misfortune would get tired but then time is your misfortune. |
 | The need to let suffering speak is a condition of all truth. For suffering is objectivity that weighs upon the subject. |
 | If I am the chief of sinners, I am the chief of sufferers also. |
 | Pain is the hammer of the Gods to break a dead resistance in the mortal’s heart. — Sri Aurobindo, 1872-1950, Indian nationalist, yogi & philosopher |
 | We're programmed for suffering, not joy. The masochism is built in at a very early age. You're supposed to work and suffer – and the trouble is: you believe it. |
 | Love your suffering. Do not resist it, do not flee from it. It is only your aversion to it that hurts, nothing else. |
 | There is nothing so unfortunate as a man who has never suffered. — Joseph De Maistre, 1753-1821, Savoyard diplomat & philosopher |
 | If we did not suffer from time to time, happiness would no longer be bearable. |
 | There's something perverse about women...they're all masochists at heart. |
| Why is there still so much pain and suffering being produced when there's so little demand for it? — Ashleigh Brilliant, 1933-, British cartoonist & epigrammatist |
 | Don’t hide your scars. They make you who you are. |
| For most, love is probably a form of greed; for the rest of mankind, it is the cult of a suffering and masked divinity. — Lou Andreas-Salomé, 1861-1937, Russian-German writer & psychoanalyst |
 | The pain you hide leaves the deepest scars. — Marty Rubin, 1930-1994, Canadian gay activist, author & journalist |
 | I want to tell you, don't marry suffering. Some people do. They get married to it, and sleep and eat together, just as husband and wife. If they go with joy they think it's adultery. — Saul Bellow, 1914-2005, Canadian-American writer, Nobel 1976 |
 | Never to suffer would have been never to have been blessed. |
 | The pleasure of those who injure you lies in your pain. Therefore they will suffer if you take away their pleasure by not feeling pain. |
| I’m not sick. I am broke. But I'm happy to live as long as I can paint. |
 | The Greek word for “return” is nostos. Algos means “suffering.” So nostalgia is the suffering caused by an unappeased yearning to return. |
| Pain doesn't listen to reason, it has it's own reason, which is not reasonable |
 | Etymologically, 'patient' means sufferer. — Susan Sontag, 1933-2004, American writer, critic, activist |
| It is not suffering as such that is most deeply feared but suffering that degrades. — Susan Sontag, 1933-2004, American writer, critic, activist |
 | The extreme greatness of Christianity lies in the fact that it does not seek a supernatural remedy for suffering, but a supernatural use for it. |
| Pain and suffering are a kind of currency passed from hand to hand until they reach someone who receives them but does not pass them on. |
 | The deeper the feeling, the greater the pain. |
 | Pleasures are always children, pains always have wrinkles. |
 | Universal suffering in the end does not recognize any of the individual’s rights except the “right” to be alternately oppressor or oppressed. |
Latin Quotes
 | Be patient and tough; someday this pain will be useful to you. Perfer et obdura, dolor hic tibi proderit olim. — Ovid, 43 BC-17 AD, Roman poet 159 likes |
Quotes in Verse
 | Midway upon the journey of our life I found myself within a forest dark, For the straight-forward pathway had been lost. — Dante, 1265-1321, Italian poet 3 likes |
| So much pain so much life they went to the abyss for an empty shirt, for a Helen. |
| To feel nostalgia for you place being in your place nothing is more bitter. |
| From the beginning of time, in childhood, I thought that pain meant I was not loved. It meant I loved. |
| That's why I'm not to be trusted. Because a wound to the heart is also a wound to the mind. |
 | I measure every Grief I meet With narrow, probing, Eyes; I wonder if It weighs like Mine, Or has an Easier size. |
Ancient Greek
 | Better to die once and for all than to suffer pain for all my life. Κρείσσον γαρ εισάπαξ θανείν — Aeschylus, 525-456 BC, Ancient Greek tragedian ‐ Prometheus Bound 22 likes |
 | Nothing happens to anybody which he is not fitted by nature to bear. Ουδέν ουδενί συμβαίνει, ό ού πέφυκε φέρειν. — Marcus Aurelius, 121-180 AD, Roman Emperor ‐ Meditations V, 18 4 likes |
 | Endure suffering. Because you were pleased when you made others suffering. Ανάσχου πάσχων. Δρων γαρ έχαιρες. — Euripides, 480-406 BC, Ancient Greek tragedian 3 likes |
| It is easier to give advice to others who suffer than bear yourself. Ράον παραινείν ή παθόντα καρτερείν. — Euripides, 480-406 BC, Ancient Greek tragedian ‐ Alcestis 3 likes |
