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16da0d8 I'd realized that in writing happiness is useless-without suffering there is no story. story suffering writing Isabel Allende
7d2858b "They" hate us because they feel--and "they" are not wrong--that it is within our power to do so much more, and that we practice a kind of passive-aggressive violence on the Third World. We do this by, for example, demonizing tobacco as poison here while promoting cigarettes in Asia; inflating produce prices by paying farmers not to grow food as millions go hungry worldwide; skimping on quality and then imposing tariffs on foreign products made better or cheaper than our own; padding corporate profits through Third World sweatshops; letting drug companies stand by as millions die of AIDS in Africa to keep prices up on lifesaving drugs; and on and on. We do, upon reaching a very high comfort level, mostly choose to go from ten to eleven instead of helping another guy far away go from zero to one. We even do it in our own country. Barbara Ehrenreich's brilliant book describes the impossibility of living with dignity or comfort as one of the millions of minimum-wage workers in fast food, aisle-stocking and table-waiting jobs. Their labor for next to nothing ensures that well-off people can be a little more pampered. So if we do it to our own, what chance do foreigners have?" -- violence poverty suffering hate extremism irresponsible poverty-and-politics third-world passive-aggressive ignorance Bill Maher
58af360 The so-called sensitivity of neurotics develops along with their egotism; they cannot bear for other people to flaunt the sufferings with which they are increasingly preoccupied themselves. suffering neurotics sensitivity Marcel Proust
1aed8c7 He were found drowned. He were coming home very hopeless o' aught on earth. He thought God could na be harder than men; mappen not so hard; mappen as tender as a mother; mappen tenderer. I'm not saying he did right, and I'm not saying he didn't wrong. All I say is, may neither me nor mine ever have his sore heart, or we may do like things. suicide suffering hardship Elizabeth Gaskell
6b48838 I don't even suffer. My disdain for everything is so complete that I even disdain myself. The contempt I have for the sufferings of others I also have for my own. And so all my suffering is crushed under the foot of my disdain. suffering Fernando Pessoa
a092c3d So true it is, and so terrible, too, that up to a certain point the thought or sight of misery enlists our best affections; but, in certain special cases, beyond that point it does not. they err who would assert that invariable this is owing to the inherent selfishness of the human heart. It rather proceeds from a certain hopelessness of remedying excessive and organic ill. To a sensitive being, pity is not seldom pain. An when at last it is perceived that such pity cannot lead to effectual succor, common sense bides the soul be rid of it. suffering human-misery melville pity misery Herman Melville
e2aafc9 What use were his talons and fangs to the dying tiger? In the clutches, say, to make matters worse, of a boa-constrictor? But apparently this improbable tiger had no intention of dying just yet. On the contrary, he intended taking a little walk, taking the boa-constrictor with him, even to pretend, for a while, it wasn't there. suffering life psychology Malcolm Lowry
e854603 Spirituality isn't some quaint stepchild of an intelligent worldview, or the only option for those of us not smart enough to understand the facts of the real world. Spirituality reflects the most sophisticated mindset, and the most powerful force available for the transformation of human suffering. suffering faith reality spirituality belief-system conscious-living facing-facts forces-of-nature healing-abuse healing-the-emotional-self healing-trauma human-suffering intellectualism intelligent intelligent-people outlook-on-the-world overcoming-adversity-quotes real-world smart-people sophisticated spiritual-living stepchild suffering-of-humanity worldview-quotes spiritual-quotes worldview mindset healing-the-past power-of-love spiritual-wisdom beliefs realism power-of-thoughts Marianne Williamson
620b06a "Illness especially, may be a blessed forerunner of the individual's conversion. Not only does it prevent him from realizing his desires; it even reduces his capacity for sin, his opportunities for vice. In that enforced detachment from evil, which is a Mercy of God, he has time to search himself, to appraise his life, to interpret it in terms of larger reality. He considers God, and, at that moment, there is a sense of duality, a confronting of personality with Divinity, a comparison of the facts of his life with the ideal from which he fell. The soul is forced to look inside itself, to inquire whether there is more peace in this suffering than in sinning. Once a sick man, in his passivity, begins to ask, "What is the purpose of my life? Why am I here?" the crisis has already begun. Conversion becomes possible the very moment a man ceases to blame God or life and begins to blame himself; by doing so, he becomes able to distinguish between his sinful barnacles and the ship of his soul. A crack has appeared in the armor of his egotism; now the sunlight of God's grace can pour in. But until that happens, catastrophes can teach us nothing but despair." illness suffering illness-and-hope hardship Fulton J. Sheen
d059e54 Conversion can also occur among those who already have the faith. Christians will become real Christians, with less facade and more foundation. Catastrophe will divide them from the world, force them to declare their basic loyalties; it will revive shepherds who shepherd rather than administrate, reverse the proportion of saints and scholars in favor of saints, create more reapers for the harvest, more pillars of fire for the lukewarm; it will make the rich see that real wealth is in the service of the needy; and, above all else, it will make the glory of Christ's Cross shine out in a love of the brethren for one another as true and loyal sons of God. suffering hardship Fulton J. Sheen
16867f4 Thoughts and sorrows seem to have remained on the other side of the mountains. Between tormented men and hateful deeds, a person has to think and sorrow so much! Back there it is so difficult and so desperately important to find a reason for staying alive. How else should a person go on living? Sheer misery makes one profound. suffering nature Hermann Hesse
9ff498b Her suffering was her armour. Gradually it became her skin. Then she could not take it off. pain suffering Jeanette Winterson
43b5548 From being a movement aiming for universal freedom, communism turned into a system of universal despotism. That is the logic of utopia. suffering philosophy despotism utopia John Gray
836cc5b Hurt is a great teacher, maybe the greatest of all. pain suffering Pat Conroy
f927496 There would be no more offerings. Not this day. Not any day. Humankind had suffered enough for its love of gods, its long search for God. He thought of the many centuries in which his people, the Jews, had negotiated with God, complaining, bickering, decrying the unfairness of things but always - always - returning to obedience at whatever the cost. Generations dying in the ovens of hatred. Future generations scarred by the cold fires of radiation and renewed hatred. hatred suffering religion searching obedience Dan Simmons
00e3e2e The poor young man must work for his bread; he eats; when he has eaten, he has nothing left but reverie. He enters God's theater free; he sees the sky, space, the stars, the flowers, the children, the humanity in which he suffers, the creation in which he shines. He looks at humanity so much that he sees the soul, he looks at creation so much that he sees God. He dreams, he feels that he is great; he dreams some more, and he feels that he is tender. From the egotism of the suffering man, he passes to the compassion of the contemplating man. A wonderful feeling springs up within him, forgetfulness of self, and pity for all. In thinking of the countless enjoyments nature offers, gives, and gives lavishly to open souls and refuses to closed souls, he, a millionaire of intelligence, comes to grieve for the millionaires of money. All hatred leaves his heart as all light enters his mind. And is he unhappy? No. The poverty of a young man is never miserable. poverty suffering nature humanity god reverie contemplation poor soul creation Victor Hugo
06a0b1e Our spiritual character is formed as much by what we endure and what is taken from us as it is by our achievements and our conscious choices. suffering spirituality Flannery O'Connor
f486b09 One of the questions asked by al-Balkhi, and often repeated to this day, is this: Why do the children of Israel continue to suffer? My grandmother Dodo thought it was because the were jealous. The seder for Passover (which is a shame-faced simulacrum of a Hellenic question-and-answer session, even including the wine) tells the children that it's one of those things that happens to every Jewish generation. After the or or Holocaust, many rabbis tried to tell the survivors that the immolation had been a punishment for 'exile,' or for insufficient attention to the Covenant. This explanation was something of a flop with those whose parents or children had been the raw material for the 'proof,' so for a time the professional interpreters of god's will went decently quiet. This interval of ambivalence lasted until the war of 1967, when it was announced that the divine purpose could be discerned after all. How wrong, how foolish, to have announced its discovery prematurely! The exile and the Shoah could now both be understood, as part of a heavenly if somewhat roundabout scheme to recover the Western Wall in Jerusalem and other pieces of biblically mandated real estate. I regard it as a matter of self-respect to spit in public on rationalizations of this kind. (They are almost as repellent, in their combination of arrogance, masochism, and affected false modesty, as Edith Stein's 'offer' of her life to expiate the regrettable unbelief in Jesus of her former fellow Jews.) The sage Jews are those who have put religion behind them and become in so many societies the leaven of the secular and the atheist. jealousy war suffering christianity jesus religion bible grandmothers biblical-covenant divine-retribution edith-stein false-modesty hellenism hiwi-al-balkhi masochism passover passover-seder rabbis rationalisation six-day-war theodicy western-wall will-of-god exile gentiles judaism martyrdom arrogance holocaust punishment atheism self-respect children jerusalem secularism wine survivors Christopher Hitchens
57cd612 "Suffering is the fuel in the engine of civilization." -Vergere" metaphor pain suffering fuel engine jacen-solo new-jedi-order new-republic post-return-of-the-jedi vergere yuuzhan-vong the-force traitor star-wars Matthew Woodring Stover
7cc6ff4 The trouble with this dog is that it has grown too close to human beings, it will suffer as they do. dogs pain suffering human-beings José Saramago
0620f98 Suffering is normal. Pain is normal, it is part of life... What is its texture, the weight of our suffering? What is its meaning? Begin by touching it, by coming close to it, accepting it: Hello, suffering, I am here with you. I am beside you, one with you, I am you. I am suffering. pain suffering self-help A.M. Homes
78d50f9 But if he had come down from the Cross, he would have made it for them to believe in him, for he would have substituted sight for faith. That is why he does not take us down from our crosses: so that we do not substitute feelings and experiences for faith. He wants the very best for us, the strongest and most precious gift, and that is faith. suffering faith cross gift Peter Kreeft
1ddd6a4 But how to explain suffering because of a man? It's not explainable. With that kind of suffering, a person feels as if they're in hell, because there is no nobility, no greatness - only misery. suffering heartbreak mercy Paulo Coelho
9f08e53 Bean was tired of talking about this. She looked so happy when she talked about God, but he hadn't figured it out yet, what God even was. It was like, she wanted to give God credit for every good thing, but when it was bad, then she either didn't mention God or had some reason why it was a good thing after all. As far as bean could see, though, the dead kids would rather have been alive, just with more food. If God loved them so much and he could do whatever he wanted, then why wasn't there more food for these kids? And if God just wanted them dead, why didn't he let them die sooner or not even be born at all, so they didn't have to go to so much trouble and get all excited about trying to be alive when he was just going to take them to his heart. None of it made any sense to Bean, and the more Sister Carlotta explained it, the less he understood it. Because if there was somebody in charge, then he ought to be fair, and if he wasn't fair, then why should Sister Carlotta be so happy that he was in charge? suffering religion god Orson Scott Card
c2c9b9f Sometimes salvation is found in agony. suffering salvation Alexandre Dumas
38cbd73 I am the chosen of the Lord, for who He loveth, so doeth He chastiseth. But I be durn if He dont take some curious ways to show it, seems like. suffering god William Faulkner
2a3f4ca As a basic step of self-esteem, learn to treat as the mark of a cannibal any man's demand for your help. To demand it is to claim that your life is his property - and loathsome as such claim might be, there's something still more loathsome: your agreement. Do you ask if it's ever proper to help another man? No- if he claims it as his right or as a moral duty that you owe him. Yes- if such is your own desire based on your own selfish pleasure in the value of his person and his struggle. Suffering as such is not a value, only man's fight against suffering is. If you choose to help a man who suffers, do it only on the ground of his virtues, of his fight to recover, of his rational record, or of the fact that he suffers unjustly; then your action is still trade, and his virtue is the payment for your help. But to help a man who has no virtues, to help him on the ground of his suffering as such, to accept his faults, his need, as a claim - is to accept the mortgage of a zero on your values. A man who has no virtues is a hater of existence who acts on the premise of death; to help him is to sanction his evil and to support his career of destruction. Be it only a penny you will miss or a kindly smile he has not earned, a tribute to a zero is treason to life and to all those who struggle to maintain it. It is of such pennies and smiles that the desolation of your world was made. virtue suffering trade self-esteem values Ayn Rand
34fa147 I'm not capable of suffering completely. I never have. It goes only down to a certain point and then it stops. As long as there is that untouched point, it's not really pain. pain suffering the-fountainhead Ayn Rand
f234d95 "The child will grow up and find out things for herself. She will know that I lied. She will be disappointed." "That is what is called learning the truth. It is a good thing to learn the truth one's self. To first believe with all your heart, and then not to believe, is good too. It fattens the emotions and makes them to stretch. When as a woman life and people disappoint her, she will have had practice in disappointment and it will not come so hard. In teaching your child, do not forget that suffering is good too. It makes a person rich in character." suffering disappointment Betty Smith
978c049 "The tedium of existence and feeling imprisoned in a deplorable job can cause a person to consider the most expedient escape route from suffering including flirting with suicide. Fernando Pessoa wrote in "The Book of Disquiet" of his own feelings of uneasiness and sense of discouragement. "I suffer from life and from other people. I cannot look at reality face to face. Even the sun discourages and depresses me. Only at night and all alone, withdrawn, forgotten, and lost, with no connection to anything useful or real - only then do I find myself comforted." -- suicide suffering depression-quotes discontentment suffering-quote suffering-quotes tedium suicidal-thoughts discouragement discontent Kilroy J. Oldster
a7b5135 In all Thenardier's outpourings, the words and gestures, the fury blazing in his eyes, this explosion of an evil nature brazenly exposed, the mixture of bravado and abjectness, arrogance, pettiness, rage, absurdity; the hodgepodge of genuine distress, and lying sentiment, the shamelessness of a vicious man rejoicing in viciousness, the bare crudity of an ugly soul -- in this eruption of all suffering and hatred there was something which was hideous as evil itself and still as poignant as truth. good-and-evil poverty suffering Victor Hugo
fc7937e They knew, though, she would not suffer as they had suffered. She was perfect. They were scarred. suffering hope Francesca Lia Block
68fb8ba ...as though, capable themselves of suffering, they granted no reality to the suffering of others. 'The subject exhibited a pain response.' But not, under any circumstances, . pain suffering scientists John Brunner
ba8366b You'd have thought that after suffering such a loss nothing else would matter to her but that didn't seem to be how it worked. She was fearful about everything now. It was as if she had finally seen the awful power of fate, it's deviousness, the way it could wipe out in an instant the one thing you had been certain you could rely on, and now she was constantly looking over her shoulder, trying to work out where the next blow might fall. loss suffering Mary Lawson
9b1e819 Knowing how easily even the smallest things torture me, I deliberately avoid contact with them. A cloud passing in front of the sun is enough to make me suffer, how then should I not suffer in the darkness of the endlessly overcast sky of my own life? suffering depression darkness torture Fernando Pessoa
092b608 Time and sunshine healed a sore, but the process was slow, and new boils appeared if I didn't stay dry. metaphor time pain suffering life-of-pi Yann Martel
2c63a47 When a soul in sin, under the impetus of grace, turns to God, there is penance; but when a soul in sin refuses to change, God sends chastisement. This chastisement need not be external, and certainly it is never arbitrary; it comes as an inevitable result of breaking God's moral law. But the entrenched forces of the modern world are irrational, men nowadays do not always interpret disasters as the moral events they are. When calamity strikes the flint of human hearts, sparks of sacred fire are kindled and men will normally begin to make an estimate of their true worth. In previous ages this was usual: a disordered individual could find his way back to peace because he lived in an objective world inspired by Christian order. But the frustrated man of today, having lost his faith in God, living as he does, in a disordered chaotic world, has no beacon to guide him. In times of trouble he sometimes turns in upon himself, like a serpent devouring its own tail. Given such a man, who worships the false trinity of (1) his own pride, which acknowledges no law; (2) his own sensuality, which makes earthly comfort it goal; (3) his license, which interprets liberty as the absences of all restraint and law--then a cancer is created which is impossible to cure except through an operation or calamity unmistakable as God's action in history. It is always through sweat and blood and tears that the soul is purged of its animal egotism and laid open to the Spirit ... Catastrophe can be to a world that has forgotten God what a sickness can be to a sinner; in the midst of it millions might be brought not to a voluntary, but to an enforced crisis. Such a calamity would put an end to Godlessness and make vast numbers of men, who might otherwise lose their souls, turn to God. suffering Fulton J. Sheen
23baaee Happy, even in anguish, is he to whom God has given a soul worthy of love and grief! He who has not seen the things of this world, and the heart of men in this double light, has seen nothing, and knows noting of the truth. grief suffering love feeling soul Victor Hugo
966b01a All human life, we may say, consists solely of these two activities: (1) bringing one's activities into harmony with conscience, or (2) hiding from oneself the indications of conscience in order to be able to continue to live as before. Some do the first, others the second. To attain the first there is but one means: moral enlightenment -- the increase of light in oneself and attention to what it shows. To attain the second -- to hide from oneself the indications of conscience--there are two means: one external and the other internal. The external means consists in occupations that divert one's attention from the indications given by conscience; the internal method consists in darkening conscience itself. As a man has two ways of avoiding seeing an object that is before him: either by diverting his sight to other more striking objects, or by obstructing the sight of his own eyes--just so a man can hide from himself the indications of conscience in two ways: either by the external method of diverting his attention to various occupations, cares, amusements, or games; or by the internal method of obstructing the organ of attention itself. For people of dull, limited moral feeling, the external diversions are often quite sufficient to enable them not to perceive the indications conscience gives of the wrongness of their lives. But for morally sensitive people those means are often insufficient. The external means do not quite divert attention from the consciousness of discord between one's life and the demands of conscience. This consciousness hampers one's life; and in order to be able to go on living as before, people have recourse to the reliable, internal method, which is that of darkening conscience itself by poisoning the brain with stupefying substances. One is not living as conscience demands, yet lacks the strength to reshape one's life in accord with its demands. The diversions which might distract attention from the consciousness of this discord are insufficient, or have become stale, and so--in order to be able to live on, disregarding the indications conscience gives of the wrongness of their life--people (by poisoning it temporarily) stop the activity of the organ through which conscience manifests itself, as a man by covering his eyes hides from himself what he does not wish to see. suffering spiritual-disease the-unlived-life intoxication self-forgetfulness conscience Leo Tolstoy
2e65220 "Child, [death] is with us always," said Cadfael, patient beside him. "Last summer ninety-five men died here in the town, none of whom had done murder. For choosing the wrong side, they died. It falls upon blameless women in war, even in peace at the hands of evil men. It falls upon children who never did harm to any, upon old men, who in their lives have done good to many, and yet are brutally and senselessly slain. Never let it shake your faith that there is a balance hereafter. What you see is only a broken piece from a perfect whole." "Such justice as we see is also but a broken shred. But it is our duty to preserve what we may, and fit together such fragments as we find, and take the rest on trust." suffering faith trust justice Ellis Peters
920bd24 "So he had them into the slaughter house, where was a butcher killing a sheep. And behold, the sheep was quiet and took her death patiently. Then said the Interpreter, "You must learn of this sheep to suffer, and put up wrongs without murmurings and complaints. Behold how quietly she takes her death! And without objecting she suffereth her skin to be pulled over her ears. Your King doth call you his sheep." suffering John Bunyan
81417b0 This pain, this terrible seeing-through that is in me now. It wasn't necessary. It is all pain, and it buys nothing. Gives birth to nothing. All in vain. All wasted. The older the world becomes, the more obvious it is. The bomb and the tortures in Algeria and the starving babies in the Congo. It gets bigger and darker. More and more suffering for more and more. And more and more in vain. pain suffering dark world birthing older starving vain nothing necessary bomb obvious terrible wasted waste torture John Fowles
dc935b5 They say: misfortunes, sufferings...well, if someone said to me right now, this minute: do you want to remain the way you were before captivity, or live through it all over again? For God's sake, captivity again and horsemeat! Once we're thrown off our habitual paths, we think all is lost; but it's only here that the new and the good begins. As long as there's life, there's happiness. There's much, much still to come. suffering war-and-peace Leo Tolstoy
f434964 Those who understand God's sovereignty have joy even in the midst of suffering, a joy reflected on their very faces, for they see that their suffering is not without purpose. suffering providence-of-god sovereignty-of-god R.C. Sproul
3fd822f The suffering of the Christian or anyone else in this world is never ultimately an accident. All suffering is within the pale of divine sovereignty. All suffering comes within the broader context of the sovereignty of God. suffering gospel R.C. Sproul
311a7e8 The people are suffering. Relieving people's poverty ought to be handled as though one were rescuing them from fire, or saving them from drowning. One cannot hesitate. poverty suffering Kim Stanley Robinson
89c3995 It was pleasant to think that men still sang, even in the midst of butchery and famine. pain suffering George R.R. Martin
577b41c Josh joined her at the window. She let him look. He should know that the world was not all lessons and iguanas and Nintendo. It was also this muddy simple boy tethered like an animal. suffering George Saunders
2c31452 They learned no compassion from their own anguish. Thus their suffering was wasted. suffering compassion Betty Smith
25de940 I always wondered what it must be like to lose a twin--if somehow Mary felt it like it was happening to her. If she felt physical pain. death-and-dying pain loss suffering empathy empathetic twin death-of-a-loved-one suffer twins Francesca Lia Block
a61dab3 The first question we must address deals with optimism, the possibility of achieving our goal. Are we in a position where we can actually hope to effect change? Assuming we become convinced that there are reasons for optimism, we move to the next question. Are we cetain that we want change? The stories about EHMs, jackals, and suffering around the globe strike raw nerves, but now we demand absolute proof that our grievances justify the efforts change will demand. Third: Is there a unifying principle that will validate our efforts? We look to ascertain that we are not merely seeking to impose our moral, religious, or philosophical values on others but instead are intent on creating something of true and lasting universal benefit. And finally: What can we each do? You and I personally need to evaluate our talents and passions. What are our individual options and desires? How do they fit into the bigger picture? suffering optimism John Perkins
0082382 There is a distinction I am beginning to make in my living between pain and suffering. Pain is an event, an experience that must be recognized, named and then used in some way in order for the experience to change, to be transformed into something else, strength or knowledge or action. Suffering, on the other hand, is the nightmare reliving of unscrutinized and unmetabolized pain. When I live through pain without recognizing it self-consciously, I rob myself of the power that can come from using that pain, the power to fuel some movement beyond it. I condemn myself to reliving that pain over and over and over whenever something close triggers it. And that is suffering, a seemingly inescapable cycle. racism pain suffering Audre Lorde
d16dffb Suffering so someone else didn't have to suffer. Sacrificing your body for someone else's well being. suffering Jodi Picoult
04c0880 "Do you think that a doe in the jaws of a tiger feels less horror than you? People thought up the idea that animals don't have the same capability for suffering as humans, because otherwise they couldn't bear the knowledge that they are surrounded by a world of nature that is horror and nothing but horror." Paul was pleased that man was gradually covering the whole earth with concrete. It was as if he were watching a cruel murderess being walled up." suffering nature Milan Kundera
e85391b As night goes round the Earth always there are hundreds of thousands of people who should be sleeping, lying awake, fearing a bully, fearing a cruel competition, dreading lest they cannot make good, ill of some illness they cannot comprehend, distressed by some irrational quarrel, maddened by some thwarted instinct or some suppressed perverted desire. suffering ignorance H.G. Wells
284a09b How badly arranged the world is. What is the purpose of ugliness, suffering, sadness? Why our powerless dreams? Why everything? suffering world sadness ugliness why powerless Gustave Flaubert
a9cef2a Thanks be to God, Who gives us suffering as sacred remedy for all our sins, that best and purest essence which prepares the strong in spirit for divine delights! suffering Charles Baudelaire
df66584 "Followers of Jesus stake their claim on the firm belief that God will one day heal the planet of pain and death. Until that day arrives, the case against God must rely on incomplete evidence. We cannot really reconcile our pain-wracked world with a loving God because what we experience now is not the same as what God intends. Jesus himself prayed that God's will "be done, on earth as it is in heaven," a prayer that will not be fully answered until evil and suffering are finally defeated." -- suffering spirituality why Philip Yancey
d375213 This exists. It can be seen. It can be touched. These in pace, these dungeons, these iron hinges, these necklets, that lofty peep-hole on a level with the river's current, that box of stone closed with a lid of granite like a tomb, with this difference, that the dead man here was a living being, that soil which is but mud, that vault hole, those oozing walls, --what declaimers! suffering hypocrisy torture evil Victor Hugo
823e4dc One does not learn to suffer less but to dodge pain. suffering Anaïs Nin
5e95749 "On Major Depression, quoted by the great William Styron of Sophie's Choice & Darkness Visible: pain suffering stigma William Styron
dba55ae Ar fi putut sa scrie despre unii adolescenti, fiinte ce sufera mai mult decat oricine pe aceasta lume neinduratoare si care ar trebuie sa se bucure de mai multe drepturi decat toti oamenii, descriind in acelasi timp drama si sensul suferintelor lor, daca, intr-adevar, acestea ar avea vreun sens. suffering inspirational Ernesto Sabato
5bf8780 In a matter of weeks, he had learned that without suffering and doubt, there can be no whole human being. suffering doubt humanity maturity Sinclair Lewis
976441a Even creative nonviolence can go unnoticed unless participants are attacked. suffering Mark Kurlansky
a7c5a63 "Did you," so he asked him at one time, "did you too learn that secret from the river: that there is no time?" Vasudeva's face was filled with a bright smile. "Yes, Siddhartha," he spoke. "It is this what you mean, isn't it: that the river is everywhere at once, at the source and at the mouth, at the waterfall, at the ferry, at the rapids, in the sea, in the mountains, everywhere at once, and that there is only the present time for it, not the shadow of the past, not the shadow of the future?" time suffering Hermann Hesse
b9a97cb "Sometimes I felt I would die by wishing it when I went to sleep but I always woke up again and found I was still there. Every morning finding I'm still me, that's hell." "Well, get out of hell then! The gate's open and I'm holding it!" "I can't. I'm hell, myself." suffering the-sea-the-sea iris-murdoch dialogue suicidal trapped depressed release hell Iris Murdoch
94c5697 Was this the triumph of self-knowledge: to suffer more lucidly? self-knowledge suffering lucidity Edward St. Aubyn
9673a85 Shaken by emotional storms, I realized that choosing to feel guilt, however painful, somehow seemed to offer reassurance that such events did not happen at random.... If guilt is the price we pay for the illusion that we have some control over nature, many of us are willing to pay it. I was. To begin to release the weight of guilt, I had to let go of whatever illusion of control it pretended to offer, and acknowledge that pain and death are as natural as birth, woven inseparably into our human nature. mourning pain grief loss suffering nature death guilt Elaine Pagels
38b3956 Why do we feel guilty, even when we've done nothing to bring on illness or death--even when we've done everything possible to prevent it? Suffering feels like punishment, as cultural anthropologists observe; no doubt that's one reason why people still tell the story of Adam and Eve, which interprets suffering that way. mourning illness grief loss suffering death bible punishment guilt Elaine Pagels
8d1d6dc Words empower us, move us beyond our suffering and set us free. This is the sorcery of literature. We are healed by our stories. words literature suffering words-have-power stories Terry Tempest Williams
441c1ad Because we suddenly see that making everything all right would NOT make everything all right. We would not be human beings. We would then be no more than puppets obeying the strings of the master puppeteer. We agree sadly that it is a good thing that we are not God; we do not have to understand God's ways, or the suffering and brokenness and pain that sooner or later come to us all. suffering Madeleine L'Engle
4c84f90 Of course, we are drawn to teachers who unconsciously mirror our own psychology. None of us are clean. We all make mistakes. It's the repetition of those mistakes and the refusal to look at them that compound the suffering and assure their continuation. suffering teachers mistakes Natalie Goldberg
c431910 The author reveals a cultural change that took place when clergy were paid based on a tax on the land's value rather than what it produced. This meant that, while parishioners could suffer through a terrible year, clergy would always have a comfortable one. suffering detachment ministry Bill Bryson
17c965c It's not just the body that must survive a jail term: the spirit and the will and the heart have to make it through as well. If any one of them is broken or destroyed, the man whose living body walks through the gate, at the end of his sentence, can't be said to have survived it. suffering spirit willpower resilience survival Gregory David Roberts
d979270 [Ilse] was suffering so keenly that she wanted to arraign the universe at the bar of her pain. suffering loss-of-faith religion-on-trial indignation L.M. Montgomery
995b2e2 I've been so unhappy for years, so unhappy . . . I don't understand how a human being can be so unhappy all the time and still be alive. suffering unending unendurable the-black-prince iris-murdoch unhappy suicidal miserable Iris Murdoch
65fa3f4 The great strength she had used in the old days to conquer and subdue, to win her will and to defend her way, seemed now a power but to protect the suffering and uphold the weak, and this she did, not alone in hovels but in the brilliant court and world of fashion, for there she found suffering and weakness also, all the more bitter and sorrowful since it dared not cry aloud. suffering inspirational-quotes succor quality mercy Frances Hodgson Burnett
fe19ab2 We are oblivious to suffering. We are cheap with charity if it's not close to our home. suffering charity Bill Maher
803d9a6 "After his wife died, in great pain C. S. Lewis realized, "If I had really cared, as I thought I did, about the sorrows of the world, I should not have been so overwhelmed when my own sorrow came."3 Our own suffering is often our wake-up call. But even if you aren't now facing it, look around and you'll see many who are. ... Suffering and evil exert a force that either pushes us away from God or pulls us toward him. ... Unfortunately, most evangelical churches--whether traditional, liturgical, or emergent--have failed to teach people to think biblically about the realities of evil and suffering. A pastor's daughter told me, "I was never taught the Christian life was going to be difficult. I've discovered it is, and I wasn't ready." ... On the other side of death, the Bible promises that all who know him will fall into the open arms of a holy, loving, and gracious God--the greatest miracle, the answer to the problem of evil and suffering. He promises us an eternal kingdom on the New Earth, where he says of those who come to trust him in this present world of evil and suffering, "They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain" (Revelation 21:3-4)" suffering faith god justice Randy Alcorn
266ec6c It is good thing to learn the truth one's self. To first believe with all your heart, and then not to believe, is good too. It fattens the emotions and makes them to stretch. When as a woman life and people disappoint her, she will have had practice in disappointment and it will not come so hard. In teaching your child do not forget that suffering is good too. It makes a person rich in character. suffering truth rich-character emotions Betty Smith
afbc0ee Stradanie i bol' vsegda obiazatel'ny dlia shirokogo soznaniia i glubokogo serdtsa. Istinno velikie liudi, mne kazhetsia, dolzhny oshchushchat' na svete velikuiu grust'. pain suffering heart great-people dostoyevsky suffering-of-humanity Fyodor Dostoyevsky
d9a4bc1 Why they were loaded with bags of beans and peas and anything else they happened to pick up when they were still some distance away from the street where the first blind man and his wife lived, for that is where they are going, is a question that could only occur to someone who has never in his life suffered shortages. poverty suffering thrift frugality José Saramago
cd30614 I have always said that the way to deal with the pain of other's is by sympathy, which is suffering with, and that the way to deal with one's own pain is to put one foot after the other. Yet I was never willing to suffer with others, and when my own pain hit me, I crawled into hole. Sympathy I have failed in, stoicism I have barely passed. But I have made straight A's in irony- that curse, that evasion, that armor, that way of staying safe while seeming wise. One thing I have learned hard, if indeed I have learned it now: it is a reduction of our humanity to hide from pain, our own or other's. to hide from anything. That was Marian's text. Be open, be available, be exposed, be skinless. Skinless? Dance around in your bones. pain suffering humanity life Wallace Stegner
3c4b4ac Well, hope for your thrilling career - but remember that if there is to be drama in your life somebody must pay the piper in the coin of suffering. If not you - then someone else. suffering interesting-life melodrama L.M. Montgomery
bdbdf53 She had never looked as well. She had entered her room as just an impossibly lovely girl. The woman who emerged was a trifle thinner, a great deal wiser, an ocean sadder. This one understood the nature of pain, and beneath the glory of her features, there was character, and a sure knowledge of suffering. pain loss suffering sorrow heartbreak love melancholy William Goldman
7a0c003 "... he was shaken by the overwhelming revelation that the headlong race between his misfortunes and his dreams was at that moment reaching the finish line. The rest was darkness. "Damn it," he sighed. "How will I ever get out of this labyrinth!" suffering life Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez
1640b15 The child stared at her or at nothing, trying to breathe, and trying again to breathe, and trying again to breathe. pain suffering Ursula K. Le Guin
7a6e9bd "Your True Self is who you objectively are from the beginning, in the mind and heart of God, "the face you had before you were born," as the Zen masters say. It is your substantial self, your absolute identify, which can never be gained nor lost by any technique, group affiliation, morality, or formula whatsoever. The surrendering of our false self, which we have usually taken for our absolute identity, yet is merely a relative identity, is the necessary suffering needed to find "the pearl of great price" that is always hidden inside this lovely but passing shell." suffering identity Richard Rohr
3c9fb66 But very few ordeals are redemptive and I doubt if the descent into hell teaches anything new. It can only hasten processes which are already in existence, and usually this just means that it degrades. You see, in hell one lacks the energy for any good change. This indeed is the meaning of hell. suffering growth Iris Murdoch
6c00b72 And suffering we know breeds images, it breeds the most beautiful images of all. suffering inspiration contradictory contrasting juxtaposition henry-and-cato iris-murdoch images Iris Murdoch
cb623f8 He didn't remember the very first time he actually died very well. It wasn't as bad as remediation, but he remembered being afraid and worried... and when he found himself alive again a few hours later with Mearth's wild green eyes peering down at him, he remembered still being afraid and worried. It was strange, he thought, to be afraid of being alive... but being alive was worse than being dead in his mind. pain suffering fear death life alive green worry memory Rebecca McNutt
70f9aaa "Isn't it complicated to be human, though?" she said. "Animals seem to give up their lives so naturally...And after all, I grew up, I married John, I had Debby. So knowing, being able to understand and forecast and even predict an approximate date, shouldn't make any difference. I guess consciousness makes individuals of us, and as individuals we lose the old acceptance..." "The one thing," Marian said in a voice that went suddenly small and tight, "the thing I can hardly bear sometimes is that I won't ever see her grow up. She'll have to do it without whatever I could have given her." "Time, too, time and everything that one could do in it, and the chance of wasting or losing or never even realizing it. It's so important to us because we see it so close. We're individuals, we're full of ourselves, and so we're bad historians. We get crazy and anxious because all of sudden there's so little time left to be loving and generous as we wish we'd always been and always intended to be...do you suppose I feel the shortness of time because I want to experience everything and feel everything that the race has ever felt? Because there's so much to feel and I'm greedy?" grief loss suffering humanity death love Wallace Stegner
018e9b3 Suffering is the fuel in the engine of civilization. Now he begins to understand: because pain is a god--he has been in the grip of this cruel god ever since Anakin's death. But it is also a teacher, and a bridge. It can be a slave master, and break you--and it can be the power that makes you unbreakable. It is all these things, and more. At the same time. What it is depends on who you are. But who am I? he wonders. I've been running like Dad--like Anakin. I think they stopped, though; I think Dad was strong enough to turn back and face it, to use the pain to make himself stronger, like Mom and Uncle Luke. Anakin did, too, at the end. Am I that strong? There's only one way to find out. pain suffering strength self-discovery self-realization self-improvement Matthew Woodring Stover
54f684b Her tragedy hadn't made her more approachable, and in fact lent her the unknowable quality of a person who had suffered more than could be expressed. tragedy suffering unapproachable jeffrey-eugenides the-virgin-suicides unknowable Jeffrey Eugenides
3470794 Cruelty: Not only the willful causing of unnecessary suffering, but the indifference to it. suffering veganism vegetarianism cruelty animals Jonathan Safran Foer
9206fba Sometimes the imagination could be even crueler than the bone saw. suffering thought-life spiritual-warfare distraction Robert Kurson
023755b She reminded him of (...) all the shivering, stupefying misery in a world that never yet had provided enough heat and food and justice for all but an ingenious and unscrupulous handful. What a lousy earth! suffering Joseph Heller
3a5b580 Nothing in the record of human history argues for divine morality, and a great deal argues against it. What we know is that good people very often suffer terribly, while the perpetrators of horrific evil backstroke through all the pleasures of the world. There is no evidence that the score is ever evened in this life or any after. good-and-evil suffering history good religion god evil Ta-Nehisi Coates
c508891 The Serpent, to my interpretation, was pain. pain suffering christianity eden serpent snake William Goldman
15e41d0 Compassion means to suffer with, but it doesn't mean to get lost in the suffering, so that it becomes exclusively one's own. I tend to do this, to replace the person for whom I am feeling compassion with myself. sympathy pain suffering empathy self-centeredness Madeleine L'Engle
171c945 Lewis had experienced more trauma than most of his modern readers ever will. suffering envy nostalgia Alister E. McGrath
7ca3953 That I may carry on what I have begun, that I may do good, that I may be one day a grand and encouraging example that it may be said that there was finally some little happiness resulting from this suffering which I have undergone and this virtue to which I have returned! virtue suffering happiness Victor Hugo
66bc4be Beyond her declaration of love she could not see. But as she rehearsed the intensity of her passion she thought that he , when the time came, . The desire to, at the right time, him became, as the years moved forward toward that time, increasingly painful, like a poisoned wound that must heal itself by breaking open. She thought in anguish of the times, the recent times, when she could have told him, and had been afraid to, and had clumsily withdrawn, when she could have attracted him and drawn his attention to her. When she had watched over him when he was sleeping in the sedan-chair and could have wakened him with a kiss. If only she had , then she could more easily have borne his not preferring her. He was ready to fall in love -- and if he had -- he must have loved her -- if he had known how much she loved him. The pain of this loss burnt her in every waking moment, that awful 'if only'. She had lost him, and lost him through her own fault. There were no more pleasures now in life. loss suffering if-only missed-chance missed-opportunity the-green-knight iris-murdoch unspoken unrequited-love Iris Murdoch
587585c The world is perhaps ultimately to be defined as a place of suffering. Man is a suffering animal, subject to ceaseless anxiety and pain and fear. suffering the-human-condition the-black-prince iris-murdoch worldview nihilism the-world pessimism Iris Murdoch
4aecd94 And all the time my very soul would travel with her, invisible and crying soundlessly with pain. I had acquired a dimension of suffering which would poison and devour my whole being, as far as I could see, forever. pain suffering unending unendurable the-black-prince unspoken soul unrequited-love Iris Murdoch
38b41d8 He suffers terribly all the time. He lives in fire. metaphor suffering endless-suffering relentless the-green-knight iris-murdoch torture Iris Murdoch
369a2fd He pauses a moment to reflect on the F-word. 'Sometimes I think it's an idea that enslaves us. We're never free from hungering for the notion that we can even have freedom. When perhaps it's the very idea of it that causes us to suffer. suffering individuality Rachel Cohn
905e339 While Christianity was able to agree with pagan writers that inordinate attachment to earthly goods can lead to unnecessary pain and grief, it also taught that the answer to this was not to love things less but to love God more than anything else. Only when our greatest love is God, a love that we cannot lose even in death, can we face all things with peace. Grief was not to be eliminated but seasoned and buoyed up with love and hope. pain suffering jesus hope love Timothy J. Keller
36281d3 There is silly are people. You must suffer, or cause others to suffer, before you will have respect of one kind or the other from them...I will not stand to be looked at by anybody, especially when the looking is done with wrong thinking. suffering wrong-thinking suffer respect Richard Llewellyn
0a565fc A psychiatrist does not want you to wake up. He tells you to dream some more, to find the pond and pour more tears into it. And really, he's just another bird drinking from your misery. suffering psychiatrists Amy Tan
a45e839 Only the strong knew what suffering was. The weak never found themselves in the strong webs; the strong man was the one who found himself day and night bound and struggling, so that the work he did, the plotting and the owning and the buying, the decisions he made--and in a large family there had been many to make--were often hard-fibered. suffering John Ehle
9a30be8 Ageing is not easy, Sennhora Castro. It's a terrible, incurable pathology. And great love is another pathology. It starts well. It's a most desirable disease. One wouldn't want to do without it. It's like yeast that corrupts the juice of grapes. One loves, one loves, one persists in loving-the incubation period can be very long- and then, with death, comes the heart break. Love must always meet its unwanted end. suffering death heartbreak love diesease Yann Martel
d684a72 And as her love revived, so did her capacity for suffering. Life, more important, grew more bitter. suffering love E.M. Forster
9a1e665 The strong do as they will while the weak suffer what they must. suffering strong-vs-weak Karen Essex
0eb847d Simply put, meditation is the path to clarity, compassion, and a path of wisdom leading to the eradication of suffering. suffering compassion wisdom clarity-of-thought meditation Jon Kabat-Zinn
c0f7a8f The capacity for suffering - or more strictly, for suffering and/or enjoyment or happiness - is not just another characteristic like the capacity for language or for higher mathematics. Bentham is not saying that those who try to mark 'the insuperable line' that determines whether the interests of a being should be considered happen to have selected the wrong characteristic. The capacity for suffering and enjoying things is a prerequisite for having interests at all, a condition that must be satisfied before we can speak of interests in any meaningful way. It would be nonsense to say that it was not in the interests of a stone to be kicked along the road by a child. A stone does not have interests because it cannot suffer. Nothing that we can do to it could possibly make any difference to its welfare. A mouse, on the other hand, does have an interest in not being tormented, because mice will suffer if they are treated in this way. suffering utilitarianism Peter Singer
d860eb4 Once I realized I was old enough to die, I decided that I was also old enough not to incur any more suffering, annoyance, or boredom in the pursuit of a longer life. suffering life old Barbara Ehrenreich
f70462a I'm afraid of life! There are times I--I am very frightened. Any happiness seems trivial. And yet, I wonder if it isn't all a misunderstanding-- this grasping after happiness, this fear of pain... If instead of fearing it and running from it, one could... get through it, go beyond it. There is something beyond it. It's the self that suffers, and there's a place where the self--ceases. I don't know how to say it. But I believe that the reality--the truth that I recognize in suffering as I don't in comfort and happiness--that the reality of pain is not pain. If you can get through it. If you can endure it all the way. suffering Ursula K. Le Guin
1598be6 The more ideas they had the more they suffered. suffering Gustave Flaubert
1994233 "I do want something more. I'm not content to be happy, that's not what I'm cut out to be, not what fate intended for me. I'm destined to be the very opposite. I had more than my fair share of unhappiness but my unhappiness was stupid, barren... Because if I wanted to die, and I did, I ought not to have been so afraid of death. The unhappiness I'm in need of and longing for is different. It's of a kind that will make me hunger for suffering and lust for death. That's the sort of unhappiness, or happiness, I am waiting for. suicide suffering motivation inspirational happyness self-improvement Hermann Hesse
95922d4 Some of us are silent sufferers of a noisy disease. suffering quiet Amy Hempel
52b816d The main problem in a person's life is never his suffering; it's his sin. suffering sin Timothy J. Keller
a1ebf60 "If I had my way I'd shut everything out of your life but happiness and pleasure, Anne," said Gilbert in the tone that meant "danger ahead." "Then you would be very unwise," rejoined Anne hastily. "I'm sure no life can be properly developed and rounded out without some trial and sorrow--though I suppose it is only when we are pretty comfortable that we admit it..." suffering sorrow strength trials strength-through-adversity L.M. Montgomery
dcc65e5 "Robin, he chided her. He wanted to tell her all this would happen to her, too, that her luck would turn as well. But he had no good arguments for this, and she had no reason to believe him. Such luck as his was far too rare. "I hope it all works out," she said, looking up, and then, as if afraid to sound too stingy, she added, "I'm sure it will." He bent down to kiss her, but she turned away slightly, and his lips brushed her ear as he whispered, "Please be happy for me." suffering science love luck Allegra Goodman
621f95c The prayer of faith is a prayer of trust. The very essence of faith is trust. suffering faith trust trials R.C. Sproul
8d8fac4 I think it is a part of growing up, learning to control our suffering. suffering Gregory David Roberts
09683c7 Two days after his twelfth birthday, a fortnight before his father was jailed for debt, Charles Dickens was sent to work in a blacking factory. There, in a rat-infested room by the docks, he sat for twelve hours a day, labelling boot polish and learning the pain of abandonment. While he never spoke publicly of this ordeal, it would always be with him: in his social conscience and burning ambition, in the hordes of innocent children who languished and died in his fiction. Pete thinks we all have a blacking factory: some awful moment, early on, when we surrender our childish hearts as surely as we lose our baby teeth. And the outcome can't be called. Some of us end up like Dickens, others like Jeffrey Dahmer. It's not a question of good or evil, Pete believes. Just the random brutality of the universe and our native ability to withstand it. suffering dickens Armistead Maupin
5852c03 She knew as well as anyone that the world could be a place of trial and sorrow, that there was injustice and suffering and heartlessness - there was enough of all that to fill the great Kalahari twice over, but what good did it do to ponder that and that alone? None, she thought. suffering sorrow Alexander McCall Smith
5058e66 Because it will make a real artist of you. The more you suffer, the more grateful you ought to be. An empty stomach is better than a full one, Van Gogh, and a broken heart is better than happiness. Never forget that! suffering happiness life lust-for-life starrynight vangogh suffer artist Irving Stone
8e9f5b0 But it's hard to explain, Mitch. Now that I'm suffering, I feel closer to people who suffer than I ever did before. The other night, on TV, I saw people in Bosnia running across the street, getting fired upon, killed, innocent victims... and I just started to cry. I feel their anguish as if it were my own. I don't know any of these people. But--how can I put this?--I'm almost... drawn to them. suffering people Mitch Albom
9059139 It was a good thing to be an African. There were terrible things that happened in Africa, things that brought shame and despair when one thought about them, but that was not all there was in Africa. However great the suffering of the people of Africa, however harrowing the cruelty and chaos brought about by soldiers--small boys with guns, really--there was still so much in Africa from which one could take real pride. There was the kindness, for example, and the ability to smile, and the art and the music. suffering kindness Alexander McCall Smith
2c797e5 "With battle-weary arms, Sheridan slugged his way across the luminous waves sending light-filled droplets splashing into the air like Fourth of July sparklers. Stumbling onto the lake's rocky banks, he clawed desperately at the animal skin suit, yanking at the fastenings and peeling back the suffocating shroud in a fitful temper tantrum. He collapsed onto the glitter washed shore, his chest heaving, his forehead pulsing with pumped up veins. pain suffering meaning purpose Phillip White
1c1a2cf Yalnizca kisa bir sure, bir an icin bu aci dizlerimin bagini oyle cozdu ki, nefessiz, cansiz ve sanki olecekmis gibi bir duyguyla o banka yigilip kaldim. Ama dedigim gibi butun acilar korkaktir, yasama karsi duyulan asiri arzu karsisinda aci geriler; cunku yasama arzusu, dusuncelerimizde var olan olum arzusundan cok daha guclu sekilde bedenimizin her zerresinde mevcuttur. pain suffering life Stefan Zweig
2b5eb29 He needs a looser association. He needs something that implies a man who wants the ice shard to remain in his chest, who's learned to love the sensation of being pierced. mourning pain loss suffering sorrow love heartache Michael Cunningham
9552313 All of this,' the prophet said, serene, 'all of our activities, Sayid, you must understand this, all of your suffering, it's all part of a greater plan.' 'You'd be surprised at how little comfort I take from that notion. suffering activities greater-plan little-comfort sayid tyler-leander serenity surprise Emily St. John Mandel
56047cc A lot of experiences that we have in the world are torn, broken, hard experiences, and in broken, difficult, lonesome experiences you earn a quality of light that is very precious. I often think of it as quarried light. pain suffering redemption John O'Donohue
faa063d Suffering is life. suffering life Fyodor Dostoyevsky
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