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Pain Quotes

This is another small page with no flagged entries. Suman Pokhrel, Shakespeare, Cesare Pavese, Sarah Williams and Sanu Sharma lead. The sourced lines vary a great deal. Shelley’s Julian and Maddalo (1819) says those who inflict must suffer, for they see the work of their own hearts. Edward Young’s Night-Thoughts (1742) has the neat paradox that a man of pleasure is a man of pains. Cesar Chavez’s Plan of Delano (1965) is a statement from a farm workers’ march, not a reflection: our sweat and our blood have fallen on this land to make other men rich.

Random quote on Pain

Most quoted on pain:

One fire burns out another's burning,
One pain is lessen'd by another's anguish.

William Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet (1597)

My heart itself is a wound,
no medicine can cure it.
It deepens further if stared at,
and hurts more if touched.

Suman Pokhrel

When you suffer, think not on how you can escape suffering, but concentrate your efforts on what kind of inner moral and spiritual perfection this suffering requires.

Leo Tolstoy

But the real, tremendous truth is this: suffering serves no purpose whatever.

Cesare Pavese This Business of Living (1935)

You cannot insult a man more atrociously than by refusing to believe he is suffering.

Cesare Pavese This Business of Living (1935)

It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

Luke the Evangelist

Why does the mind habitually deny or resist the Now? Because it cannot function and remain in control without time, which is past and future, so it perceives the timeless Now as threatening. Time and mind are in fact inseparable.

Eckhart Tolle The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment (1997)

We have suffered lightly, if we have suffered what we should weep for.

Seneca the Younger

We are suffering. We have suffered, and we are not afraid to suffer in order to win our cause.

Cesar Chavez The Plan of Delano (1965)

Nothing begins, and nothing ends,
That is not paid with moan,
For we are born in other's pain,
And perish in our own.

Francis Thompson Daisy (1893)

The scourge of life, and death's extreme disgrace,
The smoke of hell,—that monster callèd Paine.

Philip Sidney

Suffering is admittedly one of the central problems of human existence; but this is because we have a suspicion that it is all for nothing. If we had a certainty about meaning, the suffering would be bearable. With no certainty of meaning, even comfort begins to feel futile.

Colin Wilson Frankenstein's Castle (1980)

Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seamed with scars; martyrs have put on their coronation-robes glittering with fire; and through their tears have the sorrowful first seen the gate of heaven.

Edwin Hubbell Chapin Living Words (1860)

A man of pleasure is a man of pains.

Edward Young Night-Thoughts (1742)

(May) the dead body of agony remain asleep
resting its head on a pillow of flowers.

Suman Pokhrel

He could afford to suffer
With those whom he saw suffer.

William Wordsworth The Excursion (1814)

Nature knows best, and she says, roar!

Maria Edgeworth

Ah, to think how thin the veil that lies
Between the pain of hell and Paradise.

George William Russell

You must bear your karma cheerfully, whatever it may be, taking it as an honor that Suffering comes to you, because it shows that the Lords of Karma think you worth helping. However hard it is, be thankful that it is no worse.

Jiddu Krishnamurti At the Feet of the Master (1911)

Our merciful Father has no pleasure in the sufferings of His children; He chastens them in love; He never inflicts a stroke He could safely spare; He inflicts it to purify as well as to punish, to caution as well as to cure, to improve as well as to chastise.

Hannah More

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