Quotes About Suffering

There's a Buddhist saying—be grateful for your suffering, because it allows you to empathize with the suffering of others.

You are not suffering from a chemical imbalance in your brain. You are suffering from a social and spiritual imbalance in how we live. Much more than you've been told up to now, it's not serotonin; it's society. It's not your brain; it's your pain. Your biology can make your distress worse, for sure. But it's not the cause. It's not the driver. It's not the place to look for the main explanation, or the main solution.

be grateful for your suffering, because it allows you to empathize with the suffering of others.

You are not suffering from a chemical imbalance in your brain. You are suffering from a social and spiritual imbalance in how we live. Much more than you've been told up to now, it's not serotonin; it's society. It's not your brain; it;s your pain.

Depth connected to your work in relationships also takes time. It takes energy. It takes long time spans. And it takes commitment. It takes attention, right? All of these things that require depth are suffering. It's pulling us more and more up onto the surface.

Saw a sunken army who had spent fourteen years waging war on alcohol only to see alcohol win, and win big.

Lontani dall'oggetto amato sembriamo diventare, quanto più è intenso il nostro affetto, tanto più padroni di noi stessi, scaricando all'interno di noi tutta la violenza della passione che si dirigeva verso l'esterno; ma se la persona a cui credevamo di poter rinunciare si ripresenta all'improvviso ai nostri occhi con tutta la parvenza dell'irrinunciabile, allora veniamo rapidamente, subitaneamente strappati fuori dell'errore." - Le affinità elettive.

Io soffro molto, perché ho perduto ciò ch'era la sola voluttà della mia vita, la santa forza animatrice con cui cercavo mondi intorno a me. Essa non è più.

Must it so be that whatever makes man happy must later become the source of his misery?

Los dolores serían menores entre los hombres si éstos (Dios sabe por qué están hechos así) no se ocuparan con tanto ahínco de imaginación en evocar los recuerdos de los males pasados en vez de soportar un presente tolerable.

It is only in misery that we recognize the hand of God leading good men to good.

Man can only endure a certain degree of unhappiness; what is beyond that either annihilates him or passes by him and leaves him apathetic

The suffering may be moral or physical; and in my opinion it is just as absurd to call a man a coward who destroys himself, as to call a man a coward who dies of a malignant fever.

What is the destiny of man, but to fill up the measure of his sufferings, and to drink his allotted cup of bitterness?

Since you know me and my destiny only too well, you probably also know what attracts me to all unfortunate people.

No doubt you are right... there would be far less suffering amongst mankind if men... did not employ their imaginations so assiduously in recalling the memory of past sorrow, instead of bearing their present lot with equanimity.

It is in vain that a man of sound mind and cool temper understands the condition of such a wretched being... He can no more communicate his own wisdom to him than a healthy man can instil his strength into the invalid by whose bedside he is seated.

It has ever been my fate to give pain to those whose happiness I should have promoted.

Would you require a wretched being, whose life is slowly wasting under a lingering disease, to despatch himself at once by the stroke of a dagger? Does not the very disorder which consumes his strength deprive him of the courage to effect his deliverance?

Mußte denn das so sein, daß das, was des Menschen Glückseligkeit macht, wieder die Quelle seines Elendes würde?

Colors are light's suffering and joy

The question, therefore, is, not whether a man is strong or weak, but whether he is able to endure the measure of his sufferings.

This is another one of those creatures whom, like the pelican, I have fed with the blood of my own heart... There were special circumstances close at hand, urgent, troubling me, and they resulted in the state of mind that produced Werther. I had lived, loved, and suffered much... That's what it was.

Human nature," I continued, "has its limitations. It can bear joy and suffering, and pain to a certain degree, but perishes when this point is passed. Here there can therefore be no question of whether a man is strong or weak, but of whether he can endure his suffering, be it moral or physical. And I find it just as astonishing to say that a man who takes his own life is a coward, as it would be improper to call a man a coward who dies of a pernicious fever.