#suffering

"Suffering is a form of knowledge. It tells us what is wrong with our world.- David Smail"

"There is an ancient tribal proverb I once heard in India. It says that before we can see properly we must first shed our tears to clear the way."

"But a mermaid has no tears, and therefore she suffers so much more."

"Don't look forward to the day you stop suffering, because when it comes you'll know you're dead."

"People, he thought, were as hungry for a sight of joy as he had always been--for a moment's relief from that gray load of suffering which seemed so inexplicable and unnecessary. He had never been able to understand why men should be unhappy."

"Judged by the normal standards of human affairs, the lives of men and women of God may look overburdened with suffering, and even inconclusive."

"Suffering usually relates to wanting things to be different from the way they are."

"The author said Frederick Douglass described himself as a "graduate"of slavery with the marks of his diploma on his back."

"With a hint of good judgment, to fear nothing, not failure or suffering or even death, indicates that you value life the most. You live to the extreme; you push limits; you spend your time building legacies. Those do not die."

"O world, world when I was younger I thought there was some order governing you and your deeds. But now you seem to be a labyrinth of errors, a frightful desert, a den of wild beasts, a game in which men move in circles…a stony field, a meadow full of serpents, a flowering but barren orchard, a spring of cares, a river of tears, a sea of suffering, a vain hope."

"Why wait? So precious is this life—this gift—this temporary blindness. Burn and drown and embrace the false dark, then grasp the unthinkable height of resulting joy. For in the end, in the light of truth when the flesh is cast off, there is nothing but this."

"One thing you can't hide - is when you're crippled inside."

"Rejoicing in our joy, not suffering over our suffering, makes someone a friend."

"Never stop just because you feel defeated. The journey to the other side is attainable only after great suffering."

"Whether you like it or not, you are committed to the human endeavor. I cannot ally myself with such a purely negative goal as avoidance of suffering. Suffering is a chance you take by the fact of being alive."

"Any man filled with empathy is capable of gaining valuable insights on the human condition through the suffering of others. You do not need to suffer to know suffering, but you need empathy first to identify and feel the suffering of others around you."

"Love is as simple as the absence of self given to another. God, when invited, fills the void of any unrequited love; hence loving is how one is drawn closer to God no matter its most horrific repercussions."

"Hope is in the name of God, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Hope is when you compare your suffering to the infinite, immeasurable love and grace of God."

"Without pain, how could we know joy?' This is an old argument in the field of thinking about suffering and its stupidity and lack of sophistication could be plumbed for centuries but suffice it to say that the existence of broccoli does not, in any way, affect the taste of chocolate."

"The poor man shuddered, overflowed with an angelic joy; he declared in his transport that this would last through life; he said to himself that he really had not suffered enough to deserve such radiant happiness, and he thanked God, in the depths of his soul, for having permitted that he, a miserable man, should be so loved by this innocent being."