“As the thing more perfect is,
The more it feels of pleasure and of pain.”
Canto VI, lines 107–108 (tr. Longfellow).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Inferno
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Dante Alighieri105
Italian poet 1265–1321Related quotes
“We cannot be more sensitive to pleasure without being more sensitive to pain.”
Alan Watts book The Wisdom of Insecurity
Source: The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety
Frederick William Robertson (1816–1853) British writer and theologian
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 401.
Rubén Darío book Cantos de vida y esperanza
Dichoso el árbol, que es apenas sensitivo,
y más la piedra dura porque esa ya no siente,
pues no hay dolor más grande que el dolor de ser vivo,
ni mayor pesadumbre que la vida consciente.
Cantos de vida y esperanza (1901), "Lo fatal" ("Fatalism")
Quoted in Chambers Dictionary of Quotations (1997), p. 305.
Charles Darwin (1809–1882) British naturalist, author of "On the origin of species, by means of natural selection"
“There's no regret more painful than the regret of things that never were.”
Fernando Pessoa book The Book of Disquiet
Ibid., p. 111
The Book of Disquiet
Original: Ah, não há saudades mais dolorosas do que as das coisas que nunca foram!