Quotes about pain page 32

“...The sublime feeling is not mere pleasure as taste is – it is a mixture of pleasure and pain... Confronted with objects that are too big according to their magnitude or too violent according to their power, the mind experiences its own limitations.”

Hays translation
XI, 18
Meditations (c. AD 121–180), Book XI

Anger

Jean-François Lyotard (1924–1998) French philosopher

Source: Thought Without a Body? (1994)
Perigrenations Law Form

Pleasure, Feeling

“I travel in every state now, back on the road, and the Red states are a joy and the Blue states are a pain in the ass. For no reason.”

Bill Maher (1956) American stand-up comedian

Source: Sen. Chris Coons and Caitlin Flanagan, Natural Immunity, (2021)

Travel, Joy

“How do we overcome our grief, pain, and our fears of our memory of abuse that traps us in time?... The way to do it is to give it up; do not identify with it. Ask yourself: “Am I this memory?” Obviously you are not. While you identify with your memory and pain, your grief, with the abuse that is trapping you.”

Benjamin Creme (1922–2016) artist, author, esotericist

Source: Maitreya's Mission Vol. III (1997)

Fear, Way, Memory, Time

“Make your hearts tender so that the grace the God of life abundantly grants us will drench you, and you will experience his salvation. Make your hearts tender so that you will not be indifferent to the pain or suffering of anyone.”

Mario Aurelio Poli (1947) Catholic Cardinal from Argentine.

Cardinal calls on faithful to have tender hearts during Lent https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/29155/cardinal-calls-on-faithful-to-have-tender-hearts-during-lent (5 March 2014)

Life, God, Suffering, Heart

“Words, sentences, ideas, no matter how subtle or ingenious, the maddest flights of poetry, the most profound dreams, the most hallucinating visions, are but crude hieroglyphs chiseled in pain and sorrow to commemorate an event which is untransmissible.”

Henry Miller (1891–1980) American novelist

Source: Henry Miller on Writing (1964), p. 23

Dreams, Idea

“All lives deserve to be respected, and all beings need to be loved. It ought to be easy for us to feel the pain experienced by the bodies other than our own and grant happiness to those who are but strangers.”

Cheng Yen (1937) Taiwanese Buddhist nun

Source: Master of Love and Mercy: Cheng Yen, p. 3

Love, Happiness, Feeling

“What mires me in pessimism is the fact that so much of life is pain and sorrow and willful ignorance and violence, and pushing back against that tide takes so much effort, so much steady fight. It’s tiring.”

Jesmyn Ward (1977) American writer

Source: On having a pessimistic nature in “Jesmyn Ward: ‘So much of life is pain and sorrow and wilful ignorance’” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/nov/12/jesmyn-ward-sing-unburied-sing-interview-meet-author in The Guardian (2017 Nov 12)

Life, Effort, Fight

“Every man that has felt pain, knows how few the comforts are that can gladden him to whom health is denied. I fed Hodge valerian to ease his agonies. I bought oysters for his delight, these being soft, and the best meat for his toothless jaws. I went for them myself.”

Robin Saikia British writer and actor

Source: A Very Fine Cat Indeed: A Dramatic Monologue (2020), p. 25

Health

“Why dost thou not pray... to give thee the faculty of not fearing any of the things which thou fearest, or of not desiring any of the things which thou desirest, or not being pained at anything, rather than pray that any of these things should not happen or happen?”

“Remember that neither the future nor the past pains thee, but only the present. But this is reduced to a very little, if thou only circumscribest it, and chidest thy mind, if it is unable to hold out against even this.”

Source: Meditations (c. AD 121–180), Book IX, 40

Fear

“I don't think any drug that can cause brain damage, failing kidneys, hardening arteries, pain, and suffering should be made available. Drugs are not the way to the light. They won't lead to a fairy-tale life, they lead to suffering.”

Meditations (c. AD 121–180), Book VIII, 36

Past, Future

Layne Staley (1967–2002) American singer

Source: Pandemonium Magazine, Vol#29 - April 1995: "Layne Staley Unchained"

Life, Way, Thinking, Light

“I have a platform and a following of millions of people, many of whom I know have been through exactly what I have. And if I tell my story, as painful and flip floppy and flawed as it is, I know it will mean something to someone, as every time someone speaks openly about sexuality, it saves lives.”

Dan Howell (1991) British video blogger and radio personality

People, Time

“When someone just writes 'f**k, f**k, f**k', we just fix it, laugh and move on. But the difficult social issues are the borderline cases — people who do some good work, but who are also a pain in the neck.”

Jimmy Wales (1966) Wikipedia co-founder and American Internet entrepreneur

Source: As quoted in "Who knows?", The Guardian (26 October 2004)

People

“Since our Lord, who gave Fernando to us, wished to have him back, we must bend to His will and thank Him and beg Him to protect what is left. With great affection, my lady, I beg you to do this and to forget and leave behind all pain and grief.”

Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (1500–1558) Holy Roman Emperor

Forgetting

“There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. Even in laughter the heart may be in pain, and the end of joy may be grief. The backslider in heart will have his fill of his own ways, but a good man will be satisfied with his.”

book Bible

Source: Proverbs 14:12-14

Death, Way, Laughter, Heart

“Consider all that you've gone through, all that you've survived. And that the story of your life is done, your assignment complete. How many good things have you seen? How much pain and pleasure have you resisted? How many honors have you declined? How many unkind people have you been kind to?”

“When the world you live in
really gets you down,
when you feel a pain inside you
starting to pound,
and the girl you love,
she doesn't want to know,
let an old friend, as a godsend,
lead you to where peaceful waters flow”

Hays translation
Source: Meditations (c. AD 121–180), Book V, 31

Life, People, Pleasure

Gilbert O'Sullivan (1946) Irish singer-songwriter

"Where Peaceful Waters Flow" (song) Gilbert O'Sullivan, "Where Peaceful Waters Flow" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FnSi2UtNYU (song on YouTube) Song lyrics

Love, World, Peace, Feeling

“Where to begin?
The pain I am in,
hard to know when to stop.
Out of the blue
a dream came true,
only to see it drop.
I'm no genius where love's concerned,
more fool me to pretend.
Whatever it takes, while my heart aches
I'll never love again.”

Gilbert O'Sullivan (1946) Irish singer-songwriter

"I'll Never Love Again" (song) Gilbert O'Sullivan, "I'll Never Love Again" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IIlAUIwQdc (song on YouTube) Song lyrics

Love, Dreams, Fools, Heart

“Happy species endowed with infinite appreciation of pleasures and low sensitivity to pain would probably not survive the evolutionary battle.”

Amos Tversky (1937–1996) Israeli psychologist

attributed, but source not available.

Happiness, Pleasure

“At the very mention of your name
I get shivers down my back and in my brain.
The parts that used to function normally
are now, as you can see,
acting very strange.
Oh, at the very mention of your name
I don't know why but if I were tied up in chains
I would somehow be released
all problems too would cease
my heart would never feel no pain.
At the very mention of your name.”

Gilbert O'Sullivan (1946) Irish singer-songwriter

"At The Very Mention Of Your Name" (song) Song lyrics Source: Gilbert O'Sullivan, "At The Very Mention Of Your Name" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNpIBp-wleI (song on YouTube. (Live performance in Japan, 1993.))

Feeling, Problem, Heart, Parting

“Are you a man? Then you should have an human heart. But have you indeed? What is your heart made of? Is there no such principle as Compassion there? Do you never feel another's pain? Have you no Sympathy? No sense of human woe? No pity for the miserable? When you saw the flowing eyes, the heaving breasts, or the bleeding sides and tortured limbs of your fellow-creatures, was you a stone, or a brute? Did you look upon them with the eyes of a tiger? When you squeezed the agonizing creatures down in the ship, or when you threw their poor mangled remains into the sea, had you no relenting? Did not one tear drop from your eye, one sigh escape from your breast? Do you feel no relenting now? If you do not, you must go on, till the measure of your iniquities is full. Then will the Great GOD deal with You, as you have dealt with them, and require all their blood at your hands.”

John Wesley (1703–1791) Christian theologian

Source: 1770s, Thoughts Upon Slavery (1774)

God, Feeling, Sense, Tear

“Don’t kid yourself: The pain and scars from that day run deep.
I said it many times and it’s no more true or real than when we think about the events of January 6th: We are in a battle for the soul of America. A battle that, by the grace of God and the goodness and gracious — and greatness of this nation, we will win.
Believe me, I know how difficult democracy is. And I’m crystal clear about the threats America faces. But I also know that our darkest days can lead to light and hope.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

Source: 2022, Remarks to Mark One Year Since The January 6th Deadly Assault On The U.S. Capitol (2022)

God, Hope, Democracy, Soul

“From the beginning of time,
in childhood, I thought
that pain meant
I was not loved.
It meant I loved.”

Louise Glück (1943–2023) American poet

Source: "First Memory", Ararat (1990)

Love, Time, Childhood

“When it rains, guess it pours—yes, it does
Wish there wasn't any pain, but I can't pretend there ain't
I ain't placin' any blame
I ain't pointin' fingers, Heaven knows I've never been a saint”

Eminem (1972) American rapper and actor

"Going Through Changes"
2010s, Recovery (2010)

“It hurts but I never show
This pain you'll never know
If only you could see just how lonely and how cold and frostbit I've become
My back's against the wall
When push come to shove I just stand up and scream: "Fuck 'em all!"”

Eminem (1972) American rapper and actor

"Drop the World" (featured on Lil Wayne's Rebirth, 2009)
2000s

Hurt

“I want the money, the women, the fortune and fame
That means I end up burnin' in Hell, scorchin' in flame
That means I'm stealin' your checkbook and forgin' your name
This lifetime bliss for eternal torture and pain”

Eminem (1972) American rapper and actor

"Rock Bottom"
1990s, The Slim Shady LP (1999)

Women, Money, Hell

“Life is more than just steering a course around pain.”

Stephen King book Desperation

Desperation (1996)

Life

“Animals who die for your dinner table die alone, in terror, in sadness and in pain. The killing is merciless and inhumane. … Animals suffer from pain and fear just as much as you do. Most spend their last hours locked in a truck, packed into a cage with hundreds of other terrified animals and then cruelly pushed into a blood soaked death chamber. Animals which are a year old are often far more rational – and capable of logical thought – than six-week-old babies. Pigs and sheep are far more intelligent than small children.”

Vernon Coleman (1946) British doctor

"Twenty One Reasons For Being A Vegetarian" (2007), in vernoncoleman.com http://www.vernoncoleman.com/twentyoner.htm.

Death, Children, Sadness, Fear

“Every atom of your flesh is as dear to me as my own: in pain and sickness it would still be dear.”

Charlotte Brontë book Jane Eyre

Source: Jane Eyre

“Is pain a promise? I was schooled in pain,
And found out what I could of all desire;
I weep for what I'm like when I'm alone
In the deep center of the voice and fire.I know the motion of the deepest stone.
Each one's himself, yet each one's everyone.”

Theodore Roethke (1908–1963) American poet

"The Sententious Man," ll. 31-36
Words for the Wind (1958)

School

“It's not that pain equals art. It's that creativity has the power to look pain in the eye, and to decide to turn it into something better. ... The quest to transform pain into beauty is one of the great catalysts of artistic expression.”

“Whatever pain you can't get rid of, make it your creative offering.”

Bittersweet, Chapter 3 at p. 61

Beauty, Art

“Tender-handed stroke a nettle,
And it stings you for your pains;
Grasp it like a man of mettle,
And it soft as silk remains.’Tis the same with common natures:
Use ’em kindly, they rebel;
But be rough as nutmeg-graters,
And the rogues obey you well.”

Bittersweet, Chapter 3 at p. 56

Aaron Hill (writer) (1685–1750) British writer

Verses Written on a Window in Scotland.

Nature

“Everyone is sensitive to pain: only the various kinds of misfortunes affect everyone differently and to varying degrees.”

Daniel Salamanca (1863–1935) President of Bolivia (1863-1935)

“We are bound to encounter many failures, difficulties, pains, trials, temptations and disappointments. Whatever it is, we are called to be courageous, striving continuously because Jesus is with us always. He will never abandon us.”

John Wong Soo Kau (1968) Malaysian Archbishop

Archbishop John: True Happiness Is in Serving and Giving, Not Wealth https://www.borneotoday.net/archbishop-john-true-happiness-is-in-serving-and-giving-not-wealth/ (2018)

Disappointment, Failure, Courage

“We cannot bury pain and trauma forever. As I said in Tulsa, great nations do not hide from their histories. We are a great nation, and by reckoning with and remedying the injustices of the past, America will become greater still.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

2022, June 2022, Statement by President Joe Biden on the 101st Anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre

History, Past

“When you listen to music, you can transcend your own pain and turn towards another and feel bonded with the whole of humanity because you know that they have felt that grief and love. By expressing it, by communing with that song or picture, you realize you are not alone.”

“Living in a bittersweet state, with an intense awareness of life's fragility and the pain of separation, is an underappreciated strength and an unexpected path to wisdom, joy, and especially communion.”

Walker, Suzy (interviewer). "The Big Happiness Interview: Susan Cain on how embracing sadness can make us happier", Metro, June 5, 2022.
Bittersweet

Love, Music, Feeling, Communication

“I have a terrific pain in the back of my head.”

Bittersweet, Chapter 8 at pp. 183-4

Life, Wisdom, Joy

Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) 32nd President of the United States

Last words spoken while having his portrait painted on April 12 1945 before losing consciousness and dying shortly after.
Disputed

“I may say without exaggeration that this is a revolutionary approach; it is very painful, because this system of permission was the underpinning of the great bureaucratic system on all levels. And that democratic system, a corrupt one, it has been built for years and decades.”

Viktor Yanukovych (1950) Ukrainian politician who was the President of Ukraine

Source: [2011-06-21, В Страсбурге Янукович перепутал демократию с бюрократией, https://focus.ua/politics/190373, 2022-06-12, ФОКУС, ru]

“If everyone could feel everyone else’s pain, who would torture?”

Octavia E. Butler book Parable of the Sower

Source: Parable of the Sower (1993), p. 115

Feeling

“I keep wanting to repeat over and over and over again, the pain and shock of difference, the joy of commonness, the exhilaration of meeting through incredible odds against it.”

Cherríe Moraga (1952) American writer

This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, Fourth Edition (2015)

Joy

“As a state, a nation and a citizen, no one will forget our nation’s painful suffering.”

Nguyễn Tấn Dũng (1949) Prime Minister of Vietnam

"PM Nguyễn Tấn Dũng’s online talk to Vietnamese people at home and abroad" https://en.baochinhphu.vn/print/pm-nguyen-tan-dungs-online-talk-to-vietnamese-people-at-home-and-abroad-1114491.htm (9 February 2007)

Suffering, Forgetting

“Man's relation to pain changes with every significant shift in fundamental belief. This relation is in no way set; rather, it eludes our knowledge, and yet is the best benchmark by which to discern a race.”

Ernst Jünger (1895–1998) German writer

On Pain (1934)

Way, Knowledge, Change

“This was the home of the great god Pain, and for the first time I looked through a devilish chink into the depths of his realm. And fresh shells came down all the time.”

Ernst Jünger book Storm of Steel

Storm of Steel (1920)

God, Home, Time

“An example of life? In work, in friendship, in love, in pleasure and in pain: always, unconditionally and simply be yourself.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Un esempio di vita? Nel lavoro, nell'amicizia, nell'amore, nel piacere e nel dolore: sii sempre, incondizionatamente e semplicemente te stesso.
Source: prevale.net

Love, Life, Friendship, Pleasure

“Truth is not a pain killer. This means that truth might bring the experience of relief, or it might bring the experience of pain. But either way, it holds within it the power of positive change.”

Teal Swan (1984) American spiritual teacher

Truth, Way, Change

“Facing pain causes an emotional change of resistance, strength and courage in the existential pathway of every living being.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Affrontare il dolore, provoca un cambiamento emotivo di resistenza, forza e coraggio, nel percorso esistenziale di ogni essere vivente.
Source: prevale.net

Courage, Change

“If we see a romantic partnership as the only relationship that promises to meet our needs, we will put all the pressure on that other person to be the one to meet all of our needs, which is impossible. No one person can meet all of our needs. So, it is a set up for disappointment and for pain.”

Teal Swan (1984) American spiritual teacher

Disappointment, Personality, Partnership

“Been drinking 3 weeks in a row just to forget
About the pain and the tears and the shame and the fears
And I blame her for these but she ain’t really here
She walked away”

Mogimike

Source: Song A Little Too Much

Fear, Drink, Tear, Forgetting

“Pains and sufferings are pleasurable if hearts are mingled with love and compassion.”

ratikanta1968

Love, Pleasure, Suffering, Heart

“Always conclude everyday you live; too much unachieved expectations is the root of painful exit.”

Yusuf Cornelius Otijenu

“Insults, scorn and ridicule are painful when we think about them. But they won't have any effect if we don't consider them important.”

“Losing someone we love is perhaps the deepest sorrow. But if we are able to see it with awareness and belief, that it happened because of the will of the universe, then slowly the pain will be healed.”

Thinking

“Those who take bold steps know what risks they face. It could mean difficulty, uncertainty, danger, pain and even death. But a coward chooses the opposite path, even though he knows that the path he takes is not without risk. Running will never solve the problem.”

Love, Universe

“It doesn't work to compromise in a relationship because a person can’t give up something that they value (and thus give up what really matters to them) without experiencing pain that eventually causes disharmony in the relationship.”

Death, Problem

Teal Swan (1984) American spiritual teacher

Personality

“When you notice anger kick in, you must slow way down and attend to the vulnerability, the pain and the fear and the perceived powerlessness underneath it.”

Teal Swan (1984) American spiritual teacher

Fear, Way, Anger

“Wherever you are, you provoke smiles, union and love, never pain.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Ovunque siate, provocate sorrisi, unione e amore, mai dolore.
Source: prevale.net

Love, Smile

“If you do not keep your word, you will have demonstrated that you do not hold yourself to standards of conduct. You will have demonstrated that you care more about your own personal happiness and whims than you do about the pain of others. You will have demonstrated that you do not value your relationships and even that you do not value the people you are in a relationship with. You will have demonstrated yourself to be a person who lacks Integrity and honor. You will have demonstrated that you cannot be relied upon and that you cannot be trusted. You will be seen as an unsafe person. You will ruin the way that other people will see you, most especially you will lose their respect. And on the road to this ultimate loss, you will have created non-stop conflict in all of your relationships.”

Teal Swan (1984) American spiritual teacher

Happiness, People, Way, Loss

“Go back and touch the past remembering emotions, mistakes, loves, shortcomings and pains it's a way to have clarity on the future that awaits us.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Tornare indietro e toccare il passato ricordando emozioni, errori, amori, mancanze e dolori è un modo per avere chiarezza sul futuro che ci aspetta.
Source: prevale.net

Love, Way, Past, Future

“No action torments the human soul as much as ugly thoughts. The main pain to be avoided, they are your same thoughts.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Nessuna azione tormenta l'anima umana tanto quanto i brutti pensieri. Il dolore principale da evitare, sono i vostri stessi pensieri.
Source: prevale.net

Soul

“This is a painful and contradictory fact about the world, why can't we always live the way we want and act the way we want? Because all choices have consequences. And those consequences are not always pleasant. He who sows shall reap, karma is real!”