Quotes about suffering
page 36

“Some people, because their minds have gone so long without nourishment, lose their desire to eat and so do not notice the harm they are suffering.”

Gregory Palamas (1296–1359) Monk and archbishop

Source: The Parables of Jesus: Sermons by Saint Gregory Palamas

People

“Hope is always alive once we realize that God is there despite all the challenges that are really giving us all the suffering.”

Emanuel Hana Shaleta (1956) prelate of the Chaldean Catholic Church

Source: Christmas Message From St. Peter Diocese https://www.stpeterdiocese.org/christmas-message-from-st-peter-diocese/ (16 December 2020)

God, Hope

“Rather will it be a public of inherently free individuals w'ho can keep an individual purpose, learnt in the fields of intense suffering and experience. Such a public are likely to accept and wield responsibility in respect of their own government and their own religion and education.”

Vera Stanley Alder (1898–1984) British artist

Source: Humanity Comes of Age, A study of Individual and World Fulfillment (1950), Chapter XXXV The Opportunity Today

Education, Religion

“One of the missions of the underground priests was to encourage these people and to tell them that yes, we're suffering, but we're doing this for Christ. That's why the Church survived; people were humans, in all the best sense of the word.”

Volodymyr Viytyshyn (1959) Polish archbishop

Source: In becoming a priest, you were agreeing to be a martyr https://osvnews.com/2018/08/15/underground-period-marks-ukrainian-church/ (15 August 2018)

People, Sense, Christ

“Any suffering registered in your mind makes the emotion deeper. Maybe as a writer, I am constantly looking for tragedy.”

Geling Yan (1958) Chinese writer and screenwriter

Source: "Turning Loss into Beauty: The Tragedies of Geling Yan" in The Wall Street Journal https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB930264290705115630 (25 June 1999)

“The average man is either victorious or defeated and, depending on that, he becomes a persecutor or a victim. These two conditions are prevalent as long as one does not "see." "Seeing" dispels the illusion of victory, or defeat, or suffering.”

Carlos Castaneda book The Wheel of Time

Source: The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe], (1998), Quotations from A Separate Reality (Chapter 6)

Victory, Dependency

“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, Pain, Heart

“I am a living member of the great Family of All Souls; and I cannot improve or suffer myself without diffusing good or evil around me through an ever-enlarging sphere.”

William Ellery Channing (1780–1842) United States Unitarian clergyman

Source: "The Father's Love for Persons" https://www.google.com/books/edition/Select_Discourses_and_Essays/loYfAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22I+am+a+living+member+of+the+great+Family+of+All+Souls%22&pg=PA343&printsec=frontcover, in Selected Discourses and Essays from the works of William Ellery Channing, DD (1895)

Family, Soul, Evil

“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.”

Layne Staley (1967–2002) American singer

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

Life, Pain, Way, Thinking

“There is also a therapeutic component in the Organic Creative Process: with the exploration of the various characters, the actor develops the knowledge of himself, even through suffering.”

Giovanni Morassutti (1980) Italian actor, theatre director and cultural entrepreneur.

From the essay Strasberg Legacy

Knowledge

“Dad and Mom have passed away, but their teachings are deeply ingrained in my mind. I will never bring disgrace to them and their glory. I can bear the suffering no matter how great it is”

Bo Xilai (1949) former Politburo member of the Communist Party of China

Source: "Disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai anticipated prison in letter to family" in CNN https://www.cnn.com/2013/09/19/world/asia/china-bo-xilai-letter/index.html (23 September 2013)

Moms

“Fear of suffering is a great obstacle to being a happy person in life. God wants us to be happy. Asceticism is not supposed to make us sad. It’s supposed to free us to be able to understand and do what God wants. He wants our happiness. He wants us to bring happiness to others.”

Alfred Clifton Hughes (1932) Roman Catholic archbishop

Source: 60 Years A Priest: An Interview with Archbishop Alfred Hughes https://nds.edu/blog-entry/60-years-a-priest-an-interview-with-archbishop-alfred-hughes/

Life, God, Happiness, Sadness

“Serving humanity and striving to alleviate the sufferings of other people goes hand in hand with our duties to worship God Almighty.”

Mirza Masroor Ahmad (1950) spiritual leader of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community

Addresses <br class="br">Source: Opening of Southall Mosque https://www.alislam.org/press-release/new-ahmadiyya-mosque-opened-in-southall/, 23rd February 2020.

God, People

“Our local representatives do not participate in the deliberations. Of course, they are not member of parliaments like you, but we are each other's neighbors, share a common history and in many ways, we are each other's fellow sufferers.”

Edison Rijna (1967) Dutch politician on Bonaire

Source: Edison Rijna (2021) cited in: " IPKO should develop friendship between Kingdom countries https://www.curacaochronicle.com/post/main/ipko-should-develop-friendship-between-kingdom-countries/" in Curaçao Chronicle, 24 August 2021.

Way, History

“People need to feel they belong to their country. Their need for community is most pronounced in a time of adversity. The people who are hit hardest by a depression, who feel that their children will suffer, look for loyalty from the rest of the community and the government. The present immigration programme, in its indifference to the feelings of the old Australians, erodes those loyalties. The multicultural policy, and its emphasis on what is different and on the rights of the new minority rather than the old majority, gnaws at that sense of solidarity that many people crave for.”

Geoffrey Blainey book All for Australia

All for Australia (1984)

Children, People, Feeling, Communication

“M.... used to warn me that I had one grave disability: I couldn't suffer fools—and their predominance—gladly. He was right and I realized that in society a fool had one great advantage: he was among his peers.”

Nicolas Chamfort (1741–1794) French writer

Reflections
Original: (fr) M... me disait que j'avais un grand malheur: c'était de ne pas me faire à la toute-puissance des sots. Il avait raison, et j'ai vu qu'en entrant dans le monde, un sot avait de grands avantages, celui de se trouver parmi ses pairs. C'est comme frère Lourdis dans le temple de la Sottise.
Original: (fr) Maximes et Pensées, #197

Fools

“We desire to see the return of a liberal age where Parliaments will guard freedom, where science will open the banqueting halls to the millions, and where what Bismarck once called "practical Christianity" will mitigate suffering and misfortunes.”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Source: 'No Intervention In Spain' (8 January 1937), quoted in Winston Churchill, Step by Step, 1936–1939 (1939; 1947), p. 84

Age, Freedom, Science

“You must understand the whole of life,
not just one little part of it.
that is why you must read,
that is why you must look at the skies,
that is why you must sing and dance,
and write poems and suffer and understand,
for all that is life.”

Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895–1986) Indian spiritual philosopher

Life, Understanding, Singing, Reading

“Should there be sacrifice, as always in the mature corporation, it is not suffered by those who agree to it.”

John Kenneth Galbraith book The New Industrial State

Source: The New Industrial State (1967), Chapter XXII, Section 4, p. 262 (1985)

“They are entitled to their opinion, but they suffer from the notable disadvantage of being completely wrong.”

John Bercow (1963) British politician and Speaker of the House of Commons (born 1963)

Addressing the House of Commons shortly after announcing his resignation as speaker
2019
Source: https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/john-bercow-s-seething-contempt-for-brexiteers

“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, Pain, Children, Sadness

“I have been opposed to vivisection for many years; not just because it is unbelievably barbaric and unforgivably cruel but also because it is worthless, wasteful, inaccurate, uninformative and dangerously misleading. The cruelty is indefensible and an affront to human dignity, but in a desperate attempt to justify their evil practices many vivisectors still claim that what they do helps save human lives. They are lying. The truth is that animal experiments kill people and animal researchers are responsible for the deaths of thousands of men, women and children every year; they are also directly responsible for a massive amount of human suffering.”

Vernon Coleman (1946) British doctor

"Why Animal Experiments Must Stop" (1991), in animalliberationfront.com http://www.animalliberationfront.com/Philosophy/Animal%20Testing/Vivisection/waems.htm.

Death, Women, Men, Children

“When buddhas look at samsara with the eyes of their omniscience, they do not see it as an enjoyable place. They are acutely aware of the sufferings of beings... and they see how senseless are the pointless, temporary goals that beings try so hard to attain.”

Dilgo Khyentse (1910–1991) Bhutanese Buddhist Lama

The Heart of Compassion (2006)

“Science has always suffered pressure from the powerful and its results are very disturbing; and the times when scientists have backed down, it has not been good for humanity.”

Ricardo Galvão (1947) Brazilian physicist and engineer

Science, Time

“The misery and suffering that abound everywhere, reveal clearly that you have wantonly rejected the lessons of life. Foolish man! Your repeated, wanton neglect to learn the lessons of centuries has wrecked your boasted civilisation upon the rocks of hatred and greed.”

Swami Sivananda (1887–1963) Indian philosopher

Sayings of Swami Sivanada (1947)

Life, Learning

“Our difficulty accepting impermanence is the heart of human suffering.”

Susan Cain book Bittersweet

Bittersweet, Chapter 8 at p. 181

Heart

“Do not allow your dreams of a beautiful world to lure you away from the claims of men who suffer here and now.”

Karl Popper book Conjectures and Refutations

Source: Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge (1963), p. 485

Men, World, Beauty, Dreams

“Imagine a permanent, shivering gloom, and never a moment without hunger, thirst and exhaustion. Imagine the constant fear of suffering illness or injury.”

Alastair Reynolds (1966) British novelist and astronomer

“You’ve just described nine-tenths of human history.”
Open and Shut (p. 265)
Short fiction, Belladonna Nights and Other Stories (2021)

Hunger, Fear, Imagination

“The smallest evil that is inflicted on us seems to us a monstrous and horrible injustice. On the contrary, we are willing to consider the evils of others' light and to excuse and mitigate the injustices suffered by them.”

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

Light, Evil

“Where there is Mary, there is Jesus and where there is Jesus there is joy, Mary is not only the Mother of God, she is the Mother of all of us who seek her constant intercession, we entrust our suffering to her.”

John Barwa (1955) Roman Catholic archbishop

Jubilee for the Marian Shrine in Orissa. Christians: "We entrust our suffering to Mary" http://www.fides.org/en/news/65678-ASIA_INDIA_Jubilee_for_the_Marian_Shrine_in_Orissa_Christians_We_entrust_our_suffering_to_Mary (6 March 2019)

God, Joy

“Mary places herself between her Son and mankind in the reality of our hardships and sufferings. She places herself in the middle - she becomes a mediator not as a stranger, but in her role as true mother, aware that as such she makes present to her Son the needs of mankind.”

José Luis Mollaghan (1946) Argentinian archbishop

Argentinean bishop: Rosary helps Catholics face difficulties of life https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/21189/argentinean-bishop-rosary-helps-catholics-face-difficulties-of-life (18 October 2010)

Reality

“I'd rather go to prison for the third time rather than let the current government [of Yulia Tymoshenko] assume power. It would cost the country less for one person to suffer than for the whole country to suffer.”

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

2009
Source: [2020-10-27, Янукович пожалел, что в третий раз не сел в тюрьму - Украина - TCH.ua, https://tsn.ua/ru/ukrayina/yanukovich-pozhalel-chto-v-tretii-raz-ne-sel-v-tyurmu.html, https://web.archive.org/web/20201027065326/https://tsn.ua/ru/ukrayina/yanukovich-pozhalel-chto-v-tretii-raz-ne-sel-v-tyurmu.html, 2020-10-27, 2022-06-12, web.archive.org]

Time, Personality, Country

“Not a single local person has suffered from any violent action.”

Vasily Nebenzya (1962) Russian diplomat

Claimed about the Bucha massacre, quoted in "Ukraine Bucha: Satellite images show bodies left in the open" https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/20044917.ukraine-bucha-satellite-images-show-bodies-left-open/, Herald Scotland, 5 April 2022

Personality

“There is nothing more demanding than the taste for mediocrity. Beneath its ever moderate appearance there is nothing more intemperate; nothing surer in its instinct; nothing more pitiless in its refusals. It suffers no greatness, shows beauty no mercy.”

Henri de Lubac (1896–1991) Jesuit theologian and cardinal

Source: Paradoxes of Faith (1987), Ch. X. "Man", p. 137

Beauty, Appearance

“We must make people aware of the misfortunes they suffer and of their chances to destroy them. We must awaken sympathy in everybody for the misfortunes of others and a warm desire for the good of all people.”

Errico Malatesta (1853–1932) Italian anarchist

Source: An Anarchist Programme (1920)

People, Chance

“Coming to terms with the suffering of others has never meant looking away from our own.”

Cherríe Moraga (1952) American writer

1983
This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, Fourth Edition (2015)

“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)

Pain, Forgetting

“As long as people are still talking, there is a glimmer of hope. War does not bring any solutions, only destruction, suffering and lack of peace.”

Mieczysław Mokrzycki (1961) Polish bishop

Ukraine: Church continues to help refugees and pray for peace https://acninternational.org/ukraine-church-continues-to-help-refugees-and-pray-for-peace/ (24 February 2022)

War, People, Peace, Hope

“The logic of the sanctions is arguably to starve the people and reduce the political consensus for the authorities and thereby overthrow the government. But as a Pastor, I see that people suffer from poverty and it doesn't seem to me that discussions about democracy are a priority for them.”

Joseph Tobji (1971) archeparch of Maronite Catholic Archeparchy of Aleppo

Archbishop Tobji of Aleppo after the presidential election: "Sanctions cause hunger and do not lead to more democracy" http://www.fides.org/en/news/70210-ASIA_SYRIA_Archbishop_Tobji_of_Aleppo_after_the_presidential_election_Sanctions_cause_hunger_and_do_not_lead_to_more_democracy (28 May 2021)

People, Democracy

“There are more things, likely to frighten us than there are to crush us; we suffer more often in imagination than in reality.”

Seneca the Younger book Epistulae morales ad Lucilium

Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter XIII: On Groundless Fears
Original: (la) Plura sunt, quae nos terrent quam quae premunt, et saepius opinione quam re laboramus.

Imagination, Reality

“There are no limitations to excuses. It may give a moment relieve. But, anything outside that is the long-lasting sufferings of what was neglected to underscore before the excuses. So, we make excuses to justify our failures. Because, failure and success are the future life of a doer.”

Idegu Ojonugwa Shadrach (1995)

Life, Failure, Success, Future

“Well, well, there are moments when I am wrung by enthusiasm or madness or prophecy like a Greek oracle on a tripod... Everyone suffers here either from fever, or hallucination, or madness, we understand each other like members of the same family.”

Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)

Quote in his letter to brother Theo, from Arles, France, 3 Febr. 1889; as quoted in Vincent van Gogh, edited by Alfred H. Barr; Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1935 https://www.moma.org/documents/moma_catalogue_1996_300061887.pdf, (letter 576), p 25 <br class="br">1880s, 1889

Family, Understanding, Madness

“In life, anyone who suffers suffering, in which the psychic state is involved, needs help and respect: be kind, delicate and moderate.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Nella vita, chiunque subisca sofferenze, in cui venga coinvolto lo stato psichico, ha bisogno di aiuto e rispetto: siate gentili, delicati e moderati.
Source: prevale.net

Life, Help

“" The gods have hear my cry.., And my blood shall end your suffering. For ever i carry the full weight of your lost. " -Abah Sule 联”

Engr.Abah Sule

God, Cry

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

ratikanta1968

Love, Pain, Pleasure, Heart

“When I was suffocated by my own suffering, I could only cry out with the breath left in my chest, "Stab me with your anger! But don't kill me with your love!"”

Titon Rahmawan

Love, Cry, Anger

“Often we want to stop thinking, even for a moment. To forget all the difficulties and burdens of life, the sorrows and sufferings. It is much easier to just say, not to worry about anything. But this is the essence of our human consciousness, man's greatest enemy is himself.”

Titon Rahmawan

Life, Thinking, Forgetting

“Is gratitude necessarily born as our response to the suffering of others?”

Titon Rahmawan

Gratitude

“What is this nonsense? We're not here at the moment. At least, we don't expect to be. Trying to get out of what people think of themselves. All this futility. The earth we walk on is slowly burning.

Is that the kind of statement you want to write? You shout? Will it end up in vain? The rebellion of desire. There is no sanctity or half-truth.

All that nonsense is fake. The hatred that people cultivate from their own disbelief. A conflict of the soul, an inner struggle, or whatever you want to call it. Where will they go? After years and centuries of waiting. Will we find our way or will we forever be lost?

For too long we have slept in the illusion of this madness. This rage. Things we don't believe to be true. Everyone looking for their own truth. Ignorant and indifferent to each other.

Do we feel lucky with our ignorance? With all our naivety? Accepting everything without being able to fight back? Have we been blinded by pseudo-reality, which does not touch our very essence?

What kind of truth are we still debating? What authenticity are we still looking for? Those of you who feel poor, who are still confined by suffering. Arise, live, lift your own burdens! If you have not been able to lighten the burden of others.”

Titon Rahmawan

People, Truth, Way, Feeling

This quote waiting for review.

“Can someone suffering from hunger or abuse really be encouraged to read a book?”

José Baroja (1983) Chilean author and editor

Source: https://www.peruinforma.com/entrevista-cultural-al-escritor-chileno-jose-baroja/

Hunger, Books, Reading

“Who suffers or has suffered has a different heart. A heart capable of helping and loving.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Chi soffre o ha sofferto ha un cuore diverso. Un cuore capace di aiutare ed amare.
Source: prevale.net

Love, Help, Heart

“Every mistake made or impropriety suffered, are effective teachings of life.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Ogni errore commesso o scorrettezza subìta, sono efficaci insegnamenti di vita.
Source: prevale.net

Life

“In life, it's important to avoid making mistakes, for our and for the people we love. Often, of our mistakes, suffer the consequences they too.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Nella vita, è importante evitare di commettere errori, per noi e per le persone che amiamo. Spesso, dei nostri errori, ne subiscono le conseguenze anche loro.
Source: prevale.net

Love, Life, People

“Mums are special beings. They are capable of rejoicing, but also to suffer in silence so as not to trouble the serenity of who they love most: own children. Always take care of them: mum is only one.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Le mamme sono esseri speciali. Sono capaci di gioire, ma anche di soffrire in silenzio per non turbare la serenità di chi amano di più: i propri figli. Abbiatene sempre cura: la mamma è solo una.
Source: prevale.net

Love, Children, Silence

“False do-goodism is the hypocrisy of appearing good to act bad, without suffering the consequences.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Il falso buonismo è l'ipocrisia di apparire buoni per agire da cattivi, senza subirne le conseguenze.
Source: prevale.net

Appearance, Falseness

“At the workplace, being betrayed by someone you trusted is one of the most disgusting acts you can suffer.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Sul posto di lavoro, essere traditi da qualcuno di cui ti fidavi è uno degli atti più disgustosi che si possano subire.
Source: prevale.net

This quote waiting for review.

“Collective tragedies are not always consolidated through silence or denial. Sometimes they take hold in a far subtler way: when we learn to live with them without allowing them to significantly alter our priorities, our forms of attention, or our sensitivity to the suffering of others.”

José Baroja (1983) Chilean author and editor

Source: Cuando una ciudad aprende a convivir con sus desaparecidos Mundial, memoria y desaparición en la Guadalajara de 2026. (2026, 10 junio). Zona Docs. https://www.zonadocs.mx/2026/06/10/cuando-una-ciudad-aprende-a-convivir-con-sus-desaparecidos-mundial-memoria-y-desaparicion-en-la-guadalajara-de-2026/

Way, Silence, Learning

“Turning difficulties into allies by devising solutions it means not to suffer events, but to manage them, training mental flexibility and concentrating only on what you can control.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Trasformare le difficoltà in alleate ideando soluzioni significa non subire gli eventi, ma gestirli, allenando la flessibilità mentale e concentrandosi solo su ciò che si può controllare.
Source: prevale.net

Training

Quotes about suffering page 36

Quotes about suffering
page 36