Quotes about suffering
page 36

Gregory Palamas photo

“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

“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)

Vera Stanley Alder photo
Volodymyr Viytyshyn photo

“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)

Geling Yan photo

“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.”

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)

Mario Aurelio Poli photo

“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)

William Ellery Channing photo

“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)

Layne Staley photo
Giovanni Morassutti photo
Bo Xilai photo

“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)

Alfred Clifton Hughes photo
Mirza Masroor Ahmad photo

“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
Source: Opening of Southall Mosque https://www.alislam.org/press-release/new-ahmadiyya-mosque-opened-in-southall/, 23rd February 2020.

Edison Rijna photo

“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.

Nicolas Chamfort photo

“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

Winston S. Churchill photo

“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

Jiddu Krishnamurti photo
John Kenneth Galbraith photo

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

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

John Bercow photo

“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

Dilgo Khyentse photo
Ricardo Galvão photo
Swami Sivananda photo
Karl Popper photo

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

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

Alastair Reynolds photo

“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)

Daniel Salamanca photo

“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)

“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)

Viktor Yanukovych photo

“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]

Vasily Nebenzya photo

“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

Errico Malatesta photo
Cherríe Moraga photo

“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)

Nguyễn Tấn Dũng photo

“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)

Mieczysław Mokrzycki photo

“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)

“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)

Seneca the Younger photo

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

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.

Idegu Ojonugwa Shadrach photo
Vincent Van Gogh photo

“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
1880s, 1889

Prevale photo

“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

This quote waiting for review.
José Baroja photo

“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/

Prevale photo

“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

Prevale photo

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

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

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

Prevale photo

“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

Prevale photo

“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

Prevale photo

“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

Prevale photo

“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