“If there is meaning in life at all, then there must be meaning in suffering.”

“A person's creed – my life must be filled with a worthy meaning, and this is above all.”

Zafar Mirzo (1972)

“In some ways suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning, such as the meaning of a sacrifice.”

Viktor E. Frankl book Man's Search for Meaning

“The Most difficult thing but an essential one – is to love Life, to love it even while one suffers, because Life is all, Life is God, and to love Life means to love God.”

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian writer

“To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering.”

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist

“Etymologically, 'patient' means sufferer.”

Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American writer and filmmaker, professor, and activist

“Suffering is admittedly one of the central problems of human existence; but this is because we have a suspicion that it is all for nothing. If we had a certainty about meaning, the suffering would be bearable. With no certainty of meaning, even comfort begins to feel futile.”

Colin Wilson (1931–2013) author

“The central theme of existentialism: to live is to suffer, to survive is to find meaning in the suffering.”

Gordon W. Allport (1897–1967) American psychologist

“Holistic does not mean doing all things, but bringing all of yourself to all of the sufferer, and him bringing all of himself to you.”

John Diamond (doctor) (1934) Australian doctor

“As for me, I am mean: that means that I need the suffering of others to exist. A flame. A flame in their hearts. When I am all alone, I am extinguished.”

Jean Paul Sartre No Exit