“As my sufferings mounted I soon realized that there were two ways in which I could respond to my situation -- either to react with bitterness or seek to transform the suffering into a creative force. I decided to follow the latter course.”

— Martin Luther King, Jr.

Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Martin Luther King, Jr. 658

American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Ci… 1929–1968

Skye Jethani

The Divine Commodity: Discovering A Faith Beyond Consumer Christianity (2009, Zondervan)

“It is nonsense, Mr. Burke, to suppose I can live. My sufferings are great but they will soon be over.”

Horatio Nelson (1758–1805) Royal Navy Admiral

citation needed
The Battle of Trafalgar (1805)

“The most of my sufferings and sorrows were occasioned by my own unwillingness to be nothing, which I am, and by struggling to be something.”

Edward Payson (1783–1827) American religious leader

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 335.

“My final belief is suffering. And I begin to believe that I do not suffer.”

Antonio Porchia (1885–1968) Italian Argentinian poet

Mi última creencia es sufrir. Y comienzo a creer que no sufro.
Voces (1943)

“Either I had to get my admission in grade ninth again or else I had to do some work-around to seek for a ‘jugaad’ (hack). I chose the latter.”

Gaurav Sharma (author) (1992) Author and novelist

Gone are the Days (2016)

“I think of my suffering, of the problem of my suffering. What am I suffering from? From knowledge — is it going to destroy me? What am I suffering from? From sexuality — is it going to destroy me?”

Thomas Mann (1875–1955) German novelist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate

Letter from Naples, Italy to Otto Grautoff (1896); as quoted in A Gorgon's Mask: The Mother in Thomas Mann's Fiction (2005) by Lewis A. Lawson, p. 34
Context: I think of my suffering, of the problem of my suffering. What am I suffering from? From knowledge — is it going to destroy me? What am I suffering from? From sexuality — is it going to destroy me? How I hate it, this knowledge which forces even art to join it! How I hate it, this sensuality, which claims everything fine and good is its consequence and effect. Alas, it is the poison that lurks in everything fine and good! — How am I to free myself of knowledge? By religion? How am I to free myself of sexuality? By eating rice?