“Distraction is the only thing that consoles us for miseries and yet it is itself the greatest of our miseries.”

“It is a consolation to the wretched to have companions in misery.”

“Friends love misery… our misery is what endears us to our friends.”

“Lord, heap miseries upon us yet entwine our arts with laughters low.”

“There is little consolation in the fact that millions of people are unhappier than we are. Why should other people's misery make us happier or more content?”

“There was a time when only wise books were read
helping us to bear our pain and misery.”

“Since trifles make the sum of human things,
And half our misery from our foibles springs.”

“The greatest gift is the passion for reading.
It is cheap, it consoles, it distracts, it excites,
it gives you knowledge of the world and experience of a wide kind.
It is a moral illumination.”

“I stumbled out into the courtyard to try to flee my misery, but of course we can never flee the misery that is within us.”

“The most detestable wickedness, the most horrid cruelties, and the greatest miseries, that have afflicted the human race have had their origin in this thing called revelation, or revealed religion.”