“Pain will force even the truthful to speak falsely.”
Publilio Siro Latin writer
Maxim 232
Sentences, The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, a Roman Slave
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Quotes
“Beauty can pierce one like pain.”
Thomas Mann (1875–1955) German novelist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate
Buddenbrooks [Buddenbrooks: Verfall einer Familie, Roman], Pt 11, Ch. 2
“Pain is the only thing that people will never deny.”
Jordan Peterson (1962) Canadian clinical psychologist, cultural critic, and professor of psychology
Other
“I never tire of reading Tom Paine.”
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States
As quoted in A Literary History of the American People (1931) by Charles Angoff, p. 270
Posthumous attributions
“This writing wasn't painful. It was like being high.”
William McKeen (1954) American academic
Source: Outlaw Journalist (2008), Chapter 11, Making A Beast Of Himself, p. 166
“The two foes of human happiness are pain and boredom.”
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German philosopher
Der allgemeine Ueberblick zeigt uns, als die beiden Feinde des menschlichen Glückes, den Schmerz und die Langeweile.
Personality; or, What a Man Is
Essays
“Is there evil but on earth? or pain in every peopled sphere?”
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) British poet laureate
Source: Locksley Hall Sixty Years After (1886), Line 197
“But is the anatomy of man not a more painful science still?”
Adolphe Quetelet (1796–1874) Belgian astronomer, mathematician, statistician and sociologist
Preface of M. Quetelet
A Treatise on Man and the Development of His Faculties (1842)
Context: But is the anatomy of man not a more painful science still?—that science which leads us to dip our hands into the blood of our fellow-beings to pry with impassible curiosity into parts and organs which once palpitated with life? And yet who dreams this day of raising his voice against the study? Who does not applaud, on the contrary, the numerous advantages which it has conferred on humanity? The time is come for studying the moral anatomy of also, and for uncovering its most afflicting aspects, with the view of providing remedies.
“878. It's more paine to doe nothing then something.”
George Herbert (1593–1633) Welsh-born English poet, orator and Anglican priest
Jacula Prudentum (1651)
“Even in Death they had a thing in common, Pain.”
Arin Paul (1980) Indian film director
On Ritwik Ghatak & Guru Dutt <br class="br"> WBRi Article http://www.washingtonbanglaradio.com/content/62861211-un-common-connection-ritwik-ghatak-guru-dutt-wbri-feature (2011)
“Guilt is perhaps the most painful companion of death.”
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (1926–2004) American psychiatrist
Source: On Death and Dying (1969), Ch. 9
“Nostalgia is a fruit with the pain of distance in its pit.”
Giannina Braschi (1953) Puerto Rican writer
Assault on Time, 1981.
“Pain he endures, death he awaits.”
Seneca the Younger book Epistulae morales ad Lucilium
Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter XCVIII: On the Fickleness of Fortune
“Often behind a great man there is great pain.”
Menotti Lerro (1980) Italian poet
Spesso dietro un grande uomo c’è una grande sofferenza.
Bob Torres American podcaster
Source: Making a Killing: The Political Economy of Animal Rights (2007), p. 25
Frederick Buechner (1926) Poet, novelist, short story writer, theologian
Source: Now and Then: A Memoir of Vocation (1983)
Jimmy Carter (1924) American politician, 39th president of the United States (in office from 1977 to 1981)
Source: Sources of Strength: Meditations on Scripture for a Living Faith