“Detested sport,
That owes its pleasures to another's pain.”
Of fox-hunting.
Source: The Task (1785), Book III, The Garden, Line 326
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Quotes
“My dead go on suffering in me the pain of living.”
Antonio Porchia (1885–1968) Italian Argentinian poet
Mis muertos siguen sufriendo el dolor de la vida en mí.
Voces (1943)
“Pain—one of the most pressing issues of out time.”
John Bonica (1917–1994) Anesthesiologist; pioneer in pain management
(1974) as quoted by Dennis C. Turk, Donald Meichenbaum, Myles Genest, Pain and Behavioral Medicine: A Cognitive-Behavioral Perspective (1983) p. 73
“It was as if I heard a painful sound saying: "This must be ended."”
Ba Jin (1904–2005) Chinese novelist
Preface to The Autumn in the Spring (May 1932)
Context: The unreasonable social system, the marriage without freedom, the yoke of traditional ideas, and the family autocracy, destroyed we don't know how many young souls. In my twenty eight years, I already had it accumulated so many, so many shadows. In that autumn smile, in that smiling which was the same as crying, I saw the young people's corpses in the whole past generation. It was as if I heard a painful sound saying: "This must be ended."
“What is so painful about that time is that nothing was disastrous.”
Doris Lessing book The Golden Notebook
Anna Wulf, in "Free Women: 1"
The Golden Notebook (1962)
Context: What is so painful about that time is that nothing was disastrous. It was all wrong, ugly, unhappy and coloured with cynicism, but nothing was tragic, there were no moments that could change anything or anybody. From time to time the emotional lightning flashed and showed a landscape of private misery, and then — we went on dancing. <!-- 128
“Marius said, "I see the cure is not worth the pain."”
Plutarch (46–127) ancient Greek historian and philosopher
Life of Caius Marius
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
“Happiness is the moment when one doesn't feel pain.”
Bobbejaan Schoepen (1925–2010) musician, performer
HUMO, (2005)
“It's not enough to trade a prison of powerlessness for the pain of an empty stomach.”
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
2012, Yangon University Speech (November 2012)
Context: It's not enough to trade a prison of powerlessness for the pain of an empty stomach. But history shows that governments of the people and by the people and for the people more powerful in delivering prosperity.
“As the thing more perfect is, the more it feels of pleasure and of pain.”
Dante Alighieri book La Divina Comedia
Source: The Divine Comedy (Božská komedie)
“I have a terrific pain in the back of my head.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) 32nd President of the United States
Last words spoken while having his portrait painted on April 12 1945 before losing consciousness and dying shortly after.
Disputed
“Suffering for another is one of the most painful ways to love!”
Valter Bitencourt Júnior (1994) Brazilian poet and writer
“Communism is the most painful path between capitalism and capitalism.”
Scott Adams (1957) cartoonist, writer
Dilbert https://dilbert.com/strip/1989-12-12, Tuesday December 12, 1989
“Pain and negative experiences are the most effective life lessons.”
Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer
Original: Il dolore e le esperienze negative sono le più efficaci lezioni di vita.
Source: prevale.net
Hermann Hesse book Gertrud
Source: Gertrude (1910), p. 236
Context: It was no different with my own life, and with Gertrude's and that of many others. Fate was not kind, life was capricious and terrible, and there was no good or reason in nature. But there is good and reason in us, in human beings, with whom fortune plays, and we can be stronger than nature and fate, if only for a few hours. And we can draw close to one another in times of need, understand and love one another, and live to comfort each other. And sometimes, when the black depths are silent, we can do even more. We can then be gods for moments, stretch out a commanding hand and create things which were not there before and which, when they are created, continue to live without us. Out of sounds, words, and other frail and worthless things, we can construct playthings — songs and poems full of meaning, consolation and goodness, more beautiful and enduring than the grim sport of fortune and destiny. We can keep the spirit of God in our hearts and, at times, when we are full of Him, He can appear in our eyes and our words, and also talk to others who do no know or do not wish to know Him. We cannot evade life's course, but we can school ourselves to be superior to fortune and also to look unflinchingly upon the most painful things.
“Nothing, they say is more certain than death, and nothing more uncertain than the time of dying”
Thomas Paine (1737–1809) English and American political activist
Susan Wiggs (1958) American writer
Source: Summer at Willow Lake
