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“Much has been dissected from among the myths to explore the significance of the mortal endurance and experience of pain. Pain, we are told, purifies the body, expands the mind, prepares the novice for the tests of life and therefore for initiation into the clan, the sect, the tribe, the gang, the squadron, the priesthood, the academy, the coven, or the board. It is clear that such suppositions regarding physical or emotional pain are true; little more need be said on such matters.”

Malcolm Azania book The Coyote Kings of the Space-Age Bachelor Pad

Appendix (p. 527)
The Coyote Kings of the Space-Age Bachelor Pad (2004)

“I was long ago undeceived that protesting
could bring redress. But whoever suffers
is bound to complain if the pain is great.
So I did! But the cry that could offer
relief is itself feeble and exhausted,
and it is not through weeping that pain abates.”

Luís de Camões (1524–1580) Portuguese poet

Já me desenganei que de queixar-me
não se alcança remédio; mas, quem pena,
forçado lhe é gritar, se a dor é grande.
Gritarei; mas é débil e pequena
a voz para poder desabafar-me,
porque nem com gritar a dor se abrande.
"Vinde cá, meu tão certo secretário", trans. by Landeg White in The Collected Lyric Poems of Luis de Camoes (2016), p. 297
Lyric poetry, Hymns (canções)

“You talk of Paine with more respect than he deserves: He is utterly incapable of comprehending his subject. He has not even a moderate portion of learning of any kind. He has learnd the instrumental part of literature, a style, and a method of disposing his ideas, without having ever made a previous preparation of Study or thinking—for the use of it. ... [Paine] possesses nothing more than what a man whose audacity makes him careless of logical consequences, and his total want of honour and morality makes indifferent as to political consequences, may very easily write. They indeed who seriously write upon a principle of levelling ought to be answerd by the Magistrate—and not by the Speculatist.”

Edmund Burke (1729–1797) Anglo-Irish statesman

Letter to William Cusac Smith (22 July 1791), quoted in Alfred Cobban and Robert A. Smith (eds.), The Correspondence of Edmund Burke, Volume VI: July 1789–December 1791 (1967), pp. 303-304
1790s

“The world would be a happier place than it is if acquisitiveness were always stronger than rivalry. But in fact, a great many men will cheerfully face impoverishment if they can thereby secure complete ruin for their rivals. Hence the present level of taxation.
Vanity is a motive of immense potency. Anyone who has much to do with children knows how they are constantly performing some antic, and saying "Look at me." "Look at me" is one of the most fundamental desires of the human heart. It can take innumerable forms, from buffoonery to the pursuit of posthumous fame.”

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist

1950s, What Desires Are Politically Important? (1950)

“The mind of the nation was acted upon by a higher stimulus than what the consideration of persons could inspire, and sought a higher conquest than could be produced by the downfall of an enemy.”

Thomas Paine book Rights of Man

Part 1.3 Rights of Man
1790s, Rights of Man, Part I (1791)

“The sense of unhappiness is so much easier to convey than that of happiness. In misery we seem aware of our own existence, even though it may be in the form of a monstrous egotism: this pain of mine is individual, this nerve that winces belong to me and to no other. But happiness annihilates us: we lose our identity.”

Graham Greene book The End of the Affair

Bk. 2, ch. 1
The End of the Affair (1951)

“There probably is no more important quest in all science than the attempt to understand those very particular events in evolution by which brains worked out that special trick that has enabled them to add to the cosmic scheme of things: color, sound, pain, pleasure, and all the other facets of mental experience.”

Roger Wolcott Sperry (1913–1994) American neuroscientist

"Evolution of the Human Brain" (1964), p. 3

“Character is much easier kept than recovered.”

Thomas Paine (1737–1809) English and American political activist

“Time makes more converts than reason.”

Thomas Paine book Common Sense

Source: Common Sense

“It is an extraordinary act of courage,' said Tulas Shorn, 'to come to know a stranger's pain.”

Steven Erikson (1959) Canadian fantasy author

“I wake up thinking of yesterday. The joy is in remembering; the pain is in knowing it was yesterday.”

David Levithan book Every Day

Source: Every Day

“A falcon who chases a warlike crane can only hope for a life of pain.”

Gabriel García Márquez book Chronicle of a Death Foretold

Source: Chronicle of a Death Foretold

“the pain we suffer is a way to make us appreciate what comes next.”

Mitch Albom (1958) American author

Source: The First Phone Call from Heaven

“Why do we have such a finite capacity for pleasure but an infinite one for pain?”

Marian Keyes (1963) Irish writer

Source: The Other Side of the Story

“Pain reaches the heart with electrical speed, but truth moves to the heart as slowly as a glacier.”

Barbara Kingsolver Animal Dreams

Source: Animal Dreams

“There are ships sailing to many ports, but not a single one goes where life is not painful.”

Fernando Pessoa book The Book of Disquiet

Source: The Book of Disquiet

“Literature is that which he can not read without pain, without choking on truth.”

Roland Barthes (1915–1980) French philosopher, critic and literary theorist

“If my art has nothing to do with people's pain and sorrow, what is 'art' for?”

Ai Weiwei (1957) Chinese concept artist

“He read it for the same reason an animal tears at a wounded foot: to hurt the pain.”

Nathanael West book Miss Lonelyhearts

Source: Miss Lonelyhearts

“every pleasure's got an edge of pain, pay your ticket and don't complain”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist