Quotes

Robert Jordan photo

“Rage:
Sing, Goddess, Achilles' rage,
Black and murderous, that cost the Greeks
Incalculable pain.”

Stanley Lombardo (1943) Philosopher, Classicist

Book I, opening lines
Translations, Iliad (1997)

James A. Garfield photo

“Oh Swaim, there is a pain here. Swaim, can't you stop this? Oh, oh, Swaim!”

James A. Garfield (1831–1881) American politician, 20th President of the United States (in office in 1881)

Reportedly his last words. As quoted in "The Last Hours" https://books.google.com/books?id=UzEYAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA573&dq=%22swaim+there+is+a+pain%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Kb4GVcaIAcjDggSYiYOoCQ&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22swaim%20there%20is%20a%20pain%22&f=false, Life of President Garfield: The Complete Record of a Wonderful Career (1881), by William Ralston Balch, p. 573
1880s
Context: [To his chief of staff, David G. Swaim] Oh Swaim, there is a pain here. Swaim, can't you stop this? Oh, oh, Swaim!

Aurelius Augustinus photo

“Until the end of the world, when pain will pass away, this man groans and cries to God”

Aurelius Augustinus (354–430) early Christian theologian and philosopher

Source: On the Mystical Body of Christ, p.423
Context: Christ’s whole body groans in pain. Until the end of the world, when pain will pass away, this man groans and cries to God. And each one of us has part in the cry of that whole body. Thou didst cry out in thy day, and thy days have passed away; another took thy place and cried out in his day. Thou here, he there, and another there. The body of Christ ceases not to cry out all the day, one member replacing the other whose voice is hushed. Thus there is but one man who reaches unto the end of time, and those that cry are always His members.

Sophia Loren photo

“I've never tried to block out the memories of the past, even though some are painful.”

Sophia Loren (1934) Italian actress

As quoted in Valentines & Vitriol (1977) by Rex Reed
Context: I've never tried to block out the memories of the past, even though some are painful. I don't understand people who hide from their past. Everything you live through helps to make you the person you are now.

Albert Einstein photo

“Everything that men do or think concerns the satisfaction of the needs they feel or the escape from pain.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

Wording in Ideas and Opinions: Everything that the human race has done and thought is concerned with the satisfaction of deeply felt needs and the assuagement of pain. One has to keep this constantly in mind if one wishes to understand spiritual movements and their development. Feeling and longing are the motive force behind all human endeavor and human creation, in however exalted a guise the latter may present themselves to us.
1930s, Religion and Science (1930)
Context: Everything that men do or think concerns the satisfaction of the needs they feel or the escape from pain. This must be kept in mind when we seek to understand spiritual or intellectual movements and the way in which they develop. For feelings and longings are the motive forces of all human striving and productivity—however nobly these latter may display themselves to us.

Mikhail Gorbachev photo

“A period of transition to a new quality in all spheres of society's life is accompanied by painful phenomena.”

Mikhail Gorbachev (1931) General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

Nobel Address (1991)
Context: A period of transition to a new quality in all spheres of society's life is accompanied by painful phenomena. When we were initiating perestroika we failed to properly assess and foresee everything. Our society turned out to be hard to move off the ground, not ready for major changes which affect people's vital interests and make them leave behind everything to which they had become accustomed over many years. In the beginning we imprudently generated great expectations, without taking into account the fact that it takes time for people to realize that all have to live and work differently, to stop expecting that new life would be given from above.

Aeschylus photo

“Justice turns the scale
For those to whom through pain
At last comes wisdom's gain.”

Source: Oresteia (458 BC), Agamemnon, lines 250–251 (tr. E. H. Plumptre)

Leo Tolstoy photo

“I cannot recall those years without horror, loathing, and heart-rending pain.”

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian writer

Pt. I, ch. 2
Confession (1882)
Context: I cannot recall those years without horror, loathing, and heart-rending pain. I killed people in war, challenged men to duels with the purpose of killing them, and lost at cards; I squandered the fruits of the peasants' toil and then had them executed; I was a fornicator and a cheat. Lying, stealing, promiscuity of every kind, drunkenness, violence, murder — there was not a crime I did not commit... Thus I lived for ten years.

“We have become accustomed to living our life with joy amidst pain and challenges”

Dana Reeve (1961–2006) Actress, singer, activist

Access Hollywood Interview (May 2005)

“Appeals to justice or fairness are almost always stories that hide or protect unacknowledged hurts or pains.”

Ken McLeod (1948) Canadian lama

Fairness and Justice http://musingsbyken.blogspot.com/2009/06/fairness-and-justice.html. Musings Blog http://musingsbyken.blogspot.com. (2009-06-29). (Topic: Life)

Angelus Silesius photo

“He has not lived in vain
who learns to be unruffled
by loss, by gain,
by, joy, by pain.”

Angelus Silesius (1624–1677) German writer

The Cherubinic Wanderer

Halldór Laxness photo

“Yes, it is a painful lot to be a poet and to love both God and man by the farthest northern seas!”

Halldór Laxness (1902–1998) Icelandic author

Heimsljós (World Light) (1940), Book One: The Revelation of the Deity

Matthew Henry photo

“So great was the extremity of his pain and anguish that he did not only sigh but roar.”

Matthew Henry (1662–1714) Theologician from Wales

Job 3.
Commentaries

T. B. Joshua photo

“You will begin to succeed with your life when the pains and problems of others matter to you.”

T. B. Joshua (1963) Nigerian Christian leader

In an interview with The News Magazine, Nigeria, on his charitable activities - "Why I Cater For The Poor" http://www.docstoc.com/docs/10442557/TB-Joshua-Interview---Why-I-Cater-For-The-Poor (December 17 2007)

“Grief restrains grief as dams torrential rain
And time grows fertile with extended pain”

J. V. Cunningham (1911–1985) American writer

'Exclusion of Rhyme' Alan Swallow Denver 1942
Epigrams

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow photo
Demi Lovato photo

“So young when the pain had begun
Now forever afraid of being loved.”

Demi Lovato (1992) American singer, songwriter, actress, and author

For The Love Of A Daughter
Lyrics, Unbroken (2011)

Brandon Boyd photo

“It pains me to believe that you have never stepped out of the skin you live with.”

Brandon Boyd (1976) American rock singer, writer and visual artist

Lyrics, A Crow Left of the Murder... (2004)

Teal Swan photo