Quotes

C.G. Jung photo

“The growth of the mind is the widening of the range of consciousness, and … each step forward has been a most painful and laborious achievement.”

C.G. Jung (1875–1961) Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology

Source: Contributions to Analytical Psychology (1928), p. 340

Jim Butcher photo
Charlotte Brontë photo
Michael Elmore-Meegan photo
Jordan Peterson photo

“Evil – to exploit the knowledge of your own vulnerability by turning it on others' vulnerability in order to bring more pain into the world.”

Jordan Peterson (1962) Canadian clinical psychologist, cultural critic, and professor of psychology

Other

Masiela Lusha photo

“If I could I would kiss his wrists.
If I had half the courage to face his pain.”

Masiela Lusha (1985) Albanian actress, writer, author

"A Man of Forty" http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-man-of-forty/
Drinking the Moon (2006)

Sri Chinmoy photo
Deepak Chopra photo

“Buddha didn’t teach that life hurts because of pain; it hurts because the cause of suffering hasn’t been examined.”

Deepak Chopra (1946) Indian-American physician, public speaker and writer

The Book of Secrets: Unlocking the Hidden Dimensions of Your Life (2004)

“What causes us the most misery and pain… has nothing to do with the sort of information made accessible by computers.”

Neil Postman (1931–2003) American writer and academic

Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business (1985)
Context: What causes us the most misery and pain... has nothing to do with the sort of information made accessible by computers. The computer and its information cannot answer any of the fundamental questions we need to address to make our lives more meaningful and humane. The computer cannot provide an organizing moral framework. It cannot tell us what questions are worth asking. It cannot provide a means of understanding why we are here or why we fight each other or why decency eludes us so often, especially when we need it the most. The computer is... a magnificent toy that distracts us from facing what we most need to confront — spiritual emptiness, knowledge of ourselves, usable conceptions of the past and future.

Nikos Kazantzakis photo

“The essence of our God is STRUGGLE. Pain, joy, and hope unfold and labor within this struggle, world without end.”

The Saviors of God (1923)
Context: Pain is not the only essence of our God, nor is hope in a future life or a life on this earth, neither joy nor victory. Every religion that holds up to worship one of these primordial aspects of God narrows our hearts and our minds.
The essence of our God is STRUGGLE. Pain, joy, and hope unfold and labor within this struggle, world without end.

Eleanor Roosevelt photo

“It takes courage to love, but pain through love is the purifying fire which those who love generously know.”

My Day (1935–1962)
Context: It takes courage to love, but pain through love is the purifying fire which those who love generously know. We all know people who are so much afraid of pain that they shut themselves up like clams in a shell and, giving out nothing, receive nothing and therefore shrink until life is a mere living death. (1 April 1939)

Epictetus photo

“A Philosopher's school is a Surgery: pain, not pleasure, you should have felt therein. For on entering none of you is whole.”

Epictetus (50–138) philosopher from Ancient Greece

Golden Sayings of Epictetus
Context: A Philosopher's school is a Surgery: pain, not pleasure, you should have felt therein. For on entering none of you is whole. One has a shoulder out of joint, another an abscess: a third suffers from an issue, a forth pains in the head. And am I then to sit down and treat you to pretty sentiments and empty fluourishes, so that you may applaud me and depart, with neither shoulder, nor head, nor issue, nor abscess a whit the better for your visit? Is it then for this that young men are to quit their homes, and leave parents, friends, kinsmen and substance to mouth out Bravo to your empty phrases! (121).

William Morris photo

“It may be yet the Gods will have me glad!
Yet, Love, I would that thee and pain I had!”

William Morris (1834–1896) author, designer, and craftsman

"The Death of Paris".
The Earthly Paradise (1868-70)
Context: Forgetfulness of grief I yet may gain;
In some wise may come ending to my pain;
It may be yet the Gods will have me glad!
Yet, Love, I would that thee and pain I had!

Thomas Edison photo

“Many a person who could not comprehend Rousseau, and would be puzzled by Montesquieu, could understand Paine as an open book.”

Thomas Edison (1847–1931) American inventor and businessman

The Philosophy of Paine (1925)
Context: Many a person who could not comprehend Rousseau, and would be puzzled by Montesquieu, could understand Paine as an open book. He wrote with a clarity, a sharpness of outline and exactness of speech that even a schoolboy should be able to grasp. There is nothing false, little that is subtle, and an impressive lack of the negative in Paine. He literally cried to his reader for a comprehending hour, and then filled that hour with such sagacious reasoning as we find surpassed nowhere else in American letters — seldom in any school of writing.

Matthew Arnold photo

“How thick the bursts come crowding through the leaves!
Again — thou hearest?
Eternal passion!
Eternal pain!”

Matthew Arnold (1822–1888) English poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools

"Philomela" (1853), st. 3

Alfred, Lord Tennyson photo

“What use to brood? This life of mingled pains
And joys to me,
Despite of every Faith and Creed, remains
The Mystery.”

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) British poet laureate

To Mary Boyle, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Thucydides photo

“So little pains do the vulgar take in the investigation of truth, accepting readily the first story that comes to hand.”

Variant translation: "...the search for truth strains the patience of most people, who would rather believe the first things that come to hand." Translation by Paul Woodruff.
Book I, 1.20-[3]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book I

Isaac Watts photo

“There is a land of pure delight,
Where saints immortal reign;
Infinite day excludes the night,
And pleasures banish pain.”

Isaac Watts (1674–1748) English hymnwriter, theologian and logician

Hymn 66, Hymns and Spiritual Songs, Book II.
Attributed from postum publications, Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1773)

Derren Brown photo

“A good communicator affects our physiology. The power of voice can entrance us – even induce or remove pain.”

Derren Brown (1971) British illusionist

TV Series and Specials (Includes DVDs), Mind Control (1999–2000) or Inside Your Mind on DVD