Quotes

Vālmīki photo

“It’s too cold. Away from the worlds, where a little pleasure costs a lot of pain. Don’t make trouble.”

Valmiki to Brahma who appeared before him. p. 5.
Ramayana

Trent Reznor photo

“I hurt myself today
To see if I still feel.
I focus on the pain,
the only thing that's real.”

Trent Reznor (1965) American musician

Hurt, from The Downward Spiral (1994).
Song lyrics

Preity Zinta photo
Horatio Nelson photo

“Duty is the great business of a sea officer; all private considerations must give way to it, however painful it may be.”

Horatio Nelson (1758–1805) Royal Navy Admiral

Letter to Frances Nisbet [citation needed]
1800s

Honoré de Balzac photo

“Many men are deeply moved by the mere semblance of suffering in a woman; they take the look of pain for a sign of constancy or of love.”

Il y a beaucoup d'hommes dont le cœur est puissamment ému par la seule apparence de la souffrance chez une femme: pour eux la douleur semble être une promesse de constance ou d'amour.
Source: A Woman of Thirty (1842), Ch. I: Early Mistakes.

Ludovico Ariosto photo

“He who grows old in love, besides all pain
Which waits such passion, well deserves a chain.”

A chi in amor s'invecchia, oltr'ogni pena,
Si convengono i ceppi e la catena.
Canto XXIV, stanza 2 (tr. W. S. Rose)
Orlando Furioso (1532)

Roberto Clemente photo

“I really don't know if I cried. If I did, it was tears not of pain, but of the sentiments my people are made of.”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

Addressing reporters at post-game press conference on Roberto Clemente Day, as quoted in "Roberto Clemente's a Man of 2 Lives ... and 2 Loves" https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=zbYcAAAAIBAJ&sjid=NWYEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2327%2C2876682 by the Associated Press, in The Sarasota Herald-Tribune (July 26, 1970)
Other, <big><big>1970s</big></big>, <big>1970</big>

Adelaide Anne Procter photo

“It quieted pain and sorrow,
Like love overcoming strife;
It seemed the harmonious echo
From our discordant life.”

Adelaide Anne Procter (1825–1864) English poet and songwriter

"A Lost Chord".
Legends and Lyrics: Second Series (1861)

Clive Staples Lewis photo

“We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be.”

Clive Staples Lewis (1898–1963) Christian apologist, novelist, and Medievalist

Letters of C. S. Lewis (29 April 1959), para. 1, p. 285 — as reported in The Quotable Lewis (1989), p. 469

Phil Ochs photo

“The painter paints his brushes black
Through the canvas runs a crack
Portrait of the pain never answers back.”

Phil Ochs (1940–1976) American protest singer and songwriter

"The Flower Lady" http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~trent/ochs/lyrics/flower-lady.html
Pleasures of the Harbor (1967)

Julian of Norwich photo

“Thus is that Blissful Sight end of all manner of pain to the loving soul, and the fulfilling of all manner of joy and bliss.”

Julian of Norwich (1342–1416) English theologian and anchoress

Variant translation to modern English: I am that which is highest, I am that which is lowest, I am that which is ALL.
The Sixteenth Revelation, Chapter 72
Context: Thus is that Blissful Sight end of all manner of pain to the loving soul, and the fulfilling of all manner of joy and bliss. And that shewed He in the high, marvellous words where He said: I IT AM that is highest; I IT AM that is lowest; I IT AM that is ALL.

Kuruvilla Pandikattu photo

“To find the joy of living/ Is to experience the joy of dying/ Where the pain of parting/ Lads to still deeper joy of becoming.”

Kuruvilla Pandikattu (1957) Indian philosopher

Joy: Share it! p. 100
Joy: Share it! (2018)

“When agony is not present, no matter how imminent it looms, painful change must come from outside. This is a truth.”

Sheri S. Tepper (1929–2016) American fiction writer

Source: The Fresco (2000), Chapter 20, p. 157

Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Marilyn Ferguson photo

“If we respond to the message of pain or disease, the demand for adaptation, we can break through to a new level of wellness.”

Marilyn Ferguson (1938–2008) American writer

The Aquarian Conspiracy (1980), Chapter Eight, Healing Ourselves

“Happy species endowed with infinite appreciation of pleasures and low sensitivity to pain would probably not survive the evolutionary battle.”

Amos Tversky (1937–1996) Israeli psychologist

attributed, but source not available.

Attila photo

“The greater your successes and victories, the more opposition your enemies will come your way, with painful and discouraging events.”

Attila (406–453) King of the Hunnic Empire

Turkish Wikipedia
https://quotestats.com/topic/attila-hun-quotes/

Frithjof Schuon photo

“First of all one has to answer the question of why the painful experiences that man must undergo are called "trials."”

Frithjof Schuon (1907–1998) Swiss philosopher

We would reply that these experiences are trials in relation to our faith, which indicates that with regard to troubling or painful experiences we have duties resulting from our human vocation; in other words, we must prove our faith in relation to God and in relation to ourselves. In relation to God, by our intelligence, our sense of the absolute, and thus our sense of relativities and proportions; and in relation to ourselves, by our character, our resignation to destiny, our gratitude. There are in fact two ways to overcome the traces that evil, or more precisely suffering, leaves in the soul: these are, firstly, our awareness of the Sovereign Good, which coincides with our hope to the extent that this awareness penetrates us; and secondly, our acceptance of what, in religious language, is called the "will of God"; and assuredly it is a great victory over oneself to accept a destiny because it is God's will and for no other reason.
[2003, Survey of Metaphysics and Esoterism, World Wisdom, 215, 978-0-94153227-3]
Spiritual life, Trials