Suffering Quotes - Page 28

• We study play because life is crap. Life is crap, and it’s full of pain and suffering, and the only thing that makes it worth living — the only thing that makes it possible to get up in the morning and go on living — is play. Art and play.

  Brian Sutton-Smith

  Morning, Art, Pain

  "How Might Video Games Be Good for Us?" by Jane McGonigal, www.bigquestionsonline.com. October 15, 2012.

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• I learned that to humiliate another person is to make him suffer an unnecessarily cruel fate. Even as a boy, I defeated my opponents without dishonoring them.

  Nelson Mandela

  Fate, Boys, Opponents

  Nelson Mandela (2008). “Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela”, p.19, Hachette UK

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• Sometimes we are tempted to be that kind of Christian who keeps the Lord’s wounds at arm’s length. Yet Jesus wants us to touch human misery, to touch the suffering flesh of others. He hopes that we will stop looking for those personal or communal niches which shelter us from the maelstrom of human misfortune and instead enter into the reality of other people’s lives and know the power of tenderness. Whenever we do so, our lives become wonderfully complicated and we experience intensely what it is to be a people, to be part of a people.

  Pope Francis

  Christian, Jesus, Reality

  Pope Francis (2014). “The Joy of the Gospel”, p.76, BookBaby

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• If his suffering did not make Jesus give up on us, nothing will.

  Timothy Keller

  Jesus, Giving Up, Ifs

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• Most Americans are aware of the brutality and injustice used to maintain the excesses of their selfish consumer society and empire. Yet I suspect...they do not care. They don’t want to see what is done in their name. They do not want to look at the rows of flag-draped coffins, the horribly maimed bodies and faces of veterans, or the human suffering in the blighted and deserted former manufacturing centers. It is too upsetting. Government and corporate censorship is therefore welcomed and appreciated.

  Curtis White

  Selfish, Government, Names

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• Pity can be nearsighted and condescending; shared suffering can be dignifying and life-changing.

  Eugene H. Peterson

  Life Changing, Pity, Condescending

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• You will have found Christ when you are concerned with other people’s sufferings and not your own.

  Flannery O'Connor

  People, Christ, Found

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• That's what opium does to suffering: makes it of hypothetical interest only.

  Sebastian Faulks

  Doe, Interest, Opium

  Sebastian Faulks (2007). “Engleby: A Novel”, Doubleday Books

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• You can always wake up on the wrong side of the bed and boo-hiss everyone suffers. We can all be temperamental.

  John Lydon

  Sides, Bed, Wake Up

  "John Lydon: PiL lets me express proper emotions". Interview with Dorian Lynskey, www.theguardian.com. September 6, 2009.

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• Who can take away suffering without entering it?

  Henri Nouwen

  Entering

  Henri Nouwen (2013). “The Wounded Healer: Ministry in Contemporary Society”, p.72, Image

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• When we ignore the world outside the walls we suffer-as does it.

  Philip Yancey

  Wall, World, Doe

  Philip Yancey (2010). “What Good is God?: On the Road with Stories of Grace”, p.174, Hachette UK

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• On a small scale, person-to-person, Jesus encountered the kinds of suffering common to all of us. And how did he respond? Avoiding philosophical theories and theological lessons, he reached out with healing and compassion. He forgave sin, healed the afflicted, cast out evil, and even overcame death.

  Philip Yancey

  Jesus, Philosophical, Healing

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• In a contagious world,we learn to keep our distance. If we get too close to those who are suffering, we might get infected by their pain. It may not be convenient or comfortable. But only when you get close enough to catch their hurt will they be close enough to catch your love.

  John Ortberg

  Hurt, Pain, Distance

  John Ortberg (2001). “Love Beyond Reason: Moving God's Love from Your Head to Your Heart”, p.56, Harper Collins

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• One reason why we fail to hear God speak is that we are not attentive. We suffer from what might be called 'spiritual mindlessness.'

  John Ortberg

  Spiritual, Might, Reason Why

  John Ortberg (1997). “The Life You've Always Wanted: Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People”, p.136, Harper Collins

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• It is OK to be happy in life. Even through all the strife, maybe especially during times of great pain and suffering. We still have to be able to stay close to that joy because we can't save the world in a bad mood.

  Andrew W.K.

  Pain, Happy Life, Joy

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• What's important is how we use our time on this earth, not how conspicuously we give our money away. What's important is the energy and courage we are willing to expend reversing entropy, battling cynicism, suffering and challenging mediocre minds, staring down those who would trample our dreams, taking a stand for magic, and advancing the potential of the human race.

  Dan Pallotta

  Dream, Race, Giving

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• The truth is that when it comes to suffering, if we do not go to our graves in confusion, we will not go to our graves trusting. Explanations are a substitute for trust.

  Tullian Tchividjian

  Confusion, Truth Is, Graves

  "Where Is God in Our Suffering? Tullian Tchividjian's 'Glorious Ruin' Offers New Perspective". Interview with Stoyan Zaimov, www.christianpost.com. October 30, 2012.

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• A very wise dog woman once told me that dogs find owners, not the other way around. They pick you and they choose to stay with you. In that way, they are also giving you the end of their life. The deeper the bond, the harder it is to say good-bye. I know I'd rather have any amount of time with a dog I love and suffer the mourning than not have the time at all.

  Julie Klam

  Wise, Dog, Bye

  Julie Klam (2010). “You Had Me at Woof: How Dogs Taught Me the Secrets of Happiness”, p.67, Penguin

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• What if there are children who will suffer somehow because I failed to obey God? What if my cowardice costs even one child somewhere in the world his or her life?

  Richard Stearns

  Children, What If, Cost

  Richard Stearns (2009). “The Hole in Our Gospel: What does God expect of Us? The Answer that Changed my Life and Might Just Change the World”, p.49, Thomas Nelson Inc

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• The suffering caused by the terrorists is the real torture.

  Jean-Marie Le Pen

  Real, Torture, Terrorist

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• We have the sense that medical students come to medicine with a great capacity to understand the suffering of patients. And then by the end of the third year they completely lose that ability, partly because we teach them the specialized language of medicine.

  Abraham Verghese

  Years, Medicine, Students

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• I don't hold to the idea that God causes suffering and crisis. I just know that those things come along and God uses them. We think life should be a nice, clean ascending line. But inevitably something wanders onto the scene and creates havoc with the nice way we've arranged life to fall in place.

  Sue Monk Kidd

  Nice, Fall, Thinking

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• I think it's the pain and suffering that drive you to become an artist. The art itself should be the pain, sort of exorcising every demon and making you feel like you're a person that matters.

  Marilyn Manson

  Art, Pain, Thinking

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• Penning an advice column for the literary website The Rumpus, [Strayed] worked anonymously, using the pen name Sugar, replying to letters from readings suffering everything from loveless marriages to abusive, drug-addicted brothers to disfiguring illnesses. The result: intimate, in-depth essays that not only took the letter writer's life into account but also Strayed's. Collected in a book, they make for riveting, emotionally charged reading (translation: be prepared to bawl) that leaves you significantly wiser for the experience. . . . Moving. . . . compassionate.

  Leigh Newman

  Brother, Moving, Book

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• When a living system is suffering from ill health, the remedy is found by connecting with more of itself.

  Francisco Varela

  Ill Health, Found, Remedy

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