World Suffering Quotes

• In a word, man must create his own essence: it is in throwing himself into the world, suffering there, struggling there, that he gradually defines himself.

  Jean-Paul Sartre

  Struggle, Men, Essence

  Jean-Paul Sartre, Michel Rybalka, Michel Contat, Richard C. McCleary (1985). “The Writings of Jean-Paul Sartre”, p.157, Northwestern University Press

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• To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Bullying, Suffering

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• The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love and to be greater than our suffering.

  Ben Okri

  Love, Inspirational, Sympathy

  "Ben Okri salutes Jeremy Corbyn in poetry with A New Dream of Politics" by Maev Kennedy, www.theguardian.com. October 12, 2015.

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• The truth that many people never understand until it is too late is that the more you try to avoid suffering, the more you suffer.

  Thomas Merton

  Suffering Pain, People, Trying

  Thomas Merton (1998). “The Seven Storey Mountain”, p.116, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Don't look forward to the day you stop suffering, because when it comes you'll know you're dead.

  Tennessee Williams

  Funny, Humor, History

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• Suffering by nature or chance never seems so painful as suffering inflicted on us by the arbitrary will of another.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Depression, Pain, Arbitrary

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  Ever occur to you why some of us can be this much concerned with animals' suffering? Because government is not. Why not? Animals don't vote.

  Paul Harvey

  Animal, Equality, Government

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  The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of those depths.

  Copyright: Elisabeth Kubler-Ross Family Limited Partnership.

  Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

  Inspirational, Beauty, Beautiful

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• Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.

  Helen Keller

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  Helen Keller (1957). “The Open Door”, Garden City, N.Y. : Doubleday

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• People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.

  Nhat Hanh

  Moving On, Depression, Letting Go

  Joseph Emet, Thich Nhat Hanh (2015). “Mindfulness Meditation: For a Quieter Mind, Self-Awareness and Healthy Living”, p.125, Souvenir Press

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• Suffering becomes beautiful when anyone bears great calamities with cheerfulness, not through insensibility but through greatness of mind.

  Aristotle

  Beauty, Beautiful, Gratitude

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  Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.

  Khalil Gibran

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

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• When suffering knocks at your door and you say there is no seat for him, he tells you not to worry because he has brought his own stool.

  Chinua Achebe

  Doors, Thought Provoking, Worry

  FaceBook post by Chinua Achebe from Jul 26, 2011

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• We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival.

  Winston Churchill

  Inspirational, Kindness, Cancer

  Winston Churchill (2012). “Churchill: The Power of Words”, p.356, Da Capo Press

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• Most people get a fair amount of fun out of their lives, but on balance life is suffering, and only the very young or the very foolish imagine otherwise.

  George Orwell

  Fun, People, Balance

  George Orwell, Keith Gessen (2009). “All Art Is Propaganda: Critical Essays”, p.331, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Cursing is invoking the assistance of a spirit to help you inflict suffering. Swearing on the other hand, is invoking, only the witness of a spirit to an statement you wish to make.

  John Ruskin

  Funny, Hands, Wish

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• On September 11 2001, America felt its vulnerability even to threats that gather on the other side of the Earth. We resolved then, and we are resolved today, to confront every threat from any source that could bring sudden terror and suffering to America.

  George W. Bush

  America, September 11, Earth

  Address to the Nation on the Threat of Iraq, delivered 7 October 2002, Cincinnati Union Terminal, Cincinnati, Ohio

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• Nature shows that with the growth of intelligence comes increased capacity for pain, and it is only with the highest degree of intelligence that suffering reaches its supreme point.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Pain, Intelligent, Growth

  Arthur Schopenhauer (2016). “The Wisdom of Life”, p.30, Cosimo Classics

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• If we are suffering illness, poverty, or misfortune, we think we shall be satisfied on the day it ceases. But there too, we know it is false; so soon as one has got used to not suffering one wants something else.

  Simone Weil

  Thinking, Want Something, Poverty

  Simone Weil (1998). “Simone Weil”

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• Suffering is one of life's great teachers.

  Bryant H. McGill

  Teacher, Literature, Suffering

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• It is not true that suffering ennobles the character; happiness does that sometimes, but suffering for the most part, makes men petty and vindictive.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Inspirational, Life, Character

  Moon and Sixpence (1919) ch. 17

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• Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dream.

  Paulo Coelho

  Motivational, Change, Encouraging

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• Seeing much, suffering much, and studying much, are the three pillars of learning.

  Benjamin Disraeli

  Education, Wisdom, Learning

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• You can hold yourself back from the sufferings of the world, that is something you are free to do and it accords with your nature, but perhaps this very holding back is the one suffering you could avoid.

  Franz Kafka

  Depression, Health, Holding Back

  Franz Kafka, Malcolm Pasley (1973). “Shorter works [of] Franz Kafka”, Harvill Secker

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• Suffering is the positive element in this world, indeed it is the only link between this world and the positive.

  Franz Kafka

  Positive, Depression, Elements

  Franz Kafka (1991). “The Blue Octavo Notebooks”

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