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Suffering quotes

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“Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself.” Paulo Coelho, “The Alchemist” - 1988

“He who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears.” Michel de Montaigne, “The Essays of Michel de Montaigne” - 1580

“Stupidity and wisdom meet in the same centre of sentiment and resolution, in the suffering of human accidents.” Michel de Montaigne, “The Essays of Michel de Montaigne” - 1580

“To determine not to think of it was but to think of it still, to suffer from it still.” Marcel Proust, “Swann's Way” - 1913

“Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart.” Fyodor Dostoyevsky, “Crime and Punishment” - 1867

“To become the spectator of one's own life . . . is to escape the suffering of life.” Oscar Wilde, “The Picture of Dorian Gray” - 1890

“Ay me! sad hours seem long.” William Shakespeare, “Romeo and Juliet” - 1597

“We do not suffer by accident.” Jane Austen, “Pride and Prejudice” - 28 January 1813

“Keep your head clear and know how to suffer like a man. Or a fish, he thought.” Ernest Hemingway, “The Old Man and the Sea” - 1952

“He was too well accustomed to suffering, and had suffered too much where he was, to bewail the prospect of change very severely.” Charles Dickens, “Oliver Twist” - 1838

“Something more terrible than a hell where one suffers may be imagined, and that is a hell where one is bored.” Victor Hugo, “Les Misérables” - 1862

“They suffer, of course ... but then they live, they live a real life, not a fantastic one, for suffering is life. Without suffering what would be the pleasure of it?” Fyodor Dostoyevsky, “The Brothers Karamazov” - 1880

“And how are the other weak ones to blame, because they could not endure what the strong have endured?” Fyodor Dostoyevsky, “The Brothers Karamazov” - 1880

“What is the destiny of man, but to fill up the measure of his sufferings, and to drink his allotted cup of bitterness?” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, “The Sorrows of Young Werther” - 1774

“For who would dare to assert that eternal happiness can compensate for a single moment's human suffering?” Albert Camus, “The Plague” - 1947

“Was I sleeping, while the others suffered? Am I sleeping now? Tomorrow, when I wake, or think I do, what shall I say of today? That with Estragon my friend, at this place, until the fall of night, I waited for Godot?” Samuel Beckett, “Waiting for Godot” - 1953

“The apartment faces an alley and is entered by a fire escape, a structure whose name is a touch of accidental poetic truth, for all of these huge buildings are always burning with the slow and implacable fires of human desperation.” Tennessee Williams, “The Glass Menagerie” - 1944

“In short, my aunt stipulated, at one and the same time, that whoever came to see her must approve of her way of life, commiserate with her in her sufferings, and assure her of an ultimate recovery.” Marcel Proust, “Swann's Way” - 1913

“Well, quoth Friar John, as good sit still as rise up and fall; what cannot be cured must be endured.” François Rabelais, “Gargantua and Pantagruel” - 1534

Related topics

pain life fear man heart strength wisdom destiny happiness reality sadness pleasure stupidity weakness boredom sharing hell sleep intelligence change

Related authors

Fyodor Dostoyevsky (3)
Michel de Montaigne (2)
Marcel Proust (2)
William Shakespeare (1)
Jane Austen (1)
Oscar Wilde (1)
Ernest Hemingway (1)
Charles Dickens (1)
Victor Hugo (1)
Paulo Coelho (1)
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1)
Albert Camus (1)
Samuel Beckett (1)
Tennessee Williams (1)
François Rabelais (1)

Related sources

The Brothers Karamazov (2)
The Essays of Michel de Montaigne (2)
Swann's Way (2)
Romeo and Juliet (1)
Pride and Prejudice (1)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1)
The Old Man and the Sea (1)
Oliver Twist (1)
Les Misérables (1)
The Alchemist (1)
The Sorrows of Young Werther (1)
The Plague (1)
Waiting for Godot (1)
The Glass Menagerie (1)
Gargantua and Pantagruel (1)
Crime and Punishment (1)