Human Suffering Quotes

• We are free, but not to be evil, not to be indifferent to human suffering, not to profit from the people, from the work created and sustained through their spirit of political association, while refusing to contribute to the political state that we profit from.

  Jose Marti

  People, Evil, Political

  "Martí : Thoughts/Pensamientos" edited by Carlos Ripoll, 1994.

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• An institution or reform movement that is not selfish, must originate in the recognition of some evil that is adding to the sum of human suffering, or diminishing the sum of happiness.

  Clara Barton

  Selfish, Evil, Suffering

  Clara Barton (1899). “The Red Cross in peace and war”

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• Human suffering anywhere concerns men and women everywhere.

  Elie Wiesel

  Men, Suffering, Concern

  Elie Wiesel (2011). “From the Kingdom of Memory: Reminiscences”, p.171, Schocken

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• Righteous is the one who was able to demonstrate compassion in face of human suffering.

  Aleksander Kwasniewski

  Compassion, Suffering, Able

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• The more I think about the human suffering in our world and my desire to offer a healing response, the more I realize how crucial it is not to allow myself to become paralyzed by feelings of helplessness and guilt. More important than ever is to be very faithful to my vocation to do well the few things I am called to do and hold on to the joy and peace they bring me. I must resist the temptation to let the forces of darkness pull me into despair and make me one more of their many victims.

  Henri Nouwen

  Healing, Thinking, Our World

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• If there is meaning in life at all, then there must be meaning in suffering.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Suffering, Meaning Of Life, Mans Search For Meaning

  Viktor E. Frankl (2006). “Man's Search for Meaning”, p.73, Beacon Press

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• A great part of human suffering has its root in the nature of man, and not in that of his institutions.

  James Russell Lowell

  Men, Roots, Suffering

  James Russell Lowell (1897). “Literary and political addresses”

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• The new technologies that we see coming will have major benefits that will greatly alleviate human suffering.

  Ralph Merkle

  Technology, Suffering, Benefits

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• Hezbollah's contempt for human suffering is total, as it showed once again this morning when its rockets murdered two Israeli Arab children in Nazareth.

  Tom Lantos

  Morning, Children, Two

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• We have listened here to the delegates who have recalled the terrible human suffering, and the great material destruction of the late war in the Pacific. It is with feelings of sorrow that we recall the part played in that catastrophic human experience by the old Japan.

  Shigeru Yoshida

  War, Japan, Feelings

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• What matters in literature in the end is surely the idiosyncratic, the individual, the flavor or the color of a particular human suffering.

  Harold Bloom

  What Matters, Color, Hygiene

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• And Christ, through His own salvific suffering, is very much present in every human suffering, and can act from within that suffering by the powers of His Spirit of truth, His consoling spirit.

  Pope John Paul II

  Catholic, Suffering, Spirit

  Pope John Paul II (2007). “Pope John Paul II: A Reader”

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• The most wonderful study of mankind is man. Relieving human suffering and diffusing universal knowledge is humanitarian.

  Daniel D. Palmer

  Men, Humanity, Suffering

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• All human suffering concerns each human being.

  Vaclav Havel

  Suffering, Concern, Humans

  "Upheaval in the East: Havel's Vision; Excerpts From Speech By the Czech President". New Year's Day address, as translated by The New York Times, January 02, 1990.

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• Whatever the capacity for human suffering, the church has a greater capacity for healing and wholeness.

  Bill Hybels

  Healing, Suffering, Church

  Twitter post from Oct 27, 2010

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• It is spiritual poverty, not material lack, that lies at the core of all human suffering.

  Paramahansa Yogananda

  Spiritual, Lying, Suffering

  Paramahansa Yogananda (1990). “The Essence of Self-Realization: The Wisdom of Paramhansa Yogananda”, Crystal Clarity Pubs

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• Possession of material riches, without inner peace, is like dying of thirst while bathing in a lake. If material poverty is to be avoided, spiritual poverty is to be abhorred. For it is spiritual poverty, not material lack, that lies at the core of all human suffering.

  Paramahansa Yogananda

  Spiritual, Lying, Lakes

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• War, poverty, corruption, hunger, misery, human suffering will not change in a monetary system. That is, there will be very little significant change. It’s going to take the redesign of our culture and values.

  Jacque Fresco

  War, Significant Change, Suffering

  "Zeitgeist: Addendum". Documentary, History, War, www.imdb.com. 2008.

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• All the advantages that man has gained from his ever-deepening understanding of the natural world that surrounds him, his technological, chemical and medical progress, all of which should seem to alleviate human suffering... tends instead to favor humanity's destruction.

  Konrad Lorenz

  Men, Humanity, Understanding

  "Civilized Man's Eight Deadly Sins". Book by Konrad Lorenz, 1973.

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• As the medieval mind blamed God for human suffering, so the modern mind blames 'the system' for the industrial blight and plague of technology.

  Jennifer Stone

  Technology, Mind, Suffering

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• Holiness is religious principle put into motion. It is the love of God sent forth into circulation, on the feet, and with the hands of love to men. It is faith gone to work. It is charity coined into actions, and devotion breathing benedictions on human suffering, while it goes up in intercession to the Father of all piety.

  Frederic Dan Huntington

  Religious, Father, Men

  Frederic Dan Huntington (1862). “Sermons for the People”, p.99

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• The universe appears to me like an immense, inexorable torture-garden…Passions, greed, hatred, and lies; social institutions, justice, love, glory, heroism, and religion: these are its monstrous flowers and its hideous instruments of eternal human suffering.

  Octave Mirbeau

  Lying, Flower, Passion

  Octave Mirbeau (2016). “Torture Garden”, p.149, Library of Alexandria

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• What is the greatest deficiency among human Chrsitians? They have an inadequate view of human suffering.

  Helmut Thielicke

  Views, Suffering, Deficiency

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• I don't feel there is any spiritual or metaphysical justification for turning our backs on human suffering.

  Marianne Williamson

  Spiritual, Suffering, Metaphysical

  "Holistic Politics: A Conversation with Marianne Williamson". Interview with Scott London, www.scottlondon.com. 1999.

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• Think of all the human suffering caused by the sad truth that beautiful sexy women or handsome Porsche-owning men often prove to have miserable genes for other traits

  Jared Diamond

  Love, Beautiful, Sexy

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