Painful Experiences Quotes

• There is only one thing more painful than learning from experience and that is not learning from experience.

  Archibald MacLeish

  Inspirational, Happiness, Being Happy

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• Getting over a painful experience is much like crossing monkey bars. You have to let go at some point in order to move forward.

  C. S. Lewis

  Inspirational, Change, Inspiring

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• We don't seek the painful experiences that hew our identities, but we seek our identities in the wake of painful experiences. We cannot bear a pointless torment, but we can endure great pain if we believe that it's purposeful. Ease makes less of an impression on us than struggle. We could have been ourselves without our delights, but not without the misfortunes that drive our search for meaning. 'Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities,' St. Paul wrote in Second Corinthians, 'for when I am weak, then I am strong.'

  Andrew Solomon

  Motivational, Strong, Pain

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• There is a saying in Tibetan, 'Tragedy should be utilized as a source of strength.' No matter what sort of difficulties, how painful experience is, if we lose our hope, that's our real disaster.

  Dalai Lama

  Inspirational, Life, Strength

  71 Copy quote

• Tragedy should be utilized as a source of strength.

  Dalai Lama

  Strength, Tragedy, Source

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• If we lose our hope, that's our real disaster!

  Dalai Lama

  Strength, Real, Tragedy

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• Painful experiences are not meant to linger. They are meant to teach us what they need to teach us, and then dissolve.

  Marianne Williamson

  Needs, Painful, Teach

  Marianne Williamson (2012). “A Course in Weight Loss: 21 Spiritual Lessons for Surrendering Your Weight Forever”, p.30, Hay House, Inc

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• As I look back at the entire tapestry of my life, I can see from the perspective of the present moment that every aspect of my life was necessary and perfect. Each step eventually led to a higher place, even though these steps often felt like obstacles or painful experiences.

  Wayne Dyer

  Spiritual, Perfect, Perspective

  36 Copy quote

• The universe is a soul making machine, and part of that process is learning, maturing, and growing through difficult and challenging and painful experiences. The point of our lives in this world isn't comfort, but training and preparation for eternity.

  Lee Strobel

  Challenges, Soul, Preparation

  Lee Strobel (2000). “The Case for Faith: A Journalist Investigates the Toughest Objections to Christianity”, p.41, Harper Collins

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• Any painful experience makes you see things differently. It also reminds you of the simple truths that we purposely forget every day or else we would never get out of bed.

  Amy Poehler

  Simple, Suffering, Bed

  Amy Poehler (2014). “Yes Please”, p.72, Pan Macmillan

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• We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly I have never yet engaged in a direct action movement that was 'well timed,' according to the timetable of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word 'Wait!' It rings in the ear of every Negro with a piercing familiarity. This 'wait' has almost always meant 'never.' We must come to see with the distinguished jurist of yesterday that 'justice too long delayed is justice denied.'

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Years, Direct Action, Yesterday

  Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘Letter From Birmingham Jail’, www.theatlantic.com. April 16, 1963.

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• Pleasant experiences make life delightful. Painful experiences lead to growth.

  Anthony de Mello

  Life, Pain, Growth

  Anthony De Mello (2011). “Awareness: Conversations with the Masters”, p.107, Image

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• But without painful experiences, we dont grow

  Betty Williams

  Painful, Without Pain, Grows

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• God intentionally allows you to go through painful experiences to equip you for ministry to others.

  Rick Warren

  Ministry, Painful

  "The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?". Book by Rick Warren, 2002.

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• You cannot make steel until you have made the iron white-hot in fire. It is not meant for harm. Trouble and disease have a lesson for us. Our painful experiences are not meant to destroy us, but to burn out our dross, to hurry us back Home. No one is more anxious for our release than God.

  Paramahansa Yogananda

  Home, Fire, Iron

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• To get to forgiveness, we first have to work through the painful experiences that require it.

  Christiane Northrup

  Firsts, Painful

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• Blisters are a painful experience, but if you get enough blisters in the same place, they will eventually produce a callus. That is what we call maturity.

  Harry Herbert Miller

  Pain, Maturity, Enough

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• We don't seek the painful experiences that hew our identities, but we seek our identities in the wake of painful experiences.

  Andrew Solomon

  Identity, Painful

  "How Do Our Worst Moments Shape Us?". "TED Radio Hour" with Guy Raz, andrewsolomon.com. August 01, 2014.

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• I've had some painful experiences in my life, but I feel like I'm trivializing them by using them for a scene in a movie. I don't want to do that. It just makes me feel kind of dirty for having done that.

  Christian Bale

  Dirty, Naughty, Done

  Interview with Todd Gilchrist, www.ign.com. October 15, 2004.

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• I reject karma and rebirth not only because I find them unintelligible, but because I believe they obscure and distort what the Buddha was trying to say. Rather than offering the balm of consolation, the Buddha encouraged us to peer deep and unflinchingly into the heart of the bewildering and painful experience that life can so often be.

  Stephen Batchelor

  Karma, Believe, Heart

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• 1992 was the worst year of my life, to watch my dad lose. It was a painful experience. Yet when I became president, it was so much easier to be president.

  George W. Bush

  Dad, Years, President

  Source: www.texasmonthly.com

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• I'M OFFENDED, because of the insulting comments I've seen that are not only insensitive but dismissive to the painful experiences of others.

  Benjamin Watson

  Racism, Insulting, Insensitive

  Benjamin Watson (2015). “Under Our Skin: Getting Real about Race. Getting Free from the Fears and Frustrations that Divide Us.”, p.15, NavPress

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• Our painful experiences strengthen us in becoming more empathetic, more caring, and deeper human beings. We grow in depth of understanding, with greater appreciation for the miracle of life.

  Alexandra Stoddard

  Appreciation, Healing, Caring

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• You as the press secretary have to protect the president's interests and the White House's interests more broadly. And a lot of people inside the White House, as you learned, sometimes with painful experience, have competing agendas, have differing points of view, have priorities they're trying to protect.

  Dee Dee Myers

  Views, White, People

  Source: www.nbcnews.com

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• By what sort of experience are we led to the conviction that spirit exists? On the whole, by searching, painful experience. The rose Religion grows on a thorn-bush, and we must not be afraid to have our fingers lacerated by the thorns if we would pluck the rose.

  Felix Adler

  Rose, Thorns, Spirit

  "Life and Destiny". Book by Felix Adler, 1903.

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