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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• Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Change, Work, Struggle

  Martin Luther King (Jr.), Alex Ayres (1993). “The Wisdom of Martin Luther King, Jr”, Plume

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• Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.

  C. S. Lewis

  Depression, God, Christian

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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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• All the world is full of suffering. It is also full of overcoming.

  Helen Keller

  Inspirational, Motivational, Positive

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

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• If you suffer, thank God! It is a sure sign that you are alive.

  Elbert Hubbard

  Thank You, God, Suffering Pain

  Elbert Hubbard (1911). “A Thousand & One Epigrams: Selected from the Writings of Elbert Hubbard”

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• A man who fears suffering is already suffering from what he fears.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Fear, Happy Life, Men

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• Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet.

  Helen Keller

  Strength, Being Strong, Encouragement

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

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• The more you try to avoid suffering, the more you suffer, because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you, in proportion to your fear of being hurt. The one who does most to avoid suffering is, in the end, the one who suffers most.

  Thomas Merton

  Wisdom, Hurt, Insignificant Things

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

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• I can sympathize with everything, except suffering.

  Oscar Wilde

  Gray, Dorian Grey, I Can

  Oscar Wilde (2015). “The Picture of Dorian Gray (Diversion Classics)”, p.46, Diversion Books

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• Who will tell whether one happy moment of love or the joy of breathing or walking on a bright morning and smelling the fresh air, is not worth all the suffering and effort which life implies.

  Erich Fromm

  Love, Good Morning, Dream

  Erich Fromm (2013). “Sane Society Ils 252”, p.150, Routledge

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• When suffering comes, we yearn for some sign from God, forgetting we have just had one.

  Mignon McLaughlin

  Religion, Forget, Signs From God

  Mignon McLaughlin (2014). “Aperçus: The Aphorisms of Mignon McLaughlin”, p.93, BookBaby

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• Wisdom comes alone through suffering.

  Aeschylus

  Positive, Wisdom, Intelligence

  Aeschylus (1997). “Aeschylus, 1: The Oresteia (Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, The Eumenides)”, p.12, University of Pennsylvania Press

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• If we could read the secret history of our enemies.

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  Forgiveness, Peace, Anger

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1873). “Prose Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow”, p.452

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• The salvation of the world is in man's suffering.

  William Faulkner

  Men, Salvation, Suffering

  William Faulkner (1994). “Novels 1942-1954”

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  If we could read the secret history of our enemies we should find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  Life, Inspiring, Sympathy

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1872). “Outre Mer. Driftwood”

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• I do not believe that sheer suffering teaches. If suffering alone taught, all the world would be wise, since everyone suffers. To suffering must be added mourning, understanding, patience, love, openness and the willingness to remain vulnerable.

  Anne Morrow Lindbergh

  Love, Inspirational, Motivational

  Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1973). “Hour of Gold, Hour of Lead: Diaries and Letters of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1929-1932”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt P

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• Absence and death are the same - only that in death there is no suffering.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Missing You, Distance, Losing Someone

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• Fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself.

  Paulo Coelho

  Motivational, Fear, Heart

  FaceBook post by Paulo Coelho from Aug 31, 2014

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• I have suffered too much in this world not to hope for another.

  Jean-Jacques Rousseau

  Too Much, This World, Suffering

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• A cold in the head causes less suffering than an idea.

  Jules Renard

  Ideas, Causes, Cold

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• It is not suffering as such that is most deeply feared but suffering that degrades.

  Susan Sontag

  Aggravation, Suffering, Degrade

  "AIDS and Its Metaphors" by Susan Sontagm, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, ch. 4, (p. 125), 1989.

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  Truth is everybody is going to hurt you: you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for.

  Bob Marley

  Love, Inspirational, Life

  "Family Practice" by Leigh Roche, www.huffingtonpost.com. January 12, 2015.

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• Suffering is part of our training program for becoming wise.

  This is quotes copyright © By Pumpkin Limited

  Ram Dass

  Wise, Training, Becoming

  Ram Dass (2007). “One-Liners: A Mini-Manual for a Spiritual Life”, p.85, Harmony

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