The Quotes canon
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Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
William Shakespeare6 quotes
Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows. — William Shakespeare · 1616When sorrows come, they come not single spies,
But in battalions. — William Shakespeare · 1616It easeth some, though none it ever cur'd,
To think their dolour others have endur'd. — William Shakespeare · 1594Sorrow concealed, like an oven stopped,
Doth burn the heart to cinders where it is. — William Shakespeare · 1594Short time seems long in sorrow's sharp sustaining. — William Shakespeare · 1594For there was never yet philosopher
That could endure the toothache patiently. — William Shakespeare · 1600Marcel Proust2 quotes
We are healed of a suffering only by experiencing it to the full. — Marcel Proust · 1922Illness is the doctor to whom we pay most heed; to kindness, to knowledge, we make promise only; pain we obey. — Marcel Proust · 1922Aristotle1 quote
The prudent man aspires not to pleasure, but to the absence of pain. — Aristotle · 322 BCCharles Dickens1 quote
Suffering has been stronger than all other teaching… I have been bent and broken, but—I hope—into a better shape. — Charles Dickens · 1861Cicely Saunders1 quote
Suffering is only intolerable when nobody cares. — Cicely Saunders · 1960Dante Alighieri1 quote
There is no greater pain than to remember a happy time when one is in misery. — Dante Alighieri · 1321Derek Parfit1 quote
On all plausible theories, everyone’s well-being consists at least in part in being happy, and avoiding suffering. — Derek Parfit · 2011Ernest Hemingway1 quote
The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry. — Ernest Hemingway · 1929Gautama Buddha1 quote
Birth is suffering, aging is suffering, illness is suffering, death is suffering. — Gautama Buddha · 510 BCGeorge Eliot1 quote
Deep unspeakable suffering may well be called a baptism, a regeneration, the initiation into a new state. — George Eliot · 1859Henry James1 quote
Sorrow comes in great waves—no one can know that better than you—but it rolls over us, and though it may almost smother us it leaves us on the spot, and we know that if it is strong we are stronger, inasmuch as it passes and we remain. It wears us, uses us, but we wear it and use it in return; and it is blind, whereas we after a manner see. — Henry James · 1883Jesse1 quote
Life's hard. It's suppose to be. If we didn't suffer, we wouldn't learn a thing, you know? — Jesse · 2004Josephine Hart1 quote
Damaged people are dangerous. They know they can survive. — Josephine Hart · 1991Julian Barnes1 quote
I certainly believe we all suffer damage, one way or another. How could we not, except in a world of perfect parents, siblings, neighbours, companions? And then there is the question, on which so much depends, of how we react to the damage: whether we admit it or repress it, and how this affects our dealings with others. Some admit the damage, and try to mitigate it; some spend their lives trying to help others who are damaged; and then there are those whose main concern is to avoid further damage to themselves, at whatever cost. And those are the ones who are ruthless, and the ones to be careful of. — Julian Barnes · 2011Margaret Atwood1 quote
But who can remember pain, once it’s over? All that remains of it is a shadow, not in the mind even, in the flesh. Pain marks you, but too deep to see. Out of sight, out of mind. — Margaret Atwood · 1985R.E.M.1 quote
Everybody hurts sometimes
Everybody cries. — R.E.M. · 1992The Joker1 quote
I believe whatever doesn't kill you, simply makes you...stranger. — The Joker · 2008The Man in Black1 quote
Life is pain, highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something. — The Man in Black · 1987Viktor Frankl1 quote
But there was no need to be ashamed of tears, for tears bore witness that a man had the greatest of courage, the courage to suffer. — Viktor Frankl · 1946W. Somerset Maugham1 quote
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 · 1919