I knew that suffering did not enoble; it degraded. It made men selfish, petty and suspicious. It absorbed them in small things...it made them less than men; and I wrote ferociously that we learn resignation not by our own suffering, but by the suffering of others.
W. Somerset Maugham
Related We learn resignation not by our own suffering, but by the suffering of others. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It is not true that suffering ennobles the character; happiness does that sometimes, but suffering... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It is not true that suffering ennobles the character; happiness does that sometimes, but suffering, ... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It is not true that suffering ennobles the character; happiness does that sometimes, but suffering f... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you; you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for. BOB MARLEY It's a rare and precious thing to be close to suffering because our society - in many ways - tel... SHARON SALZBERG Men are not suffering from the lack of good literature, good art, good theatre, good music, but from... HENRY MILLER […] Everyone tries to make his life a work of art. We want love to last and we know that it does n... ALBERT CAMUS I do not want to learn things that is made by others i want others to learn things that is made by m... BHAVYA GUPTA One does not love a place the less for having suffered in it, unless it has been all suffering, noth... JANE AUSTEN Was it not enough punishment and suffering in history that we were uprooted and made helpless slaves... ROBERT MUGABE Was it not enough punishment and suffering in history that we were uprooted and made helpless slaves... ROBERT MUGABE Destiny is something men select; women achieve it only by default or stupendous suffering. HARRIET ROSENSTEIN The doctrine of original sin claims that all men sinned in Adam; but whether they did or whether it ... WALTER KAUFMANN [W]e need not become fixated upon our own suffering, whatever its origin. We offer it up, thus parti... JEAN-YVES LELOUP All suffering is caused by ignorance. People inflict pain on others in the selfish pursuit of their ... DALAI LAMA XIV Thirdly, even if we assume that the world is governed by purpose, we need only add that this purpose... WALTER KAUFMANN We are all going, I thought, and it applies to turtles and turtlenecks, Alaska the girl and Alaska t... JOHN GREEN To endure the cross is not a tragedy; it is the suffering which is the fruit of an exclusive allegia... DIETRICH BONHOEFFER It is not suffering as such that is most deeply feared but suffering that degrades. SUSAN SONTAG It amazes me that people can ignore the suffering of others, especially if it is staring them in the... CRISTABEL MICHAELS You know that your happiness and suffering depend on the happiness and suffering of others. That ins... THICH NHAT HANH Most wretched men are cradled to poetry by wrong: they learn in suffering what they teach in song CATULLUS Most wretched men are cradled to poetry by wrong: they learn in suffering what they teach in song CATULLUS Whether it's a Christian or a non-Christian, there's nothing like suffering to show us how small, ne... TULLIAN TCHIVIDJIAN Affliction equips the suffering to empathize with others in anguish and not only does it strengthen ... DONNA LYNN HOPE Pain and evil confront us as a surd. Suffering, our own and that of others, is an experience through... KALLISTOS WARE The Buddha said that suffering was caused by desire, we'd learned, and that the cessation of desire ... JOHN GREEN For it was authority that turned men suspicious and stern-faced. Authority and responsibility which ... CLIFFORD D. SIMAK She enjoyed her own pain by this egoism of suffering, if I may so express it. This aggravation of su... FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY Without pain,there would be no suffering,without suffering we would never learn from our mistakes.To... ANGELINA JOLIE Few men looked on her without becoming, in a certain fashion, her lovers. But it was the kind of lov... C.S. LEWIS Without pain, there would be no suffering, without suffering we would never learn from our mistakes.... ANGELINA JOLIE It's at the borders of pain and suffering that the men are separated from the boys. EMIL ZATOPEK Stay away from drugs. They're not worth it. I've tried, but there's none of them that... RANDY NEWMAN Sometimes I wonder how much of our suffering we allow or impose on ourselves simply in search of our... DARRELL CALKINS You can turn every ugly and damaging drama into a genuine blessing by seeing it differently. No one ... DONNA GODDARD To choose a hardship for ourselves is our only defense against that hardship. This is what is meant ... CESARE PAVESE Without suffering, there's no happiness. So we shouldn't discriminate against the mud. We have to le... THICH NHAT HANH Men weren't really the enemy -- they were fellow victims suffering from an outmoded masculine mystiq... BETTY FRIEDAN Judge men not by their opinions, but by what their opinions have made of them. GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG It is by suffering that human beings become angels. VICTOR HUGO Too much reason limits man to the physical world and blinds his imagination to the greater things th... JOHN KRAMER We can create a Heaven on Earth by being empathetic towards the suffering of others as well as by un... LATIKA TEOTIA Contrary to what we may have been taught to think, unnecessary and unchosen suffering wounds us but ... BELL HOOKS The greatest miracle is to be alive. We can put an end to our suffering just by realizing that our s... THICH NHAT HANH Nine-tenths of our suffering is caused by others not thinking so much of us as we think they ought. MARY LYON We are healed of a suffering only by experiencing it in full. MARCEL PROUST Men weren't really the enemy - they were fellow victims suffering from an outmoded masculine mys... BETTY FRIEDAN No healthy Christian ever chooses suffering; he chooses God's will, as Jesus did, whether it means s... OSWALD CHAMBERS For me, I am driven by two main philosophies: know more today about the world than I knew yesterday ... NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON We cannot buy it. We are too poor. Then men who have made the law have taken our own drink from us, ... NEIL M. GUNN Our students are suffering not because they are Muslims but because of the image created by the medi... JAVED AKHTAR I believe there is a theory that men and women emerge finer and stronger after suffering, and that t... DAPHNE DU MAURIER Let us not underestimate how hard it is to be compassionate. Compassion is hard because it requires ... HENRI J.M. NOUWEN Don’t throw away your suffering. Touch your suffering. Face it directly, and your joy will become ... THICH NHAT HANH Not all men (and especially the wisest) share the opinion that it is bad for women to be educated. B... CHRISTINE DE PIZAN — This world is full of trouble, umfundisi. — Who knows it better? — Yet you believ... ALAN PATON Evil is neither suffering nor sin; it is both at the same time, it is something common to them both.... SIMONE WEIL It is a glorious thing to be indifferent to suffering, but only to one's own suffering. ROBERT LYND It is a glorious thing to be indifferent to suffering, but only to one's own suffering ROBERT LYND Veronika had noticed that a lot of people she knew would talk about the horros in other people's liv... PAULO COELHO Our vision is so limited we can hardly imagine a love that does not show itself in protection from s... ELISABETH ELLIOT To conquer, you must endure not just your own suffering but the suffering of others. Indifference is... RICK YANCEY Mental illness leaves a huge legacy, not just for the person suffering it but for those around them. LYSETTE ANTHONY Without out suffering, our work would just be social work, very good and helpful, but it would not b... MOTHER THERESA Every suffering is caused by a thought,what we need to do is stop thinking of that thought to elimin... PATTY MEDINA I hear the birds singing. Listen. I hear them in their cage. The others-all our kind who know of her... ANNE RICE Life ceases to be so oppressive: we are free to give our own lives meaning and purpose, free to rede... WALTER KAUFMANN I've found men are less likely to let petty things annoy them. MARILYN MONROE I am not worthy of my suffering. A great sentence. It suggests not only that suffering is the basis ... MILAN KUNDERA When we direct our attention toward our suffering, we see our potential for happiness. We see the na... THICH NHAT HANH Suffering is not good for the soul, unless it teaches you to stop suffering JANE ROBERTS To stand on the brink of what is coming, feeling eager, optimistic anticipation—with no feeli... ASK AND IT IS GIVEN It is not actual suffering but the taste of better things which excites people to revolt. ERIC HOFFER We are healed of a suffering only by experiencing it to the full. MARCEL PROUST We are healed of a suffering only by expressing it to the full. MARCEL PROUST When I see somebody 'suffering for their art', it%uFFFDs usually a case of them not knowing where th... HUGH MACLEOD I was raised by muses. Women who had men in awe of them and who wrote them movies and wrote them mus... LOU DOILLON I lay it down as a fact that if all men knew what others say of them, there would not be four friend... BLAISE PASCAL Or maybe they just accept that it's wrong in God's eyes, although not in their own, and they'll worr... CRAIG GROESCHEL I am not saying that factory farming is the same as the Holocaust or the slave trade, but it's c... PETER SINGER It is a glorious thing to be indifferent to suffering, but only to one's own suffering. ROBERT STAUGHTON LYND Doesn't it seem that it is always by chance that these things happen, or is it because of the genero... DAVID GIANADDA To be grounded in an attitude of compassion is to be capable of receiving and welcoming the sufferin... JEAN-YVES LELOUP Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And no heart has ever... PAULO COELHO We are healed from suffering only by experiencing it to the full. MARCEL PROUST I say that I found peace. I do not say that I was not lonely. I was--terribly. I do not say that I d... ELISABETH ELLIOT The problem of evil assumes the existence of a world-purpose. What, we are really asking, is the pur... W. T. STACE It is not actual suffering but a taste of better things which excites people to revolt. ERIC HOFFER There’s this human capacity for joy and endurance, even when things are at their worst. A joy that... ELIZABETH GILBERT Suffering is not objective. It depends largely on the way you perceive. There are things that c... THICH NHAT HANH I say unto you that suffering is not holding you, you are holding suffering.... BHAGWAN SHREE RAJNEESH What really raises one's indignation against suffering is not suffering intrinsically, but the sense... FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE It is my duty to voice the suffering of men, the never-ending sufferings heaped mountain-high. KATHE KOLLWITZ To kill yourself for earning a salary is not worth it. NARGIS FAKHRI We are not here to triumph by fighting, by strata gem, or by resistance, not to fight with beasts as... TS (THOMAS STEARNS) ELIOT We cannot have it all. We must live with our limitations. We cannot hold onto life with higher estee... KILROY J. OLDSTER Do you not think that there are things which you cannot understand, and yet which are; that some peo... BRAM STOKER Human suffering anywhere concerns men and women everywhere. ELIE WIESEL
More W. Somerset Maugham
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He lives by make-believe. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM I do not confer praise or blame: I accept. I am the measure of all things. I am the centre of the wo... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM I daresay one profits more by the mistakes one makes off one's own bat than by doing the right thing... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM He had heard people speak contemptuously of money: he wondered if they had ever tried to do without ... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Follow your inclinations with due regard to the policeman round the corner. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM D'you call life a bad job? Never! We've had our ups and downs, we've had our struggles, we've always... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Art is merely the refuge which the ingenious have invented, when they were supplied with food and wo... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM People ask for criticism, but they only want praise. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM When you have loved as she has loved, you grow old beautifully. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM We do not write because we want to; we write because we have to. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The common idea that success spoils people by making them vain, egotistic, and self-complacent is er... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM She had a pretty gift for quotation, which is a serviceable substitute for wit. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It was such a lovely day I thought it a pity to get up. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It is a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Dying is a very dull, dreary affair. And my advice to you is to have nothing whatever to do with it. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Nothing in the world is permanent, and we're foolish when we ask anything to last, but surely we're ... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Old age has its pleasures, which, though different, are not less than the pleasures of youth. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The complete life, the perfect pattern, includes old age as well as youth and maturity. The beauty o... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Old age is ready to undertake tasks that youth shirked because they would take too long. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM What makes old age hard to bear is not the failing of one's faculties, mental and physical, but the ... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM When I was young I was amazed at Plutarch's statement that the elder Cato began at the age of eighty... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The common idea that success spoils people by making them vain, egotistic, and self-complacent is er... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who has lost it. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Charm and nothing but charm at last grows a little tiresome. It's a relief then to deal with a man w... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM As if a woman ever loved a man for his virtue. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Life isn't long enough for love and art. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The most useful thing about a principle is that it can always be sacrificed to expediency. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM When things are at their worst I find something always happens. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM When I read a book I seem to read it with my eyes only, but now and then I come across a passage, pe... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM There's always one who loves and one who lets himself be loved. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM There was an immeasurable distance between the quick and the dead: they did not seem to belong to th... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The rain fell alike upon the just and upon the unjust, and for nothing was there a why and a wherefo... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The important thing was to love rather than to be loved. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Money is like a sixth sense without which you cannot make a complete use of the other five. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Men seek but one thing in life - their pleasure. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Life wouldn't be worth living if I worried over the future as well as the present. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It's asking a great deal that things should appeal to your reason as well as your sense of the aesth... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It is cruel to discover one's mediocrity only when it is too late. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it; but the young know the... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM You Europeans know nothing about America. Because we amass large fortunes you think we care for noth... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM We didn't think much in the air corps of a fellow who wangled a cushy job out of his C.O. by butteri... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM