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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

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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 I knew that suffering did not enoble; it degraded. It made men selfish, petty and suspicious. It abs...
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It is not suffering as such that is most deeply feared but suffering that degrades.
SUSAN SONTAG There is no true love save in suffering, and in this world we have to choose either love, which is s...
MIGUEL DE UNAMUNO There is no true love save in suffering, and in this world we have to choose either love, which is s...
MIGUEL DE UNAMUNO Suffering is the substance of life and the root of personality, for it is only suffering that makes ...
MIGUEL DE UNAMUNO In teaching your child, do not forget that suffering is good too. It makes a person rich in characte...
BETTY SMITH You know that your happiness and suffering depend on the happiness and suffering of others. That ins...
THICH NHAT HANH Don’t throw away your suffering. Touch your suffering. Face it directly, and your joy will become ...
THICH NHAT HANH One does not love a place the less for having suffered in it, unless it has been all suffering, noth...
JANE AUSTEN knowledge is the cause for happiness and suffering.
CLEMENT LAZAR The only important thing in a book is the meaning that it has for you.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM To endure the cross is not a tragedy; it is the suffering which is the fruit of an exclusive allegia...
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER The prime goal is to alleviate suffering, and not to prolong life. And if your treatment does not al...
CHRISTIAAN BARNARD The doctrine of original sin claims that all men sinned in Adam; but whether they did or whether it ...
WALTER KAUFMANN The two men had a conversation. Brief, cryptic, to the point. As though they had exchanged numbers a...
ARUNDHATI ROY When we direct our attention toward our suffering, we see our potential for happiness. We see the na...
THICH NHAT HANH The safest and most suitable form of penance seems to be that which causes pain in the flesh but doe...
SAINT IGNATIUS The truth that makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear.
HERBERT AGAR The truth that makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear.
ZYGMUNT BAUMAN I don't feel when I'm writing that I'm drawing from any other writer, but of course I mu...
CHARLES MCCARRY […] Everyone tries to make his life a work of art. We want love to last and we know that it does n...
ALBERT CAMUS The difference between shallow happiness and a deep, sustaining joy is sorrow. Happiness lives where...
WALTER WANGERIN JR. Integrity is not everything, but it is the only thing that matters.
JEFFREY FRY And yet I am convinced that man will never give up true suffering- that is, destruction and chaos. W...
FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY The suffering has to end where it must; the happiness should start as the suffering ends.
PETER SAYSOMPHANE Happiness is the cessation of suffering.
NHAT HANH The violent rioting that is sometimes now being called protesting - it makes the emotions so high th...
ALVEDA KING There is nothing noble about suffering except the love and forgiveness with which we meet it. Many b...
STEPHEN LEVINE So much does suffering blunt even the coarsest sensations of men
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT SHELLEY The most challenging part of being a boss is that nobody will tell you if your work is suffering.
BILL WILLIAMS I am not worthy of my suffering. A great sentence. It suggests not only that suffering is the basis ...
MILAN KUNDERA A wise man, recognizing that the world is but an illusion, does not act as if it is real, so he esca...
BUDDHA I like to open for a band as it brings on sort of a challenge and it makes things more interesting. ...
KELLY JONES Suffering is not good for the soul, unless it teaches you to stop suffering
JANE ROBERTS The greatest miracle is to be alive. We can put an end to our suffering just by realizing that our s...
THICH NHAT HANH What really raises one's indignation against suffering is not suffering intrinsically, but the sense...
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE Everyone says that love requires the utmost honesty, but that’s not entirely true. Once I knew tha...
SARAH VOWELL Rejoicing in our joy, not suffering over our suffering, makes someone a friend.
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE I could forget that part, but it had to have been true.
DEB CALETTI We have such numerous interests in our lives that it is not uncommon, on a single occasion, for the ...
MARCEL PROUST Our vision is so limited we can hardly imagine a love that does not show itself in protection from s...
ELISABETH ELLIOT Happiness is not a reward -- it is a consequence. Suffering is not a punishment -- it is a result.
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL Happiness is not a reward / it is a consequence. Suffering is not a punishment / it is a result.
ROBERT GREEN INGERSOLL What really raises one's indignation against suffering is not suffering intrinsically, but the s...
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE Suffering cheerfully endured ceases to be suffering and is transmuted into an ineffable joy. The man...
MAHATMA GANDHI True happiness generates from suffering, as suffering gives away to the unnoticed and simple. Eyes o...
JOSHUA BRAND To be grounded in an attitude of compassion is to be capable of receiving and welcoming the sufferin...
JEAN-YVES LELOUP It's a very fascinating thing for an actor to play somebody who is suffering, and you have to ex...
EDDIE MARSAN The cross is not the suffering tied to being natural existence, but the suffering tied to being Chri...
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER Evil is neither suffering nor sin; it is both at the same time, it is something common to them both....
SIMONE WEIL My meaning is, that any state of action or passion implies previous action or passion. It does not b...
PLATO The cross is the place where heaven meets earth and grace erupts. The cross is the place where Jesus...
MATT FARLOW Suffering is an oxymoron. There is unfathomable peace and satisfaction in suffering for Christ. It i...
TED DEKKER It was the picture that I buried for so many years, but interestingly enough, that picture now is us...
DENNIS STOCK Suffering does not necessarily ennoble you.
HENRY LOUIS GATES For who would dare to assert that eternal happiness can compensate for a single moment's human suffe...
ALBERT CAMUS I have fallen in love with the True Lord. He does not die, He does not come and go. In separation, H...
SRI GURU GRANTH SAHIB Happiness is true, even though it fades, and meaning is also true, despite the fact that it endures....
JAMES CASTLETON, MD, MENDING OF A BROKEN HEART You can't be that or that or that... but you can try to behave as that...

So, what next!?...
DEYTH BANGER It brings spiritual warfare and suffering for the priest as he identifies with those who suffer, and...
ARTHUR MIDDLETON True love is that which ennobles the personality, fortifies the heart, and sanctifies the existence.
HENRI FREDERIC AMIEL For the most part that would be true, but not in every instance.
ANDY FISHER Contrary to what we may have been taught to think, unnecessary and unchosen suffering wounds us but ...
BELL HOOKS Suffering is part of the divine idea.
HENRY WARD BEECHER We have the tendency to run away from suffering and to look for happiness. But, in fact, if you have...
NHAT HANH Lack of space is the reason for most of the ailments that captive elephants are suffering from.
CAROL BUCKLEY I say unto you that suffering is not holding you, you are holding suffering....
BHAGWAN SHREE RAJNEESH All gods who receive homage are cruel. All gods dispense suffering without reason. Otherwise they wo...
ZORA NEALE HURSTON It's at the borders of pain and suffering that the men are separated from the boys.
EMIL ZATOPEK Another kind of love and compassion is not based on something appearing beautiful or nice, but based...
DALAI LAMA It is true that the politician, in his professional character, does not always, or even very often, ...
FREDERICK SCOTT OLIVER In all three cases, and for most human beings, the problem of suffering poses no difficult problem a...
WALTER KAUFMANN Men are not suffering from the lack of good literature, good art, good theatre, good music, but from...
HENRY MILLER Life is weird and wonderful like that, is it not.
SONYA.E.WILLIAMS It is true that money cannot buy happiness but it does make it possible for you to enjoy the best th...
GEORGE S. CLASON The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and p...
RICHARD DAWKINS I think we have a creative impulse where suffering can magnify our work, but so can joy. You can be ...
PATTI SMITH It does not follow that the meaning must be given from above; that life and suffering must come neat...
WALTER KAUFMANN For all mortals, birth is suffering, ageing is suffering, sickness is suffering.
BUDDHA Neuroscience has proven that similar areas of the brain are activated both in the person who suffers...
MATTHIEU RICARD Suffering, I was beginning to think, was essential to a good life, and as inextricable from such a l...
LANCE ARMSTRONG Real Men of Character will go beyond measure for that to make the happiness of his entire family tha...
JEFFREY LEE GIBSON JR. Fateful encounters with a cruel world reveal our character. No human is immune from heartbreaking lo...
KILROY J. OLDSTER Pain hardens, and great pain hardens greatly, whatever the comforters say, and suffering does not en...
ANTONIA S. BYATT Pain hardens, and great pain hardens greatly, whatever the comforters say, and suffering does not ...
ANTONIA S. BYATT — This world is full of trouble, umfundisi.
— Who knows it better?
— Yet you believ...
ALAN PATON Without suffering, there's no happiness. So we shouldn't discriminate against the mud. We have to le...
THICH NHAT HANH The problem is that contemporary people think life is all about finding happiness. We decide what co...
TIMOTHY J. KELLER petty, vindictive and not very well-informed autocratic leader who is enamored of his own sense of g...
THAKSIN SHINAWATRA Goodness does not more certainly make men happy than happiness makes them good.
WALTER SAVAGE LONDOR Goodness does not more certainly make men happy than happiness makes them good
WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR True, I am in love with suffering, but I do not know if I deserve the honor.
SAINT IGNATIUS When another person makes you suffer, it is because he suffers deeply within himself, and his suffer...
THICH NHAT HANH The truth which makes me free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear
HERBERT AGAR Pain and suffering makes you realise what is life.
KOWSALAPATHY The only thing suffering teaches us is that we are capable of suffering.
MELVIN JULES BUKIET Buddha says there are two kinds of suffering: the kind that leads to more suffering and the kind tha...
TERRY TEMPEST WILLIAMS Happiness is the absence of suffering. I think it's an interesting way of looking at it. I think...
JULIE CHRISTIE

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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