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1 " I began to understand that suffering and disappointments and melancholy are there not to vex us or cheapen us or deprive us of our dignity but to mature and transfigure us. "
― Hermann Hesse , Peter Camenzind
2 " If we are to believe he is really alive with all that that implies, then we have to believe without proof. And of course that is the only way it could be. If it could be somehow proved, then we would have no choice but to believe. We would lose our freedom not to believe. And in the very moment that we lost that freedom, we would cease to be human beings. Our love of God would have been forced upon us, and love that is forced is of course not love at all. Love must be freely given. Love must live in the freedom not to love; it must take risks. Love must be prepared to suffer even as Jesus on the Cross suffered, and part of that suffering is doubt. "
― Frederick Buechner , The Magnificent Defeat
3 " No pain, no gain." You can hear the phrase in the world of physical exercise and conditioning. Muscles that feel no pain are probably getting neither stronger, nor more flexible. It presents an analogy for the exercise of the heart. Those who run the risk of genuine love alone must worry about emotional pain. The more friends; the more good-byes - and the more wakes to attend, the more graves to visit, the more deaths to share. Those who truly live life to the fullest will bear the full cup of suffering. Only those who are willing to pay the price in pain and anguish find life full to the brim. Happy people also suffer; they are no more lucky than the rest. They create their own happiness. That's the rule of thumb.Some thumbs, however, don't seem to rule very well. Slogans and catch-words, for all their conventional wisdom, fail to carry the whole weight of truth; they leave too much room for false inferences. " No pain, no gain" may leave one with nothing but pain - an intolerable amount of it. There is simply no guarantee that pain will bring gain, that hardship will yield happiness, that suffering will make one a better person. It may; but it's not inevitable. "
4 " But why all these questions?Because I'm in love and I'm afraid of suffering.Don't be afraid, the only way to avoid that suffering would be to refuse to love. "
― Paulo Coelho , The Zahir
5 " CAUSE AND EFFECTYou can give a man who has never given you a good word,Volumes of knowledge.And you can give a man who has never given you a gift,A thousand gifts.You can give that same man who has never given you a blessing,A thousand blessings.And you can offer that same man who has neverOffered a hand to help you grow,Seeds to help him grow a garden.And while you have never seen true kindness from his direction,You still offer to help push him up.And in the end,He only wants to be the hand that pulls you down.Do not worry, my friends.Cause and effect was written by the stars of the universe.He who passes suffering onto othersWill also have that suffering passed onto his own children.Gifts he feels he should have in the next lifetime will be unobtainable.And the help he needs to grow in the next lifetime will be unavailable.And the people he cuts down that were good to him,Will cut him down in the next lifetime.What goes around does come back again,Even through your children.There is a vibrational effectIn every action,Just as there isA vibration that ringsFrom every letterIn every word.No cause occurs without effectAnd no effect occurs without cause.No unjust action goes without penaltyAnd no action or thoughtFlows unnoticedThroughoutThe universe. "
― , Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem
6 " Sometimes I wonder how much of our suffering we allow or impose on ourselves simply in search of our worthiness to accept our own respect and appreciation. I’d written before some years ago that we often cause suffering in another so that we can then love them, as in, “You have suffered for me, so I can love you now.” The eventual shock of realizing the sacrifice made for you destroys the walls of self-righteousness and protection. The suffering sacrifice of another creates the willingness and capacity to do the same. Finally, love and respect (respect is part of the body of love) come from the recognition of something else already given up for them.Within the individual, you or me, a similar process takes place toward oneself. It is as if we know some- where that we are not worthy of our own love or respect until we have earned the right to it, and that is mainly through some kind of suffering. That suffering may be generic, as in a life lived in which tragedy after tragedy accumulate, or it may be specific, as in the constant sacrifice of other easier things for a being or vision. Or, perhaps more correctly, it is either consciously chosen or not. "
― Darrell Calkins , Re:
7 " It's an awful truth that suffering can deepen us, give a greater lustre to our colours, a richer resonance to our words. That is, if it doesn't destroy us, if it doesn't burn away the optimism and the spirit, the capacity for visions, and the respect for simple yet indispensable things. "
― Anne Rice , The Queen of the Damned (The Vampire Chronicles, #3)
8 " There are only two kinds of people in this world, Mr. Sallinger: people who rise above that suffering and people who let it define them." (The Ables) "
