Suffering by nature or chance never seems so painful as suffering inflicted on us by the arbitrary will of another.
Arthur Schopenhauer

I don't think any drug that can cause brain damage, failing kidneys, hardening arteries, pain, and suffering should be made available.
Layne Staley

Drugs are not the way to the light. They won't lead to a fairy-tale life, they lead to suffering.
Layne Staley

If suffering brings wisdom, I would wish to be less wise.
William Butler Yeats

Waiting is painful. Forgetting is painful. But not knowing which to do is the worse kind of suffering.
Paulo Coelho

Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dream.
Paulo Coelho

Suffering is part of the divine idea.
Henry Ward Beecher

Shall I tell you what the real evil is? To cringe to the things that are called evils, to surrender to them our freedom, in defiance of which we ought to face any suffering.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Suffering is permanent, obscure and dark, And shares the nature of infinity.
William Wordsworth

I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.
Elie Wiesel

It is not actual suffering but the taste of better things which excites people to revolt.
Eric Hoffer

To endure the cross is not tragedy; it is the suffering which is the fruit of an exclusive allegiance to Jesus Christ.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer

It is by suffering that human beings become angels.
Victor Hugo

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

There's nothing wrong in suffering, if you suffer for a purpose. Our revolution didn't abolish danger or death. It simply made danger and death worthwhile.
H. G. Wells

Don't look forward to the day you stop suffering, because when it comes you'll know you're dead.
Tennessee Williams

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

Suffering is the positive element in this world, indeed it is the only link between this world and the positive.
Franz Kafka

You can hold yourself back from the sufferings of the world, that is something you are free to do and it accords with your nature, but perhaps this very holding back is the one suffering you could avoid.
Franz Kafka

A man who fears suffering is already suffering from what he fears.
Michel de Montaigne