"Throw moderation to the winds, and the greatest pleasures bring the greatest pains."
Read quote
39 likes
Pain quotes
Pain
8.2K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Explore further
Topics related to Pain
Browse quotes that often appear alongside pain — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
Quote collection
Pain quotes (page 15 of 410)
Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.
"...you must say words, as long as there are any, until they find me, until they say me, strange pain, strange sin, you must go on, perhaps it's done already, perhaps they have said me already, perhaps they have carried me to the threshold of my story, before the door that opens on my story, that would surprise me, if it opens, it will be I, it will be the silence, where I am, I don't know, I'll never know, in the silence you don't know, you must go on, I can't go on, I'll go on"
Read quote
39 likes
"When we hit a nail with a hammer, the whole of the shock received by the large head of the nail passes into the point without any of it being lost, although it is only a point. If the hammer and the head of the nail were infinitely big it would be just the same. The point of the nail would transmit this infinite shock at the point to which it was applied. Extreme affliction, which means physical pain, distress of soul and social degradation, all at the same time, constitutes the nail. The point is applied at the very center of the soul, whose head is all necessity, spreading throughout space and time."
Read quote
39 likes
"Whereas the beautiful is limited, the sublime is limitless, so that the mind in the presence of the sublime, attempting to imagine what it cannot, has pain in the failure but pleasure in contemplating the immensity of the attempt"
Read quote
39 likes
"You have to dare to live through the pain and struggle. Acknowledge your anguish but do not let it pull you out of yourself. Hold on to your chosen direction, your discipline, your prayer, your work, your guides, and trust that one day love will have conquered enough of you that even the most fearful part will allow love to cast out all fear."
Read quote
39 likes
"I will never say the things that I want to say to you. I know the damage it would do. I love you more than I hate my loneliness and pain."
Read quote
39 likes
"Did you ever say yes to a pleasure? oh my friends, then you also said yes to all pain. all things are linked, entwined, in love with one another."
Read quote
39 likes
"The demon that you can swallow gives you it’s power, and the greater life’s pain, the greater life’s reply."
Read quote
39 likes
"The measure of a man comes down to moments, spread out like dots of pain on the canvas on life. Everything you were, everything you'll someday be, resides in the small, seemingly ordinary choices of everyday life.....Each decision seems as insignificant as a left turn on an unfamiliar road when you have no destination in mind. But the decisions accumulate until you realize one day that they've made you the man that you are."
Read quote
39 likes
"Failure honestly can be like the best lesson and it's like the one that like God wants you to really pay attention to. That's why it hurts. The pain will help you remember how not to walk, what directions not to go."
Read quote
38 likes
"We don’t even ask happiness, just a little less pain."
Read quote
38 likes
"You know what nostalgia is, don't you? It's basically a matter of recalling the fun without reliving the pain."
Read quote
38 likes
"The real reason why human life can be so utterly exasperating and frustrating is not because there are facts called death, pain, fear, or hunger. The madness of the thing is that when such facts are present, we circle, buzz, writhe, and whirl, trying to get the I out of the experience... Sanity, wholeness and integration lie in the realisation that we are not divided, that man and his present experience are one, and that no separate I or mind can be found .... [Life] is a dance, and when you are dancing, you are not intent on getting somewhere. The meaning and purpose of dancing is the dance."
Read quote
38 likes
"One of the principle qualities of pain is that it demands an explanation."
Read quote
38 likes
"The aim of the wise is not to secure pleasure, but to avoid pain."
Read quote
38 likes
"Amputees suffer pains, cramps, itches in the leg that is no longer there. That is how she felt without him, feeling his presence where he no longer was."
Read quote
38 likes
"Love isn’t only love, sweetheart. It’s hard work, and trust, and tears, with even a few glimpses of devastation. But at the end of each day, if you can still look at the person at your side and can’t imagine anyone else you’d rather have there, the pain and heartache and the ups and downs of love are worth it."
Read quote
38 likes
"I get an audience personally involved in a song - because I'm involved myself. It's not something I do deliberately: I can't help myself. If the song is a lament at the loss of love, I get an ache in my gut. I feel the loss myself and I cry out the loneliness, the hurt and the pain that I feel."
Read quote
38 likes
"Our glory is hidden in our pain, if we allow God to bring the gift of himself in our experience of it."
Read quote
38 likes
"Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think."
Read quote
38 likes