Suffering quotes
4.3K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Explore further
Browse quotes that often appear alongside suffering — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
Quote collection
Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.
"If there is one person on the planet who still is suffering from loneliness and from pain or despair, and we don't know about it, or we don't want to know about it, then something is wrong with the world."
"A man can laugh while he suffers."
"We are all brothers and we are all suffering the same fate. The same smoke floats over all our heads. Help one another. It is the only way to survive. (pg. 39)"
"For frequent tears have run; The colours from my life."
"creative people always suffer from depression because we're so super sensitive and special?"
"My mission is to suffer for all those who suffer without knowing it. I must pay for them, expiate their unconsciousness, their luck to be ignorant of how unhappy they are."
"Narcotics cannot still the tooth. That Nibbles at the soul"
"He deposes Doom Who hath suffered him."
"Under miserable conditions of life, any vision of the possibility of better things makes the present misery more intolerable, and spurs those who suffer to the most energetic struggles to improve their lot, and if these struggles only immediately result in sharper misery, the outcome is sheer desperation."
"As long as there are people suffering, how can I not be happy?"
"If you feel that you must suffer, then plan your suffering carefully -- as you choose your dreams, as you conceive your ancestors."
"What's going on in Syria is the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II. And we are punishing those who are suffering most in this circumstance, in this condition. We vet refugees from Syria for a period of 18 to 24 months before they're allowed to come to the United States. And, you know, if you will permit me, I think we know more about them by the time they get here than we know about the president's finances."
"If the press descended, the science would surely suffer."
"A morbid propensity that causes great suffering in domestic life is often curiously infectious to the very person for whom it creates most suffering."
"We often cause ourselves suffering by wanting only to live in a world of valleys, a world without struggle and difficulty, a world that is flat, plain, consistent."
"Men are subject to various inconveniences merely through lack of a small share of courage, which is a quality very necessary in the common occurrences of life, as well as in a battle. How many impertinences do we daily suffer with great uneasiness, because we have not courage enough to discover our dislike."
"By suffering comes wisdom."
"Wisdom cometh by suffering."
"To work and suffer is to be at home. All else is scenery."
"Making it a valid law to learn by suffering."
