"Do not cherish suffering. Don't act like a fool. Don't think that your suffering is going to accelerate your spiritual progress."
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Suffering quotes
Suffering
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Suffering quotes (page 68 of 215)
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"It ought to be considered a great misfortune, not only for individuals, but also for Houses and Congregations, to have everything in conformity with their wishes; to go on quietly, and to suffer nothing for the love of God. Yes, consider it certain that a person or a Congregation that does not suffer and is applauded by all the world is near a fall."
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"Against my will, I became a witness to the most terrible defeat of reason and to the most savage triumph of brutality ever chroniclednever before did a generation suffer such a moral setback after it had attained such intellectual heights."
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"In some mysterious way, once one has gained an insight into human nature, that insight grows from day to day, and he to whom it has given to experience vicariously even one single form of earthly suffering acquires, by reason of this tragic lesson, an understanding of all its forms, even those most foreign to him, and apparently abnormal."
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"Long-protracted suffering is apt to exhaust not only the invalid, but the compassion of others; violent emotions cannot be prolonged endlessly."
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"To have suffered ... sets a keen edge on what remains of the agreeable. This is a great truth and has to be learned in the fire."
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"You would not have the wisdom and knowledge you now possess were it not for the setbacks you have faced, the mistakes you have made and the suffering you have endured."
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"Many of the soldiers suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, and have not been supported by the government when they've requested psychological help. Of course, the prisoners continue to suffer physically and psychologically. Much needs to be done - torture has a negative impact on everyone it touches, including us, Americans, as a nation."
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"To suffer is one thing; another thing is living with the photographed images of suffering, which does not necessarily strengthen conscience and the ability to be compassionate. It can also corrupt them. Once one has seen such images, one has started down the road of seeing more - and more. Images transfix. Images anesthetize."
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"The question, 'How can you believe in a God who permits suffering on this scale?' is therefore very much around at the moment, and it would be surprising if it weren't - indeed it would be wrong if it weren't."
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"Who shall blame whom, who praise whom? Whom to seek, whom to avoid? I seek none, nor avoid any, for I am all the universe. I praise myself, I blame myself, I suffer for myself, I am happy at my own will, I am free. This is the Jnâni, the brave and daring. Let the whole universe tumble down; he smiles and says it never existed, it was all a hallucination. He sees the universe tumble down. Where was it! Where has it gone!"
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"When we suffer, it is because of our own acts; God is not to be blamed for it."
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"Looking to the material world for the satisfaction of our inner needs is the source of much fear. All fear is, in essence, fear of the future. We are afraid of things that have not yet happened, but which if they did might bring us pain, suffering, or some other discomfort - or stand in the way of some future contentment. And we are afraid that circumstances that are already causing us displeasure may continue in the future."
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"Suffering will always be there. You'll always have the poor. You have to own your own progress. It is true that because of the economy and the fear factor the president [Barack Obama] is able to execute a lot of promises that it would be difficult to deliver it not for the fear factor. It's funny. He's delivering on what he promised and we call it fear."
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"Culture in America and everywhere else comes from the suffering, from those who don't want the old ways. They want to bring in the new, whether it's the ballet, when it started, or Shakespeare."
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"O Seeker, pain and suffering make one aware of God."
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"When people feel their insignificance as individual persons, they also suffer an undermining of their sense of human responsibility."
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"It is highly significant and indeed almost a rule, that moral courage has its source in such identification through one's own sensitivity with suffering of one's fellow human beings." (p. 16-17)"
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"Man can only experience good or evil in this world; if God wishes to punish or reward he can only do so during the life of man. it is therefore here below that the just must prosper and the impious suffer."
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"Imagine losing fingernails, Harry! That really puts our sufferings into perspective, doesn't it?"
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