#suffering

[D]on’t cling to your self-righteous suffering, let it go. . . . Nothing is too good to be true, let yourself be forgiven. To the degree you insist that you must suffer, you insist on the suffering of others as well. (90) ↗

— Stephen Levine

#letting-go #self-righteousness #suffering #forgiveness

Forgiveness requires a sense that bad behaviour is a sign of suffering rather than malice. ↗

— Alain de Botton

#forgiveness #malice #suffering #understanding #forgiveness

Few suffer more than those who refuse to forgive themselves. ↗

— Mike Norton

#forgiveness #suffer #suffering #forgiveness

In every sufferings you've encountered, there will be an opportunity to settle things in a right place. If that comes, grab it. Learn to forgive. ↗

— Mahadena Madid

#sufferings #forgiveness

Each of us has his own rhythm of suffering. ↗

— Roland Barthes

#grief #loss #mourning #suffering #death

One of the principal functions of a friend is to suffer (in a milder and symbolic form) the punishments that we should like, but are unable, to inflict upon our enemies. ↗

— Aldous Huxley

#huxley #suffering #friendship

You see the suffering of children all the time nowadays. Wars and famines are played out before us in our living rooms, and almost every week there are pictures of children who have been through unimaginable loss and horror. Mostly they look very calm. You see them looking into the camera, directly at the lens, and knowing what they have been through you expect to see terror or grief in their eyes, yet so often there’s no visible emotion at all. They look so blank it would be easy to imagine that they weren’t feeling much. And though I do not for a moment equate what I went through with the suffering of those children, I do remember feeling as they look. I remember Matt talking to me--- others as well, but mostly Matt--- and I remember the enormous effort required even to hear what he said. I was so swamped by unmanageable emotions that I couldn’t feel a thing. It was like being at the bottom of the sea. ↗

— Mary Lawson

#emotional-development #imagination

Do you know what it is?' [Toby] said thoughtfully. 'It's that they haven't had anything really awful happen to them. No wonder they seem so superficial and unfeeling.' It was certainly an interesting theory, ... [but] surely one didn't need to have suffered in order to possess empathy for those who had? All it required was a bit of imagination and a well-stocked library. ↗

— Michelle Cooper

#empathy #reading #suffering #imagination

It's necessary to use suffering. Otherwise, one is used by it. ↗

— Natalie Clifford Barney

#suffering #inspirational

Help me to get my eyes off my suffering and onto you, God. ↗

— Shirley Corder

#god #inspirational #suffering #inspirational