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Human Suffering Quotes

Browse 115 quotes about Human Suffering.

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Human Suffering Quotes

“We unthinkingly build the pilings of our lives upon whatever comes along. Like it or not, we play the hand that fate deals us. If fate is kind, some people credit their fortuitous circumstances to their ingenuity and resoluteness. If fate is cruel, some people curse God. The truth is that an unenlightened person resists suffering, they continually wish for a world different than it is, whereas an enlightened person learns how to suffer heroically.”

LifeLife LessonsLife QuotesLife And LivingEnlightenmentEnlightenment QuotesHuman SufferingLife Philosophy QuotesLife Philosophy Suffering
Book:Dead Toad Scrolls
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“The perverse belief that God causes or allows all the suffering in the world has made hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions of atheists and agnostics worldwide and throughout history.”

SufferingFaithBeliefAtheismBeliefsKingdom Of GodAgnosticismHuman SufferingAtheistsFaithlessness
Book:Kingdom Fundamentals: What the Kingdom of God Means and What it Means for You | A Thorough and Biblical Exposition of the Kingdom of Heaven as Preached by Jesus
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“Spirituality isn't some quaint stepchild of an intelligent worldview, or the only option for those of us not smart enough to understand the facts of the real world. Spirituality reflects the most sophisticated mindset, and the most powerful force available for the transformation of human suffering.”

RealitySufferingFaithSpiritualitySpiritual QuotesIntelligentAdversityMindsetReal WorldSpiritual WisdomRealismSophisticatedBeliefsWorldviewPower Of LovePower Of ThoughtsSmart PeopleOvercoming Adversity QuotesHealing The PastIntellectualismForces Of NatureHuman SufferingConscious LivingHealing The Emotional SelfBelief SystemSuffering Of HumanityHealing TraumaHealing AbuseIntelligent PeopleStepchildSpiritual LivingFacing FactsWorldview QuotesOutlook On The World
Book:Tears to Triumph: The Spiritual Journey from Suffering to Enlightenment
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“On the ward there was hurt and pain so big and so deep that speech could not express it. I had been interested in philosophy, and suddenly philosophy came alive for me, for here the basic questions of human existence were not abstractions: they were embodied in human suffering”

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Book:Unusual Associates: A Festschrift for Frank Barron
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“There are two kinds of people in the world.  The first kind is the creative and conscious people and the second kind is the destructive and unconscious. Great awareness is needed to be creative and conscious, while no awareness and consciousness is needed to be destructive. The creative people have attained inner awareness. The other kind of people are the violent and destructive people, who are the unhealthy, narcissistic and pathological people. These are the people who bring misery and human suffering to the world. They themselves are miserable and they create misery for others. Alexander the Great killed thousands of people, Joseph Stalin killed millions of people and Adolf Hitler is one of the greatest murders history has known.  The world would have been better without them. The creative and conscious people are a blessing to the world. Without them humanity would not have progressed at all. These people are the salt of the earth. Life has some meaning, joy, beauty and song, because of these people. People like Buddha, Jesus and Lao Tzu made themselves blissful, and spread the secret of being blissful in the world. They spread their light in the world. Meditation is the way to become blissful. Become blissful, because you can only give that which you have. You cannot give that which you do not have. Become a source of bliss and blessings to others.”

WarConsciousnessCreativityViolenceAwarenessMiseryHuman SufferingDestructivityPathological
Book:The Way of the Heart
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“When his fingers touched the bread during the inspection of his duffel bag, and he inhaled its warm rye scent, Peeter could no longer restrain himself. He broke off a small piece, placed it in his mouth, and chewed for a long time, trying – if only briefly – to deceive the constant hunger. For a moment, it worked: he swallowed the paste-like pap, felt a rush of euphoria, and quietly fell asleep. — Volodymyr Shablia, Stone. Book Two Context note: During prisoner transports to the Gulag, hunger was constant. Even a single bite of bread could bring brief relief – and an almost euphoric sense of escape from terrible reality.”

SurvivalHungerPrisonerSoviet UnionHuman SufferingSurvival StoryPolitical PrisonersGulagSoviet HistorySoviet History Books
Book:Камень. Биографический роман. Книга вторая. Непростые дороги в ад: Выживание в условиях насилия
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“Most Americans are aware of the brutality and injustice used to maintain the excesses of their selfish consumer society and empire. Yet I suspect...they do not care. They don’t want to see what is done in their name. They do not want to look at the rows of flag-draped coffins, the horribly maimed bodies and faces of veterans, or the human suffering in the blighted and deserted former manufacturing centers. It is too upsetting. Government and corporate censorship is therefore welcomed and appreciated.”

WantHumansLooksDoneBodyGovernmentCareFacesUsedSufferingNamesInjusticeSelfishFormerConsumersCorporateUpsetEmpiresSuspectsExcessFlagsCensorshipVeteranAppreciatedBrutalityManufacturingCoffinsDesertedHuman Suffering
Author:Curtis White
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“Human kindness has no reward. You should give to others in every way you see. expect absolutely nothing from anyone. It should be your goal to love every human you encounter. All human suffering that you're aware of and continues without your effort to stop it becomes your crime.”

WayLoveInspirationalGivingShouldHumansSufferingGoalEffortKindnessAwarenessCrimeRewardsEncountersExpectingContinuingAbsolutely NothingHuman SufferingExpect NothingHuman KindnessGive 100 Percent
Author:Louis C. K.
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“All that remains is a fate whose outcome alone is fatal. Outside of that single fatality of death, everything, joy or happiness, is liberty. A world remains of which man is the sole master. What bound him was the illusion of another world. The outcome of his thought, ceasing to be renunciatory, flowers in images. It frolics-\-\-in myths, to be sure, but myths with no other depth than that of human suffering and, like it, inexhaustible. Not the divine fable that amuses and blinds, but the terrestrial face, gesture, and drama in which are summed up a difficult wisdom and an ephemeral passion.”

MenWorldHumansFacesJoySufferingPassionDifficultLibertyFateDivineFlowerMastersDramaIllusionRemainsDepthBoundsMythOutcomesGesturesSoleMe AloneAnother WorldFablesEphemeralHuman SufferingFatalityAll That Remains
Author:Albert Camus
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“The hell of human suffering, evil and oppression is paved with good intentions. The men who have most injured and oppressed humanity, who have most deeply sinned against it, were according to their standards and their conscience good men; what was bad in them, what wrought moral evil and cruelty, treason to truth and progress, was not at all in their intentions, in their purpose, in their personal character, but in their opinions.”

MenHumansCharacterPurposeSufferingHumanityEvilMoralOpinionHellProgressHe ManStandardsConscienceIntentionCrueltyOppressionGood ManOppressedInjuredGood IntentionsTreasonHuman SufferingPersonal CharacterMoral Evil
Author:Robert Briffault
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“Poverty - the greatest cause of human suffering on the planet - is itself exacerbated by conflict, competition for resources, injustice, even the global downturn and climate change. Diseases like AIDS, TB and malaria cannot be tackled without adequate resources. So you see everything is connected. In order to address any major cause of human suffering, we have to work together across many fronts.”

HumansTogetherSufferingOrderCausesPovertyFrontsPlanetsConflictDiseaseMajorsResourcesCompetitionClimateClimate ChangeInjusticeConnectedAidsAddressesWorking TogetherAdequateHuman SufferingMalariaDownturnEconomic Downturn
Author:Desmond Tutu
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“We already have the material means to eradicate deep poverty and thereby eradicate hunger. We have the material means to begin the tremendous clean up of the environmental messes we’ve created. We have, I believe, the psychological, emotional and spiritual means to create a world without war. We have the material means to create a world in which unnecessary human suffering has been drastically diminished. My vision for the future is that we do those things. And I think we will.”

ThinkingWorldBelieveHumansMeanHas BeensWarSpiritualSufferingI BelieveVisionPovertyEmotionalMaterialsCleanEnvironmentalHungerPsychologicalMessUnnecessaryHuman Suffering
Author:Marianne Williamson
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“This is a man with an old face, always old... There was pathos, in his face, and in his eyes. The early weariness; and sometimes tears in his eyes, Which he let slip unconsciously on his cheek, Or brushed away with an unconcerned hand. There were tears for human suffering, or for a glance Into the vast futility of life, Which he had seen from the first, being old When he was born.”

MenFirstsHumansSometimesHandsEyeFacesSufferingBornAtheismTearsHis EyesSlipsCheeksGlancesFutilityWearinessPathosHuman SufferingUnconcernedBeing OldFutility Of Life
Author:Edgar Lee Masters
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“Holiness is religious principle put into motion. It is the love of God sent forth into circulation, on the feet, and with the hands of love to men. It is faith gone to work. It is charity coined into actions, and devotion breathing benedictions on human suffering, while it goes up in intercession to the Father of all piety.”

MenHumansHandsActionSufferingFatherReligiousPrinciplesGoneFeetCharityDevotionBreathingGod LoveHolinessWorking ItPietyCirculationIntercessionHuman SufferingBenediction
Book:Sermons for the People
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“All the advantages that man has gained from his ever-deepening understanding of the natural world that surrounds him, his technological, chemical and medical progress, all of which should seem to alleviate human suffering... tends instead to favor humanity's destruction.”

MenWorldShouldHumansSeemsSufferingHumanityUnderstandingNaturalProgressAdvantageDestructionMedicalFavorsSurroundChemicalsTechnologicalNatural WorldAlleviateHuman Suffering
Author:Konrad Lorenz
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“...a very terrifying aspect of our society, and other societies, is the equanimity and the detachment with which sane, reasonable, sensible people can observe [war and human suffering]. I think that's more terrifying than the occasional Hitler ...or other that crop up - these people would not able to operate were it not for this apathy and equanimity - and therefore I think that it is in some sense the sane and reasonable and tolerant people who should share a very serious burden of guilt, that they very easily throw on the shoulders of others who seem more extreme and more violent.”

PeopleThinkingShouldHumansWarSeemsAbleSufferingShareSeriousAspectGuiltBurdenExtremesViolentShouldersReasonableOur SocietySensibleApathySaneDetachmentOccasionalCropsEquanimityHuman Suffering
Author:Noam Chomsky
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“One of the greatest challenges facing civilization in the twenty-first century is for human beings to learn to speak about their deepest personal concerns-about ethics, spiritual experience, and the inevitability of human suffering-in ways that are not flagrantly irrational. We desperately need a public discourse that encourages critical thinking and intellectual honesty. Nothing stands in the way of this project more that the respect we accord religious faith.”

ThinkingWayNeedsFirstsHumansSpiritualSufferingSpiritualitySpeakChallengesReligiousHuman BeingsCenturyHonestyCivilizationProjectsIntellectualEthicsConcernTwentiesCriticalIrrationalDiscourseReligious FaithAccordCritical ThinkingInevitabilitySpiritual ExperienceHuman SufferingPublic DiscourseIntellectual Honesty
Book:Letter to a Christian Nation
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“That the language of the poetry of Jamaican music is rastafarian or biblical language cannot simply be put down to the colonizer and his satanic missionaries. The fact is that the historical experience of the black Jamaican is an experience of the most acute human suffering, desolation and despair in the cruel world that is the colonial world.”

WorldHumansFactsSufferingLanguageBlackDespairMusic IsHistoricalBiblicalDesolationSatanicHuman SufferingCruel WorldJamaicansJamaican Music
Author:Linton Kwesi Johnson
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“From personal experience, I completely agree that it is often easier to go for monotone sadness. When I was starting out, I wrote a gazillion short stories that ran the gamut of human suffering - drug addiction, child abuse, terminal illness, loved ones dying by all manner of misfortune, etc. In hindsight, it's clear that I mistook the power of the situation for the power of the story.”

HumansChildrenStoriesSufferingSituationClearSadnessDyingEasierDrugAbuseAgreeAddictionStartingIllnessRanEtcMisfortunesShort StoryLoved OnesChild AbusePersonal ExperiencesDrug AddictionHindsightDrug AddictStarting OutTerminalHuman SufferingTerminal IllnessLoved One Dying
Author:Anthony Marra
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