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    “When the suffering of another creature causes you to feel pain, do not submit to the initial desire to flee from the suffering one, but on the contrary, come closer, as close as you can to him who suffers, and try to help him.”

    Leo Tolstoy, A Calendar of Wisdom (Page 214)

      “Sure: Life is tough. But it gets a lot easier when you are laughing at it. So. Despite the suffering. In fact: To spite the suffering; to spite the hardships; to spite the challenges—laugh at them all. They can’t stand it when you do. And they all get easier. Yes: Laugh at them all. Laughter wins.”

      Jocko Willink, Discipline Equals Freedom (Page 89)

        “Defining yourself by your suffering is an effective way to keep suffering forever (ex. incels, trauma).”

        Ideopunk, LessWrong

          “When you suffer, think not on how you can escape suffering, but concentrate your efforts on what kind of inner moral and spiritual perfection this suffering requires.”

          Leo Tolstoy, A Calendar of Wisdom (Page 185)

            “Try to understand and remember that a person always tries to do what is best for himself. And if he is right when he does the best thing for himself, it is good; but if he is mistaken, it is bad, because suffering will follow after such mistakes. If you remember this, then you will never be upset by anybody, you will never reproach anybody, and you will never be an enemy to anybody.”

            Leo Tolstoy, A Calendar of Wisdom (Page 130)

              “Now that I’m suffering, I feel closer to people who suffer than I ever did before. The other night, on TV, I saw people in Bosnia running across the street, getting fired upon, killed, innocent victims… and I just started to cry. I feel their anguish as if it were my own. I don’t know any of these people. But—how can I put this?—I’m almost… drawn to them.”

              Morrie Schwartz, via Tuesdays With Morrie (Page 50)

                “Mankind has never achieved greatness but through suffering.”

                Leo Tolstoy, A Calendar of Wisdom (Page 122)

                  “Grief isn’t meant to be silenced—to live in the body and be carried alone.”

                  Katherine, via Between Two Kingdoms (Page 308)

                    “Melissa painted self-portraits from bed; I wrote self-portraits from bed. Watercolors and words were the drugs we preferred for our pain. We were learning that sometimes the only way to endure suffering is to transform it into art.”

                    Suleika Jaouad, Between Two Kingdoms (Page 157)

                      “Suffering can make you selfish, turn you cruel. It can make you feel like there is nothing but you and your anger, the crackle of exam table paper beneath bruised limbs, the way your heart pounds into your mouth when the doctor enters the room with the latest biopsy results.”

                      Suleika Jaouad, Between Two Kingdoms (Page 100)

                        “If one can actually revert to the truth, then a great deal of one’s suffering can be erased—because a great deal of one’s suffering is based on sheer lies.”

                        R. D. Laing, via Sunbeams (Page 134)