How little it takes to make life unbearable: a pebble in the shoe, a cockroach in the spaghetti, a woman's read more

How little it takes to make life unbearable: a pebble in the shoe, a cockroach in the spaghetti, a woman's laugh.

To love is to suffer. To avoid suffering, one must not love. But then, one suffers from not loving. Therefore, read more

To love is to suffer. To avoid suffering, one must not love. But then, one suffers from not loving. Therefore, to love is to suffer; not to love is to suffer; to suffer is to suffer. To be happy is to love. To be happy, then, is to suffer, but suffering makes one unhappy. Therefore, to be happy, one must love or love to suffer or suffer from too much happiness.

In default of inexhaustible happiness, eternal suffering would at least give us a destiny. But we do not even have read more

In default of inexhaustible happiness, eternal suffering would at least give us a destiny. But we do not even have that consolation, and our worst agonies come to an end one day.

Now it seems to me that love of some kind is the only possible explanation of the extraordinary amount of read more

Now it seems to me that love of some kind is the only possible explanation of the extraordinary amount of suffering that there is in the world.

Have patience and endure; this unhappiness will one day be
beneficial.
[Lat., Perfer et obdura; dolor hic tibi read more

Have patience and endure; this unhappiness will one day be
beneficial.
[Lat., Perfer et obdura; dolor hic tibi proderit olim.]

The only way to be happy is to love to suffer.

The only way to be happy is to love to suffer.

Suicide is a permanent solution
to a temporary problem
(quoted by Judy Collins on Diane Rehm Show).

Suicide is a permanent solution
to a temporary problem
(quoted by Judy Collins on Diane Rehm Show).

Be patient, my soul: thou hath suffered worse than this.

Be patient, my soul: thou hath suffered worse than this.

What is deservedly suffered must be borne with calmness, but when
the pain is unmerited, the grief is resistless.
read more

What is deservedly suffered must be borne with calmness, but when
the pain is unmerited, the grief is resistless.
[Lat., Leniter ex merito quidquid patiare ferendum est,
Quae venit indigne poena dolenda venit.]