135 Best Suffering Quotes to Help You Find Comfort

In this article we are going to take a look at suffering quotes. While it is part of our universal nature to seek pleasure and avoid suffering, but we can’t escape it. We can receive a devastating diagnosis, lose a loved one, be hit by a car.

We see suffering as an unwelcome interruption of our pursuit of happiness. So we fight it, repress it, medicate it, or search for quick-fix solutions to get rid of it. We are going to share a lot of suffering quotes that shed light on all these aspects. These suffering quotes will also share with you a positive approach that we can take to deal with it.

You as a person too, will do just about anything to avoid suffering. That’s just how you’re wired. Problems and pain and potential risks are scary. You can’t be a better leader without learning from your mistakes and developing the humility to adapt when you get it wrong.

Quotes about suffering teach us that we need to turn these sufferings as stepping stone towards success. You can’t win at sports or politics or business without experiencing embarrassing setbacks that make you question how prepared you are to win.

If you have been suffering for some reason these quotes about pain and suffering will be the best remedy for you. Share these amazing collection of suffering quotes with those around you who are going through the same.

Best Suffering Quotes All Time

When faced with suffering, some people bounce back, finding new strength, or a honed sense of purpose. Some even end up performing extraordinary works in their lives. We admire these people for their tenacity and strength, but we might also wonder if we would have the same resilience if faced with the same challenges. Suffering quotes given below will teach you those skills. How many of these quotes about suffering did you know before?

1. He who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears. –Michel de Montaigne
2. Suffering is like anything else. Live with it long enough, you learn to like the taste. –Leigh Bardugo
3. The moment you form a strong opinion, suffering is inevitable. –Sadhguru
4. Suffering is the main condition of the artistic experience. –Samuel Beckett
5. Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight. –Albert Schweitzer
6. Man cannot remake himself without suffering, for he is both the marble and the sculptor. –Alexis Carrel
7. The only antidote to mental suffering is physical pain. –Karl Marx
8. Pain and suffering have come into your life, but remember pain, sorrow, suffering are but the kiss of Jesus – a sign that you have come so close to Him that He can kiss you. –Mother Teresa
9. We create our own unhappiness. The purpose of suffering is to help us understand we are the ones who cause it. –Willie Nelson
10. Suffering has been stronger than all other teaching, and has taught me to understand what your heart used to be. I have been bent and broken, but – I hope – into a better shape. –Charles Dickens

Suffering Quotes for Instagram

When people get hurt they share their feelings on social media these days. Here are some suffering quotes that we often come across on social media platforms. If you want to give vent your feelings you can use these quotes about suffering as well.

1. We are healed of a suffering only by experiencing it to the full. –Marcel Proust
2. Each of has his own rhythm of suffering. –Roland Barthes
3. Suffering is a short pain and a long joy.
4. Only when mosquito lands on your testicles do you truly learn to solve problems without violence.
5. Suffering = Pain * Resistance. –Shinzen Young
6. I’m not suffering from insanity, I’m enjoying every minute of it.
7. Most of the gains in life come from suffering in the short term, so you can get paid the long term. –Naval Ravikant
8. Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it. –Helen Keller
9. Sometimes the only way around suffering is to go straight through it.
10. Sit with the pain until it passes, and you will be calmer for the next one. –Naval Ravikant

Famous Suffering Quotes

Whether you are rich or poor, famous or infamous, suffering happens to all of us. Famous people suffer a lot too and it is evident from suffering quotes given below. You need to learn from these famous quotes about suffering that you are not the only one suffering, everyone has got a fair share of it.

1. She had become accustomed to being lonely. She was used to walking alone and to being considered ‘different.’ She did not suffer too much. –Betty Smith
2. Perhaps watching someone you love suffer can teach you even more than suffering yourself can. –Dodie Smith
3. One must choose in life between boredom and suffering. –Madame de Stael
4. The reward of suffering is experience. –Harry S Truman
5. When you’ve suffered a great deal in life, each additional pain is both unbearable and trifling. –Yann Martel
6. Fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. –Paulo Coelho
7. We were promised sufferings. They were part of the program. We were even told, Blessed are they that morn. –C. S. Lewis
8. When suffering knocks at your door and you say there is no seat for him, he tells you not to worry because he has brought his own stool. –Chinua Achebe
9. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed to us.
10. It requires more courage to suffer than to die.

Inspirational Suffering Quotes

Truly accepting the consequences of your suffering with realistic thinking rather than delusional one can open people up to true hope—something that enables setting and achieving goals that ultimately can improve one’s life. This is what inspirational quotes about suffering teach us about. If you want to get inspired take a close look at these suffering quotes.

1. There is no beauty in sadness. No honor in suffering. No growth in fear. No relief in hate. It’s just a waste of perfectly good happiness. –Katerina Stoykova Klemer
2. 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
3. Love is suffering. One side always loves more. –Catherine Deneuve
4. Suffering by nature or chance never seems so painful as suffering inflicted on us by the arbitrary will of another. –Arthur Schopenhauer
5. It is by suffering that human beings become angels. –Victor Hugo
6. Suffering is given to you that you might open your eyes to the truth. –Anthony de Mello
7. We need to be aware of the suffering, but retain our clarity, calmness and strength so we can help transform the situation. –Thich Nath Hanh
8. Some people are suffering and you’ll never know because they suffer in silence.
9. Those who have suffered understand suffering and therefore extend their hand. –Patti Smith
10. Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dream. –Paulo Coelho

Short Suffering Quotes

Here are some short quotes about suffering for you. Although all of these sentences are really brief, each word they contain is filled with some sort of spirit which tells us about the state of suffering of the speaker. These suffering quotes will make good captions for your social media posts as well.

1. One thing you can’t hide – is when you’re crippled inside. –John Lennon
2. I hate seeing my friends suffer. I hate seeing anyone suffer. –Starr Z. Davies
3. Tis better to suffer wrong than do it. –Thomas Fuller
4. For truth may live or perish, but in the end, it indeed suffers. –Laura Chouette
5. Sufferings don’t kill you but make you stronger.
6. For many suffer but not everybody lives. –Laura Chouette
7. Suffering is one of life’s great teachers. –Bryant H. McGill
8. So if there is any truth to it all – it is that everyone suffers in their own –Laura Chouette
9. If happy I can be I will, if suffer I must I can. –William Faulkner
10. I want to suffer so that I may love. –Fyodor Dostoevsky

Deep Suffering Quotes

Instead of thinking about suffering as if you’re being treated unfairly, think about the lessons you’re learning. Think about the experience and wisdom that you’re gaining. Deep quotes about suffering teach us to embrace the better version of ourselves that we’re building. Suffering quotes also tell us that you can’t have any of that without experiencing the pain you feel right now.

1. Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars. –Khalil Gibran
2. Suffering is an extraordinary teacher. –Ryan Hall
3. To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering. –Friedrich Nietzsche
4. How can one be well…when one suffers morally? –Leo Tolstoy
5. The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of those depths. –Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
6. Suffering is but another name for the teaching of experience, which is the parent of instruction and the schoolmaster of life. –Horace
7. Too much self-centered attitude, you see, brings, you see, isolation. Result: loneliness, fear, anger. The extreme self-centered attitude is the source of suffering. –Dalai Lama
8. Suffering is also good, it makes a person rich in character.
9. Suffering becomes beautiful when anyone bears great calamities with cheerfulness, not through insensibility but through greatness of mind. –Aristotle
10. Suffering is one very long moment. We cannot divide it by seasons. –Oscar Wilde

Pain and Suffering Quotes

Suffering isn’t life treating you unfairly. It’s not bad karma or horrible luck. Suffering is you being prepared for something bigger than you are doing right now. You’re being tested and refined. The suffering quotes given below shed light on this very issue. This is why it is really important for you to learn from these quotes about pain and suffering.

1. Without pain, there would be no suffering, without suffering we would never learn from our mistakes. To make it right, pain and suffering is the key to all windows, without it; there is no way of life. –Angelina Jolie
2. Transformation without work and pain, without suffering, without a sense of loss is just an illusion of true change. –Wm. Paul Young
3. We often add to our pain and suffering by being overly sensitive, over-reacting to minor things, and sometimes taking things too personally. –Dalai Lama
4. Sometimes my worst day – one filled with pain and suffering – in the eyes of God, is my best day if I’ve born it cheerfully and I’ve born it with love. –Mother Angelica
5. Pain and suffering are the soil of strength and courage. –Lurlene Mcdaniel
6. When our trials come, when we feel pain and suffering, when our tears flow again, it is our joy and comfort to lift our faces heavenward and to go on, standing on the promises of God. –W. A. Criswell
7. Human life is a process in which a human being experiences various situations ranging from pain and suffering to happiness and pleasure between the time span of birth and death. –Muata Ashby
8. Without pain, how could we know joy?’ This is an old argument in the field of thinking about suffering and its stupidity and lack of sophistication could be plumbed for centuries but suffice it to say that the existence of broccoli does not, in any way, affect the taste of chocolate. –John Green
9. The pain and suffering that comes to us has a purpose in our lives-it is trying to teach us something. We should look for its lesson. –Peace Pilgrim

Love and Suffering Quotes

You must have heard this dialogue in dozens of movies that to love is to suffer. This couldn’t be more true. Love comes with an element of suffering. There are thousands of quotes about suffering in love that talk about this fact.

Here are some of the most important love and suffering quotes for you to learn.

1. Perhaps watching someone you love suffer can teach you even more than suffering yourself can. –Dodie Smith
2. What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love. –Fyodor Dostoevsky
3. The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love, and to be greater than our suffering. –Ben Okri
4. If man realized that the universe like him can love and suffer, he would be reconciled. –Albert Camus
5. Love is the desire to see unnecessary suffering ameliorated. –Jordan B. Peterson
6. It is that we are never so defenseless against suffering as when we love, never so helplessly unhappy as when we have lost our loved object or its love. –Sigmund Freud
7. Much of our suffering comes from one simple misunderstanding: that love is limited, that it is here only some of the time. –Nirmala
8. Millions of people are suffering: they want to be loved but they don’t know how to love. –Osho
9. Only give a woman love, and there is nothing she will not venture, suffer, and do. –Wilkie Collins
10. Suffering is nothing. It’s all a matter of preventing those you love from suffering. –Alphonse Daudet
11. True love was beyond the bars, but a facsimile of it came with no suffering at all. –Dan Morgenstern
12. Love of God is pure when joy and suffering inspire an equal degree of gratitude. –Simone Weil
13. Those whose suffering is due to love are, as we say of certain invalids, their own physicians. –Marcel Proust

Death and Suffering Quotes

When we talk about things related to suffering perhaps the most relatable thing that comes to mind is death. Some consider death to be suffering and some say that death is the end of suffering. These quotes about suffering and death will share both of these views with you. How many of these suffering quotes have you seen before?

1. If there is meaning in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering. Suffering is an ineradicable part of life, even as fate and death. Without suffering and death human life cannot be complete. –Viktor E. Frankl
2. I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it. –Mark Twain
3. The web of life, love, suffering and death unites all beings. –Alex Grey
4. All men and women have passions, natural desires and noble ambitions, and also a conscience; they have sex, hunger, fear, anger, and are subject to sickness, pain, suffering and death. Culture consists of bringing about the expression of these passions and desires in harmony. –Lin Yutang
5. Only people who are capable of loving strongly can also suffer great sorrow, but this same necessity of loving serves to counteract their grief and heals them. –Leo Tolstoy
6. The first and foremost reality is that suffering and death are not only enemies of life, but a means of reminding us of life’s twin realities, love and hate. –Ravi Zacharias
7. Should one permit an infidel to continue in his role as a Corrupter of the Earth, the moral suffering of the infidel will be all the worse. Should one kill the infidel, and this stops him from perpetrating his misdeeds, his death will be a blessing to him. –Ruhollah Khomeini
8. There is no moral distinction between fur and other materials made from animals, such as leather, which also is the result of the suffering and death of sentient beings. –Gary L. Francione
9. We may rest assured that God would never have suffered any infants to be slain except those who were already damned and predestined for eternal death. –John Calvin
10. We are not our own. We do not belong to ourselves. But we have been purchased with a dear price. We have cost an immense sum, even the sufferings and death of the Son of God. –Ellen G. White

Suffering Alone Quotes

Suffering alone is one of the hardest things to do. It often ends in disasters. If there are people around you who are suffering alone, go and sit with them and be there for them whenever they need you. This is what quotes about suffering alone teach us. Here are some suffering alone quotes that you can benefit from.

1. We must remember that the most powerful medicine we can offer for suffering of any kind is simply kindness. It says, “You’re not alone. I see you; I hear you; I’m with you. –Ponlop
2. The loneliest people are the kindest. The saddest people smile the brightest. The most damaged people are the wisest. All because they do not wish to see anyone else suffer the way they do.
3. If you suffer it is because of you, if you feel blissful it is because of you. Nobody else is responsible – only you and you alone. You are your hell and your heaven too. –Rajneesh
4. All suffering comes from a person’s inability to sit still and be alone. –Anthony De Mello
5. Pain is when you’re slowly dying on the inside and you’re way too weak to speak about it. So you keep silent and suffer, alone.
6. But she wasn’t the only one who was suffering, and sometimes there is comfort in the knowledge that you don’t suffer alone, sad as that is. –Amy Harmon
7. Wisdom comes alone through suffering. –Aeschylus
8. Strong people alone know how to organize their suffering so as to bear only the most necessary pain. –Emil Dorian
9. We bereaved are not alone. We belong to the largest company in all the world–the company of those who have known suffering. –Helen Keller
10. No one should be left to suffer alone. –Daisaku Ikeda
11. You are the cause of your suffering. That means that you alone have the power to change it. –Shai Tubali

Suffering in Silence Quotes

Suffering in silence leads to trauma. It leads to taking our frustrations in negative ways. Suffering alone only brings more pain and misery. But when we open up instead of hiding, things eventually get better. This is what suffering in silence quotes teach us. Share these life changing quotes about suffering in silence with those who need them.

1. There are far too many silent sufferers.  Not because they don’t yearn to reach out, but because they’ve tried and found no one who cares. –Richelle E. Goodrich
2. I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. –Elie Wiesel
3. I will not deny that the best apology against false accusers is silence and sufferance, and honest deeds set against dishonest words. –John Milto
4. See how nature – trees, flowers, grass – grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence…we need silence to be able to touch souls. –Mother Teresa Of Calcutta
5. Great souls suffer in silence. –Friedrich von Schiller
6. Silence heals; silence soothes; silence comforts; silence purifies; silence revitalizes us. –Dada JP Vaswani
7. Silence is an empty space, space is the home of the awakened mind. –Buddha
8. The world suffers a lot, not because of the violence of bad people, but because of the silence of good people! –Ritu Ghatourey
9. Dear heavenly Father, bless those friends of mine who suffer in silence never wishing to burden others. Give them your strength to keep going. Amen.
10. I suffer in silence. I don’t cry in front of people. I can smile despite how bad things are. I will always put you before me. I leave my phone on at night just in case someone needs me. It’s because I love everyone else more than I could ever love myself. What can I say, “I’m just a screw up with a good heart.”

Suffering Quotes by Buddha | Suffering Quotes Buddhism

You don’t have to be a devout monk to benefit from the Buddhist approach to alleviating suffering. Understanding a few core principles of Buddhism can set you on a path to coping better with suffering, alleviating pain, and leading a more peaceful life. Here are some of the most famous Buddha quotes on suffering. Hopefully these Buddhism suffering quotes will be a big help to you.

1. “All conditioned things are impermanent” – when one sees this with wisdom, one turns away from suffering. –Gautama Buddhall
2. Mind precedes all phenomena, mind matters most, everything is mind-made. If with an impure mind, you speak or act, then suffering follows you as the cartwheel follows the foot of the draft animal. If with a pure mind, you speak or act, then happiness follows you as a shadow that never departs. –Gautama Buddha
3. It is more important to prevent animal suffering, rather than sit to contemplate the evils of the universe praying in the company of priests. –Gautama Buddha
4. Your suffering is my suffering and your happiness is my happiness. –Gautama Buddha
5. Attachment leads to suffering. –Gautama Buddha
6. May all that have life be delivered from suffering. –Gautama Buddha
7. The root of suffering is attachment. –Gautama Buddha
8. Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think. Suffering follows an evil thought as the wheels of a cart follow the oxen that draws it. Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think. Joy follows a pure thought like a shadow that never leaves. –Gautama Buddha
9. Suffering, if it does not diminish love, will transport us to the furthest shore. –Gautama Buddha
10. Pain in life is inevitable but suffering is not. Pain is what the world does to you, suffering is what you do to yourself [by the way you think about the ‘pain’ you receive]. Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional. [You can always be grateful that the pain is not worse in quality, quantity, frequency, duration, etc] –Gautama Buddha
11. Those who are truly wise will remain unmoved by feelings of happiness and suffering, fame and disgrace, praise and blame, gain and loss.They will remain calm like the eye of a hurricane. –Gautama Buddha
12. Only within our body, with its heart and mind, can bondage and suffering be found, and only here can we find true liberation. –Gautama Buddha

More Suffering Quotes and Sayings

Here are some more sayings about suffering. Culture plays a central role in how we deal with suffering. In the West, we generally reject suffering. In some cultures, especially in the East, suffering is acknowledged for the important role it plays in people’s lives, in the meandering path toward enlightenment. Suffering quotes given below talk about this aspect as well.

1. I have depression. But I prefer to say, ‘I battle’ depression instead of ‘I suffer’ with it. Because depression hits, but I hit back. Battle on.
2. People talk about physical fitness, but mental health is equally important. I see people suffering, and their families feel a sense of shame about it, which doesn’t help. One needs support and understanding. I am now working on an initiative to create awareness about anxiety and depression and help people. –Deepika Padukone
3. Depression, suffering and anger are all part of being human. –Janet Fitch
4. The real problem is not why some pious, humble, believing people suffer, but why some do not. –C. S. Lewis
5. We do not suffer by accident. –Jane Austen
6. Life is full of misery, loneliness, and suffering – and it’s all over much too soon. –Woody Allen
7. Suffering is the substance of life and the root of personality, for it is only suffering that makes us persons. –Miguel de Unamuno
8. Suffering is the positive element in this world, indeed it is the only link between this world and the positive. –Franz Kafka
9. I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. –Elie Wiesel
10. Suffering is part of the human condition, and it comes to us all. The key is how we react to it, either turning away from God in anger and bitterness or growing closer to Him in trust and confidence. –Billy Graham

Final Thoughts on Suffering Quotes

Hopefully you would have enjoyed our collection of suffering quotes. If you have benefitted from these quotes about suffering, share them with your loved ones who are suffering so that they may benefit from these as well.

Sudden trauma can happen to any one of us at any time. In some communities, people are routinely exposed to traumatic events—most notably the poor who live in dangerous, violent neighborhoods or in war-torn regions of the world.

The suffering that results from this is sometimes unbearable. How we deal with this much suffering is really important. Do we give up? Do we turn bad? Do we learn from these sufferings? Do we turn them into something positive? The answers to all these questions are present in the suffering quotes above. You just need to look deeper.

Though the human mind is designed to withstand emotional challenges and bounce back, suffering can take its toll on victims by causing depression, anxiety, or PTSD. These quotes about pain and suffering can really help you if you learn them with heart and act upon them.