God has . . . ordered things that we may learn to bear one another's burdens; for there is no man without his faults, none without his burden. None is sufficient unto himself; none is wise in himself; therefore, we must support one another, comfort, help, teach, and advise one another.
—Thomas à Kempis
We are here on earth to do good to others. What the others are here for, I don't know.
—W. H. Auden
Do not run toward pain, but do not run from it, either. Pain is your guide. Pain is what guides a person in every serious undertaking. Unless an aching longing and passion arises in someone to get or achieve something, he will never get or achieve it.
—Andrew Harvey
Those who have suffered understand suffering and therefore extend their hand.
—Patti Smith
There are times when we must sink to the bottom of our misery to understand truth, just as we must descend to the bottom of a well to see the stars in broad daylight.
—Vaclav Havel
There is no such thing as inner peace. There is only nervousness or death.
—Fran Lebowitz
I admire the serene assurance of those who have religious faith. It is wonderful to observe the calm confidence of a Christian with four aces.
—Mark Twain
We must travel in the direction of our fear.
—John Berryman
Why is life speeded up so? Why are things so terribly, unbearably precious that you can't enjoy them, but can only wait breathless in dread of their going?
—Anne Morrow Lindbergh
I don't consider myself a pessimist at all. I think of a pessimist as someone who is waiting for it to rain. And I feel completely soaked to the skin.
—Leonard Cohen
The spiritual life does not remove us from the world, but leads us deeper into it.
—Henri J. M. Nouwen
Don't let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.
—John Wooden
The hardest thing we are asked to do in this world is to remain aware of suffering, suffering about which we can do nothing.
—May Sarton
All religions begin with the cry "Help.
—William James
Life is pain. Anyone who says different is trying to sell you something.
—William Goldman