Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Related Quotes

Dhammapada NULL

No suffering befalls the man who calls nothing his own.

Man | Nothing | Suffering |

Yves Congar, fully Yves Marie-Joseph Congar

It is in suffering that we are withdrawn from the bright superficial film of existence, from the sway of time and mere things, and find ourselves in the presence of a profounder truth.

Existence | Suffering | Time | Truth |

Gustave Flaubert

A thing derided is a thing dead; a laughing man is stronger than a suffering man.

Man | Suffering |

Athol Fugard, born Harold Athol Lanigan Fugard

We compound our suffering by victimizing each other.

Suffering |

Allan J Hamilton

Suffering is not the point of living. It’s the background, the context, against which we discover love’s power over death, over illness. Suffering is what lends love its supremacy over death.

Death | Love | Power | Suffering |

Jean Grou, fully Jean Nicholas Grou

What is the greatest evil of suffering? Not the suffering itself but our rebellion against it, the state of interior revolt which so often accompanies it.

Evil | Rebellion | Suffering |

Fatima Jinna, also known as Madr-e-Millat, mother of the nation

No individual or people can achieve anything without industry, suffering and sacrifice.

Individual | Industry | People | Sacrifice | Suffering |

Mahāyāna Religious Ideal "Great Vehicle" NULL

The cause of all suffering is rooted in desire. If the desire is extinguished suffering has no foot hold.

Cause | Desire | Suffering |

Mary Lyon, fully Mary Mason Lyon

Nine-tenths of our suffering is caused by others not thinking so much of us as we think they ought.

Suffering | Thinking | Think |

Paula Ripple, fully Paula Ripple Comin

Neither power nor wealth, neither education nor ability, neither gifts of creativity nor stores of human energy can insure against the reality that suffering will be our companion at some time during our journey. It is a presence as inseparable from the human condition as food and oxygen are from human life. It is part of our legacy.

Ability | Creativity | Education | Energy | Journey | Life | Life | Power | Reality | Suffering | Time | Wealth | Will |

Joseph Runzo and Nancy M. Martin

The Buddha, that is now “Awakened One,” diagnosed the human condition in the following way. Life is out of balance and characterized by suffering because all things are impermanent, and yet we desire things as if they were permanent. We each view our own self as if it too were permanent and completely independent from our selves, and so we think of our self as competing for those things with other discrete selves. Everything that we desire will ultimately pass away – we cannot hold on to anything in the end, not even our own bodies and minds – so our inappropriate desires are frustrated and we suffer, only to be reborn again into anew life of desire and suffering. To break the cycle of rebirth (samsara), we must overcome our ignorance about the true nature of things, cut the root of desire, and give up attachment to self, for we are anatman, no-self.

Balance | Desire | Ignorance | Life | Life | Nature | Self | Suffering | Will | Following | Think |

Zen Proverbs and Thoughts

Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.

Inevitable | Pain | Suffering |

Vittorio de Sica

Moral indignation is in most cases 2 percent moral, 48 percent indignation and 50 percent envy.

Envy | Indignation |

Ralph Waldo Trine

Full, rich and abounding health is the normal and the natural condition of life. Anything else is an abnormal condition, and abnormal conditions as a rule come through perversions. God never created sickness, suffering and disease; they are man’s own creations. They come through his violating laws under which he lives. So used are we to seeing them that we come gradually, if not to think of them as natural, then to look on them as a matter of course.

Abnormal | Disease | God | Health | Life | Life | Man | Rule | Suffering | God | Think |