Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Suffering
It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.
Acts. IX. 5. Same idea in Æschylus—Agamemnon. L. 1,635.
Knowledge by suffering entereth,
And Life is perfected by Death.
E. B. Browning—A Vision of Poets. Conclusion.
To each his suff’rings; all are men,
Condemn’d alike to groan;
The tender for another’s pain,
Th’ unfeeling for his own.
Yet ah! why should they know their fate,
Since sorrow never comes too late,
And happiness too swiftly flies?
Thought would destroy their paradise.
Gray—On a Distant Prospect of Eton College. St. 10.
Ho! why dost thou shiver and shake, Gaffer Grey?
And why does thy nose look so blue?
Thomas Holcroft—Gaffer Grey.
And taste
The melancholy joys of evils pass’d,
For he who much has suffer’d, much will know.
Homer—Odyssey. Bk. XV. L. 434. Pope’s trans.
I have trodden the wine-press alone.
Isaiah. LXIII. 3.
Graviora quæ patiantur videntur jam hominibus quam quæ metuant.
Present sufferings seem far greater to men than those they merely dread.
Livy—Annales. III. 39.
They, the holy ones and weakly,
Who the cross of suffering bore,
Folded their pale hands so meekly,
Spake with us on earth no more!
Longfellow—Footsteps of Angels. St. 5.
Perfer et obdura; dolor hic tibi proderit olim.
Have patience and endure; this unhappiness will one day be beneficial.
Ovid—Amorum. III. 11. 7.
Leniter ex merito quidquid patiare ferendum est,
Quæ venit indigne pœna dolenda venit.
What is deservedly suffered must be borne with calmness, but when the pain is unmerited, the grief is resistless.
Ovid—Heriodes. V. 7.
Si stimulos pugnis cædis manibus plus dolet.
If you strike the goads with your fists, your hands suffer most.
Plautus—Truculentus. IV. 2. 54.
Levia perpessi sumus
Si flenda patimur.
We have suffered lightly, if we have suffered what we should weep for.
Seneca—Agamemnon. 665.
Oh, I have suffered
With those that I saw suffer.
Tempest. Act I. Sc. 2. L. 5.
For there are deeds
Which have no form, sufferings which have no tongue.
Shelley—The Cenci. Act III. Sc. 1.
Those who inflict must suffer, for they see
The work of their own hearts, and that must be
Our chastisement or recompense.
Shelley—Julian and Maddalo. L. 494.
Can it be, O Christ in heaven, that the holiest suffer most,
That the strongest wander furthest, and more hopelessly are lost?
Sarah Williams—Is it so, O Christ in Heaven? St. 3.
He could afford to suffer
With those whom he saw suffer.
Wordsworth—Excursion. I. 370. (V. 40 in Knight’s ed.)