quotations about misery
Misery appears to improve the intellect, but this is only because it dismisses fear.
ARTHUR HELPS
Thoughts in the Cloister and the Crowd
Every misery that I miss is a new mercy.
IZAAK WALTON
The Complete Angler
The wretched hasten to hear of their own miseries.
SENECA THE YOUNGER
Hercules Oetaeus
Why do you want to shut out of your life any uneasiness, any misery, any depression, since after all you don't know what work these conditions are doing inside you? Why do you want to persecute yourself with the question of where all this is coming from and where it is going? Since you know, after all, that you are in the midst of transitions and you wished for nothing so much as to change. If there is anything unhealthy in your reactions, just bear in mind that sickness is the means by which an organism frees itself from what is alien; so one must simply help it to be sick, to have its whole sickness and to break out with it, since that is the way it gets better.
RAINER MARIA RILKE
Letters to a Young Poet
I don't reckon misery loves any damn thing at all.
BRUCE MACHART
The Wake of Forgiveness
Thou art not born to misery; the Almighty never called any of His creatures into existence to render them unhappy; yet man may be wretched from his own follies and vices; his reason may yield to the wild impulses of tumultuous passion; then man is wretched, and every seeming good is perverted into misery.
CONRAD GESSNER
attributed, Day's Collacon
Misery's fine -- as long as you know you can get out of it when you want to.
ARTHUR ADAMOV
Ping Pong
I hate all pain,
Given or received; we have enough within us
The meanest vassal as the loftiest monarch,
Not to add to each other's natural burden
Of mortal misery.
LORD BYRON
Sardanapalus
The child of misery, baptized in tears!
J. LANGHORNE
The Country Justice
But O yet more miserable!
Myself my sepulchre, a moving grave.
JOHN MILTON
Samson Agonistes
Misery makes sport to mock itself.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Richard II
There is always more misery among the lower classes than there is humanity in the higher.
VICTOR HUGO
Les Misérables
Misery pulls away the brackets of life leaving you to free fall.
JEANETTE WINTERSON
Written on the Body
People like to talk about other people's misery; it makes them feel their own life is somehow better when it usually isn't.
DAVID BALDACCI
Absolute Power
Nothing is miserable unless you think it so; and on the other hand, nothing brings happiness unless you are content with it.
BOETHIUS
The Consolation of Philosophy
But misery still delights to trace
Its semblance in another's case.
WILLIAM COWPER
The Castaway
We often see misery dwelling in the midst of splendor, whilst real happiness is found in humbler stations.
HERODOTUS
attributed, Day's Collacon
Mock not any man's misery.
PITTACUS
attributed, Day's Collacon
All that was really there was still more misery -- oh yes! as much of that as you like.
EMILE ZOLA
Germinal
Extreme hopes are born of extreme misery.
BERTRAND RUSSELL
Unpopular Essays