#erin

Learn the discipline of being surprised not by suffering but by joy. As we grow old, there is suffering ahead of us, immense suffering, a suffering that will continue to tempt us to think that we have chosen the wrong road. But don't be surprised by pain. Be surprised by joy, be surprised by the little flower that shows its beauty in the midst of a barren desert, and be surprised by the immense healing power that keeps bursting forth like springs of fresh water from the depth of our pain. ↗

— Henri Nouwen

#joy #pain #suffering #water #beauty

It is singularity which often makes the worst part of our suffering, as it always does of our conduct. ↗

— Jane Austen

#lady-russell #life-lessons #singularity #suffering #life

Some live for their own joy and pleasure. Some live to ease the burdens of others.   Then there are those who seem to exist for pain's sake only; that in the end the wrathful fire sent to consume their oppressors will be justified." ~ In loving memory of Miss Annabelle Fancher ↗

— Richelle E. Goodrich

#annabelle-fancher #existence #helping #justice #life

The priest gazed around my cell and answered in a voice that sounded very weary to me. 'Every stone here sweats with suffering, I know that. I have never looked at them without a feeling of anguish. But deep in my heart I know that the most wretched among you have seen a divine face emerge from their darkness. That is the face you are asked to see.' This perked me up a little. I said I had been looking at the stones in these walls for months. There wasn't anything or anyone in the world I knew better. Maybe at one time, way back, I had searched for a face in them. But the face I was looking for was as bright as the sun and the flame of desire—and it belonged to Marie. ↗

— Albert Camus

#love #suffering #love

I spent the afternoon musing on Life. If you come to think of it, what a queer thing Life is! So unlike anything else, don't you know, if you see what I mean. ↗

— P.G. Wodehouse

#humor #life #pondering #humor

Who do readers expect to see when they pick up this book? Who has won the Most Troubled Romantic Lead at the BookWorld Awards seventy-seven times in a row? Me. All me. ↗

— Jasper Fforde

#humor #wuthering-heights #humor

You are not broken. You are not a problem to be solved. Solving your “problem”, whatever you perceive your problem or problems to be, is not the key to happiness. ↗

— Golda Poretsky

#empowerment #self-help #self-knowledge #self-love #love

[S]he believed that the Buddhists were right–that if you want, you will suffer; if you love, you will grieve. (68) ↗

— Anne Lamott

#buddhism #desire #grief #love #suffering

Everyone has their own idea of the perfect partner, but they usually do not consider what it is they have to offer one. ↗

— Stephen Richards

#law-of-attraction #love #mind-power #stephen-richards #love

If happy I can be I will, if suffer I must I can. ↗

— William Faulkner

#happiness #optimism #suffering #optimism