Neal Stephenson Quotes

I've always been fascinated by the way that children and animals suffer stoically in a way that I don't think adults do.

It's amazing how much punishment we can take.

You know the pain is part of the whole thing. And it isn’t that you can say afterwards the pleasure was greater than the pain and that’s why you would do it again. That has nothing to do with it. You can’t measure it, because the pain comes after and it lasts longer. So the question really is, Why doesn’t that pain make you say, I won’t do it again? When the pain is so bad that you have to say that, but you don’t.

Patience is of two kinds: patience over what pains you, and patience against what you covet.

Oh man sometimes I wake up feel like a cat runover. Are you familiar with the stoical aspects of hard drinking, of heavy drinking? Oh it's heavy. Oh it's hard. It isn't easy. Jesus, I never meant me any harm. All I wanted was a good time.

Because all my life I've learned to suffer in silence - Athena

Men are ready to suffer anything from others or from heaven itself, provided that, when it comes to words, they are untouched.

Men had taken greater blows: that was what made a man a man. For did they not say that a man is like a funeral ram which must take whatever beating comes to it without opening its mouth; that the silent tremor of pain down its body alone must tell of its suffering?

Pain, scorned by yonder gout-ridden wretch, endured by yonder dyspeptic in the midst of his dainties, borne bravely by the girl in travail. Slight thou art, if I can bear thee, short thou art if I cannot bear thee!

you fix what you can fix and you let the rest go. If there ain't nothin to be done about it it aint even a problem. It's just a aggravation.

Pain pays no attention to moans or excuses.

When pain is unbearable it destroys us; when it does not it is bearable.

Pain is inevitable, suffering is not.

You just have to smile and take it, otherwise it would drive you mad.

Light sufferings give us leisure to complain.

He never complained. He seemed to have no instinct for the making much of oneself that complaining requires.

Maybe that’s why I’ve made it as far as I have – 2,521 miles. If I ran to a doctor every time I got a little cyst or abrasion I’d still be in Nova Scotia. Or else I’d never have started. I’ve seen people in so much pain. The little bit of pain I’m going through is nothing. They can’t shut it off, and I can’t shut down every time I feel a little sore.

I endeavor to drink deep of philosophy, and to be wise when I cannot be merry, easy when I cannot be glad, content with what cannot be mended, and patient where there is no redress. The mighty can do no more, and the wise seldom do as much. ... I am resolved to make the best of all circumstances around me, that this short life may not be half lost in pains ... Between the periods of birth and burial, I would fain insert a little happiness, a little pleasure, a little peace: to-day is ours, yesterday is past, and to-morrow may never come.

The longer I live, the less chance I'll ever recover from what life keeps doing to me.

Bear calamities with meekness.

At the least bear patiently, if thou canst not joyfully.

It's good to suffer. Dont complain. Bear, bow, accept - and be grateful that God has made you suffer. For this makes you better than the people who are laughing and happy.

Silence in times of suffering is the best.

Whether joy or sorrow, pain or pleasure; whatsoever may befall thee, accept it serenely with an unvanquished heart.

No wonder men got impervious to superficial pain, I thought. It came from this habit of hammering each other incessantly.