Herta Muller Quotes

There's beauty in pain, and everyone experiences it - and it's a lesson.

Suffering is the substance of life and the root of personality, for it is only suffering that makes us persons.

Our trials, our sorrows, and our grieves develop us.

Suffering is one of life's great teachers.

We all have to face pain, and pain makes us grow.

Pain is life - the sharper, the more evidence of life.

Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and grieves which we endure help us in our marching onward.

He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.

I mean, the things you think will never happen, you have to confront; those things that come into your life that you thought you never could deal with, you do.

Suffering does not discriminate.

Suffering is the positive element in this world, indeed it is the only link between this world and the positive.

It's our challenges and obstacles that give us layers of depth and make us interesting. Are they fun when they happen? No. But they are what make us unique. And that's what I know for sure... I think.

You've got to learn to survive a defeat. That's when you develop character.

This horror of pain is a rather low instinct and... if I think of human beings I've known and of my own life, such as it is, I can't recall any case of pain which didn't, on the whole, enrich life.

I hope not to define myself by suffering.

I think that no human gets away unscathed in this old life. We've all experienced loss and grief and pain and tragedy.

Of course fear does not automatically lead to courage. Injury does not necessarily lead to insight. Hardship will not automatically make us better. Pain can break us or make us wiser. Suffering can destroy us or make us stronger. Fear can cripple us, or it can make us more courageous. It is resilience that makes the difference.

It's the trials and tribulations that really test a person, and coming through those difficulties is what shapes a person's character.

I'm no stranger to pain. It's what made me.

Be patient and tough; someday this pain will be useful to you.

Being human, we would expel from our lives physical pain and mental anguish and assure ourselves of continual ease and comfort, but if we were to close the doors upon sorrow and distress, we might be excluding our greatest friends and benefactors. Suffering can make saints of people as they learn patience, long-suffering, and self-mastery.

Adversity is simply part of earth life. From it we can grow and progress if we choose to. Yes, some trials come because of our own disobedience, but many trials are simply part of life.

It requires more courage to suffer than to die.

What doesn't kill you only makes your book longer.

When something terrible happens, how you react determines who you are from then on.