Though it is by the benefit of nature that length of time thus blots out the violence of afflictions; yet with tempers too much given to pleasure, it is almost necessary to revive the old places of grief in our memory, and ponder step by step on past life, to lead the mind into that sobriety of thought which poises the heart, and makes it beat with due time, without being quickened with desire, or retarded with despair, from its proper and equal motion.
Richard Steele (1672–1729) Anglo-Irish writer, journalist, playwright, politician
Essay (1710-06-06), “On the Death of Friends,” The Tatler, No. 181
(Source)
Steele did not provide a title when this essay was published in The Tatler. It is also sometimes called "On Recollections of Childhood." It was published under Steele's pseudonym, Isaac Bickerstaff.
Quotations about:
affliction
Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.
The evils inseparably annexed to the present condition of man, are so numerous and afflictive, that it has been, from age to age, the task of some to bewail, and of others to solace them; and he, therefore, will be in danger of seeing a common enemy, who shall attempt to depreciate the few pleasures and felicities which nature has allowed us.
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Essay (1753-11-27), The Adventurer, No. 111
(Source)
To bear other Peoples afflictions, every one has Courage enough, and to spare.
Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard (1740 ed.)
(Source)
Pain nourishes my courage. You have to fail in order to practice being brave. You can’t be brave if you’ve only had wonderful things happen to you.
Mary Tyler Moore (1936–2017) American actress, producer, and social advocate
Interview, McCall’s, Vol. 108 (1980)
(Source)
If you would not have affliction visit you twice, listen at once to what it teaches.
James Burgh (1714–1775) British politician and writer
(Attributed)
If Afflictions refine some, they consume others.
Thomas Fuller (1654–1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs (compiler), # 2666 (1732)
(Source)
Quite often, people who mean well will inquire of me whether I ever ask myself, in the face of my diseases, “Why me?” I never do. If I ask “Why me?” as I am assaulted by heart disease and AIDS, I must ask “Why me?” about my blessings, and question my right to enjoy them. The morning after I won Wimbledon in 1975 I should have asked “Why me?” and doubted that I deserved the victory. If I don’t ask “Why me?” after my victories, I cannot ask “Why me?” after my setbacks and disasters.
Arthur Ashe (1943–1993) American athlete
Days of Grace, ch. 10 (1993)
Often paraphrased (or used elsewhere by Ashe) as "If I were to say 'God, why me?' about the bad things, then I should have said 'God, why me?' about the good things that happened in my life."
