Orhan Pamuk Quotes

How much can we ever know about the love and pain in another heart? How much can we hope to understand those who have suffered deeper anguish, greater deprivation, and more crushing disappointments than we ourselves have known?

The man who has not suffered - what does he know anyway?

I fervently wish no misery ever came near anyone; yet it is that alone that gives us an insight into the depths of our lives, does it not? In our moments of anguish, gates barred forever seem to open and let in many a flood of light.

Only when the sense of the pain of others begins does man begin.

One cannot be deeply responsive to the world without being saddened very often.

Those who do not feel pain seldom think that it is felt.

They learned no compassion from their own anguish. thus their suffering was wasted.

Love is to understand, at last, the suffering of another.

You never really feel somebody's suffering. You only feel their death.

All that evilness is always just from pain and fear, and that's what I've come to understand. I've come to understand people now. Before, I would blame them for treating me in such a naïve way. I don't hate evil, vicious people anymore.

Empathy during agony is a portion of divinity.

It is people who go through suffering that have an empathy for the suffering of others.

Forgiveness requires a sense that bad behaviour is a sign of suffering rather than malice.

Without suffering, there'd be no compassion.

When you truly know the meaning of the word love, you will also know the meaning of the word pain.

Don't judge someone's attitude until you've felt their pain.

To each his suff'rings: all are men, / Condemn'd alike to groan, / The tender for another's pain; / Th' unfeeling for his own.

Vanity calculates but poorly on the vanity of others; what a virtue we should distil from frailty, what a world of pain we should save our brethren, if we would suffer our own weakness to be the measure of theirs.

I understand people's suffering, people's pain, more than you will every know yourself.

Needs there groan a world in anguish just to teach us sympathy?

The wisdom that comes from having experienced heartbreak cannot be bequeathed; it can only be gained through experience. And having truly felt it, we are far more likely to have compassion for others. Anything that takes us close to true compassion takes us closer to what will one day be an experience of even greater joy.

Great pain, when it is honored from the heart, opens into great understanding.

Anyone who has gone through great suffering is bound to have a greater sympathy and understanding of the problems of mankind.

There are many things that can only be seen through eyes that have cried

I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes. You'd know what a drag it is to see you.