Harold Kushner Quotes

If people can live through genocide and retain compassion, if they can take strength in pain, if they are able, still, to laugh, then certainly we can learn something from them.

It seems that most people need to experience a great deal of suffering before they will relinquish resistance and accept - before they will forgive.

Suffering isn't ennobling, recovery is.

The Bible doesn't sugarcoat pain and suffering; it gives you something to move past it.

I have been drawn to stories that are attempting to turn suffering into beauty.

'Somnia' is a story about loss and, I guess, what you're willing to do to have closure and try and feel whole again. It's a story of redemption in a sense. I don't want to give too much away, but it's a heartbreaking story that's incredibly terrifying.

Sometimes you want to complain and be like, 'Why? Life is so horrible.' But it doesn't change that there are redeeming qualities and a universal capacity for redemption and grace. There are still things that make it worth it and bearable.

It happened. It was awful. You aren't perfect. That's all there is. Don't confuse your grief with guilt.

I've learned that some broken things stay broken, and I've learned that you can get through bad times and keep looking for better ones, as long as you have people who love you.

This, I think, is how people survive: Even when horrible things have been done to us, we can still find gratitude in one another.

Suffering is not enough. Life is both dreadful and wonderful...How can I smile when I am filled with so much sorrow? It is natural--you need to smile to your sorrow because you are more than your sorrow.

People don’t cry when they lose their hope. They cry when they get it back.

If you will receive yourself in the fires of sorrow, God will make you nourishment for other people.

Since I was young, I have always known this: Life damages us, every one. We can’t escape that damage. But now, I am also learning this: We can be mended. We mend each other.

We wake up and are grateful for the day. Not taking away from the pain, because the pain will be there. But you live on.

The man watched him. Real life is pretty bad? What do you think? Well, I think we're still here. A lot of bad things have happened but we're still here. Yeah. You don't think that's so great. It's okay.

. . . your history is no less important to your survival than your ability to breathe. In the end, you can only determine whether to saturate your memories with pain or with perspective. Forgetting is not an option. I tell you the truth now: Pain was not God's plan for this life. It is a reality, but it is not a part of the plan.

Tiffany has been apprenticing as a witch by visiting people in need with her mentor. After meeting with one particularly sad case, she tells her mentor, "It shouldn't be like this." Her mentor replies, "There isn't a way things should be. There's just what happens, and what we do.

The people in flight from the terror behind-strange things happen to them, some bitterly cruel and some so beautiful that the faith is refired forever.

Well everybody in Casablanca has problems. Yours may work out.

I'm just trying to say that it should reassure us that the inevitable traumas of being human do end up producing some good. Otherwise, the human condition is overwhelmingly depressing.

I write about the power of trying, because I want to be okay with failing. I write about generosity because I battle selfishness. I write about joy because I know sorrow. I write about faith because I almost lost mine, and I know what it is to be broken and in need of redemption. I write about gratitude because I am thankful - for all of it.

I speak to people who have been through so much more.

The human race survived the Inquisition. We can survive. It's like the Anne Frank quote: 'In spite of everything, I still believe that people are basically good at heart.' Given what happened to her, it's one of the miracles of the world that she said that.