There is always a use for everything, Victor had told him. Even pain.
For wherein is life sweet to him who suffers grief?
It would seem that by our sorrows only are we called to a knowledge of the Infinite. Are we happy? The limits of life constrain us on all sides.
If there is meaning in life at all, then there must be meaning in suffering.
It is here that we encounter the central theme of existentialism: to live is to suffer, to survive is to find meaning in the suffering.
That is all I want in life: for this pain to seem purposeful.
Sometimes, when tragedy strikes, people give up hope that they can expect anything more from life, when the real quest is finding out what life expects from them.
Suffering is part and parcel of the human condition, but suffering can either embitter or ennoble us. It can ennoble us and become a spirituality of transformation when we find meaning in it.
The purpose of the world is for youto be lost in it, ultimately. The purpose of the world is for you to suffer, to create the suffering that seems to be what is needed for the awakening to happen.
As long as one suffers one lives.
The tragic sense of life: our heroic acceptance of the suffering of others.
Life is hell, but at least there are prizes. Or so one thought.
