Affliction Quotes

“Extraordinary afflictions are not always the punishment of extraordinary sins, but sometimes the trial of extraordinary graces.”
― Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible

“The Lord's mercy often rides to the door of our heart upon the black horse of affliction.”
― Charles Spurgeon

“We love being mentally strong, but we hate situations that allow us to put our mental strength to good use.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“The most detestable wickedness, the most horrid cruelties, and the greatest miseries, that have afflicted the human race have had their origin in this thing called revelation, or revealed religion. It has been the most dishonourable belief against the character of the divinity, the most destructive to morality, and the peace and happiness of man, that ever was propagated since man began to exist. It is better, far better, that we admitted, if it were possible, a thousand devils to roam at large, and to preach publicly the doctrine of devils, if there were any such, than that we permitted one such impostor and monster as Moses, Joshua, Samuel, and the Bible prophets, to come with the pretended word of God in his mouth, and have credit among us.

Whence arose all the horrid assassinations of whole nations of men, women, and infants, with which the Bible is filled; and the bloody persecutions, and tortures unto death and religious wars, that since that time have laid Europe in blood and ashes; whence arose they, but from this impious thing called revealed religion, and this monstrous belief that God has spoken to man? The lies of the Bible have been the cause of the one, and the lies of the Testament of the other.”
― Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason

“Glory follows afflictions, not as the day follows the night but as the spring follows the winter; for the winter prepares the earth for the spring, so do afflictions sanctified prepare the soul for glory.”
― Richard Sibbes

“It is good for us to have trials and troubles at times, for they often remind us that we are on probation and ought not to hope in any worldly thing. It is good for us sometimes to suffer contradiction, to be misjudged by men even though we do well and mean well. These things help us to be humble and shield us from vainglory. When to all outward appearances men give us no credit, when they do not think well of us, then we are more inclined to seek God Who sees our hearts. Therefore, a man ought to root himself so firmly in God that he will not need the consolations of men.”
― Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ

“Bad luck with women is a determined man's road to success. For every affliction, he makes, out of indignation, yet another advancement in order to exceed the man that the woman chose over him. This goes to show that great men are made great because they once learned how to fight the feeling of rejection.”
― Criss Jami, Venus in Arms

“There's nothing like active employment, I suppose, to console the afflicted.”
― Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

“Christ literally walked in our shoes and entered into our affliction. Those who will not help others until they are destitute reveal that Christ's love has not yet turned them into the sympathetic persons the gospel should make them.”
― Timothy Keller, Generous Justice: How God's Grace Makes Us Just

“It's shame that gets us killed. Shame is the anchor, the heaviest burden to carry from the battlefield. Fortunately shame was an affliction I'd never suffered from.”
― Mark Lawrence, Prince of Fools

“While racial minorities across every civilized country in the world are still waiting for their break, our kind (stutterers) became emperors (i.e., Claudius) and kings (i.e., George VI) for thousands of years. Imagine how well we’re doing for ourselves now.”
― Anas Hamshari, Businessman With An Affliction

“Trouble sharpens the vision.”
― P. G. Wodehouse

“To endure affliction is better than turning to do evil.”
― Lailah Gifty Akita

“It is good for me to be afflicted that I may die wholly to this world and all that is in it.”
― David Brainerd, The Life and Diary of David Brainerd

“J'avais passé un quart d'heure avec mes enfants.
Et ça a duré des mois qu'elle se plaignait que j'avais aucune reconnaissance.
Les Blancs, c'est un vrai chagrin, dit Sofia.”
― Alice Walker, The Color Purple

“They encouraged each other now in the violence of their affliction. The agony of grief which overpowered them at first, was voluntarily renewed, was sought for, was created again and again. They gave themselves up wholly to their sorrow, seeking increase of wretchedness in every reflection that could afford it, and resolved against ever admitting consolation in future.”
― Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility

“Affliction is not misery. Misery is the abasement of spirit which comes from the loss of God and good.”
― John Webster

“Trials put every man to test in the journey of life.”
― Lailah Gifty Akita

“In the land of affliction is where every good soldier of Christ undergoes graceful training.”
― Lailah Gifty Akita

“Every good soldier of Christ has endured suffering in the land of affliction.”
― Lailah Gifty Akita

“The thorn is one of the most cursed and angry
and crabbed weeds that the earth yields, and yet out of it springs the rose, one of the sweetest smelled flowers, and most delightful to the eye.”
― Samuel Rutherford, Letters of Samuel Rutherford

“God speaks to man in his affliction to deliever his soul from death.”
― Lailah Gifty Akita

“None but the godly are capable of desertion. Wicked men know not what God’s love means, nor what it is to want it. They know what it is to want health, friends, trade, but not what it is to want God’s favour. You fear you are not God’s child because you are deserted. The Lord cannot be said to withdraw His love from the wicked, because they never had it. The being deserted evidences you to be a child of God. How could you complain that God has estranged Himself, if you had not sometimes received smiles and tokens of love from Him?”
― Thomas Watson, All Things for Good

“Fear—real, honest-to-God debilitating fear—is an affliction.”
― Magie Dominic, Street Angel

“The Lord afflicts us not in His fury, but in His faithfulness”
― Royal Raj S

“In ballads, love is a disease, an affliction. You contract it as a mortal might contract one of their viruses. Perhaps a touch of hands or a brush of lips, and then it is as though your whole body is fevered and fighting it. But there's no way to prevent it from running its course.”
― Holly Black, The Prisoner’s Throne

“It would be a very sharp and trying experience to me to think that I have an affliction which God never sent me, that the bitter cup was never filled by his hand, that my trials were never measured out by him, nor sent to me by his arrangement of their weight and quantity.”
― Charles Haddon Spurgeon

“I see life as a mission to which I have been called rather than an affliction that I must endure. And while the two frequently run parallel paths that seem to intersect at times, holding tight to the sense of ‘mission’ grants me the strength to endure the feelings of ‘affliction.”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough

“In this my affliction the pleasant discourse of a certain friend of mine and his admirable consolations afforded me such refreshment that I firmly believe of these it came that I died not. But, as it pleased Him who, being Himself infinite, hath for immutable law appointed unto all things mundane that they shall have an end, my love,—beyond every other fervent and which nor stress of reasoning nor counsel, no, nor yet manifest shame nor peril that might ensue thereof, had availed either to break or to bend,—of its own motion, in process of time, on such wise abated that of itself at this present it hath left me only that pleasance which it is used to afford unto whoso adventureth himself not too far in the navigation of its profounder oceans; by reason whereof, all chagrin being done away, I feel it grown delightsome, whereas it used to be grievous.”
― Giovanni Boccaccio, THE DECAMERON:

“A kindly thing it is to have compassion of the afflicted and albeit it well beseemeth every one, yet of those is it more particularly required who have erst had need of comfort and have found it in any, amongst whom, if ever any had need thereof or held it dear or took pleasure therein aforetimes, certes, I am one of these.”
― Giovanni Boccaccio, THE DECAMERON: