"It's easy to convince oneself that things can't really be that bad, that the horror invoked is being overblown, that what is going on elsewhere in space-time is somehow less real than this here-and-now, or that the good in the world somehow offsets the bad. Yet however vividly one thinks one can imagine what agony, torture or suicidal despair must be like, the reality is inconceivably worse. Hazy images of Orwell's 'Room 101' barely hint at what I'm talking about. The force of 'inconceivably' is itself largely inconceivable here. For even if one's ancestral namesakes [aka "younger self"] underwent great pain, then the state-dependence of memory means, right this moment, that the utter dreadfulness of suffering is semantically, cognitively and emotionally inaccessible to the author and site visitors alike."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
David Pearce, The Hedonistic Imperative (1995), "2.7 Why Be Negative?"
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Suffering
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Suffering
82 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Suffering →
Related Quotes
"If there is a meaning in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering. Suffering is an ineradicable part of…"
"Pain is inescapable, and must be met with suffering. Suffering is raw and must be transcended with art. Art will be r…"
"Those who inflict must suffer, for they see The work of their own hearts, and that must be Our chastisement or recomp…"
"For the good man is neither uplifted with the good things of time, nor broken by its ills; but the wicked man, becaus…"
"For He is called omnipotent on account of His doing what He wills, not on account of His suffering what He wills not;…"
"Suffering is not necessarily a fixed and universal experience that can be measured by a single rod: it is related to …"
"Knowledge by suffering entereth, And Life is perfected by Death."
"The capacity to accept suffering for the sake of goodness, truth and justice is an essential criterion of humanity, b…"
"“You know, my dear, you’re wrong that suffering ennobles people.” She’d stopped to massage her hip, wincing. “It simp…"
"Toil on, O weary, way-worn sufferer! bear up, O crushed and sorrowing heart! thy bed of pain, thy silent heroism, thy…"