But even them, my pains, I understand ill. That must come from my not being all pain and nothing else. There's the rub. Then they recede, or I, till they fill me with amaze and wonder, seen from a better planet. Not often, but I ask no more. Catch-cony life! To be nothing but pain, how that would simplify matters! Omnidolent! Impious dream. Samuel Beckett
About This Quote

The above quote is from A.E. Housman’s short poem, “A Shropshire Lad.” This little poem has a really important point to it. When you are in pain, you are not only experiencing the pain, you are also experiencing all of the things that are happening around you. The pain gives you a sense of reality and feeling of loss.

But when we focus on the pain itself it can make us feel like our lives are meaningless and worthless because we cannot get rid of the pain. But what if we could take the experience of pain and turn it into something else? That’s what happens in this poem. Pain serves as a catalyst for an appreciation for life and feeling that we can get even more out of life by focusing on things that we can do instead of just focusing on the pain itself.

Source: The Complete Short Prose, 19291989

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More Quotes By Samuel Beckett
  1. You're on Earth. There's no cure for that.
  2. The end is in the beginning and yet you go on.
  3. No, I regret nothing, all I regret is having been born, dying is such a long tiresome business I always found.
  4. The tears of the world are a constant quantity. For each one who begins to weep somewhere else another stops. The same is true of the laugh.
  5. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.
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