Pain was something to get used to, to inure yourself against. I would rather hurt myself than be hurt by someone else, and so I took up this practice with a sense of purpose and without remorse.

Alice Hoffman
About This Quote

Pain was something to get used to, to inure yourself against. I would rather hurt myself than be hurt by someone else, and so I took up this practice with a sense of purpose and without remorse. If you can bear pain, after time it will become bearable. Most people do not understand the value of pain and so they do not put their bodies through the kind of torture that will make it easier for them to bear the pain of life. Instead, they seek out pleasures and distractions until all that is left is pain.

Source: The Dovekeepers

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More Quotes By Alice Hoffman
  1. There are some things, after all, that Sally Owens knows for certain: Always throw spilled salt over your left shoulder. Keep rosemary by your garden gate. Add pepper to your mashed potatoes. Plant roses and lavender, for luck. Fall in love whenever you can.
  2. Do you ever just put your arms out and just spin and spin and spin? Well, that's what love is like; everything inside of you tells you to stop before you fall, but for some reason you just keep going.
  3. When all is said and done, the weather and love are the two elements about which one can never be sure.
  4. When I walk, I walk with you. Where I go, you're with me always.
  5. ...he had a way of taking your hand which made it clear he'd have to be the one to let go." From Alice Hoffman's "Local Girls", pg.102.
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