"Accepting suffering happens more in life than reducing it."
— Ahsanul Irfan
Does this quote make sense?
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What does 'it' refer to?– KillingTimeDec 4, 2022 at 12:19
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@KillingTime "Accepting suffering happens more in life than reducing suffering."– Ahsanul IrfanDec 4, 2022 at 12:25
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I did have a double-take reaction. At first glance I tentatively interpreted "it" as referring to "life" rather than "suffering", rejected that meaning and then arrived at the meaning you intended.– user888379Dec 4, 2022 at 12:38
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@user888379 "Accepting suffering happens more in life than reducing suffering." Is this version natural?– Ahsanul IrfanDec 4, 2022 at 12:43
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Sounds akin to the Buddhist offering that life brings suffering, with struggling an option to avoid (accepting, in your aphorism) .– Yosef BaskinDec 4, 2022 at 13:03
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1 Answer
The quotation does make sense, and it communicates a point of view regarding suffering. Whether you agree or disagree with that point of view depends largely on your acceptance or rejection of the implied "either/or" thinking the quotation contains.
According to the quotation, a person can either resign himself or herself to the reality of suffering and then do nothing about it, or they can reject passivity and choose to do something about it. That "something" involves seeking ways to lessen its deleterious effects on the human spirit.
Resignation and repudiation are by implication the implied opposites in the quotation. To resign oneself to suffering is to accept it as inevitable and, by implication, to suffer in silence. On the other hand, to repudiate suffering is to reject passivity and seek for ways to ameliorate it.
answered Dec 4, 2022 at 15:11
