Every flower must grow through dirt. – Proverb

The keenest sorrow is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of all our adversities. – Sophocles

Suffering is above, not below. And everyone thinks that suffering is below. And everyone wants to rise. – Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin

Real pain can alone cure us of imaginary ills. We feel a thousand miseries till we are lucky enough to feel misery. – Samuel Taylor Coleridge