As threshing separates the wheat from the chaff, so does affliction purify virtue. – Sir Richard Francis Burton

Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seamed with scars; martyrs have put on their coronation robes glittering with fire, and through their tears have the sorrowful first seen the gates of Heaven. – Edwin Hubbell Chapin

No one is more miserable than the person who wills everything and can do nothing. – Claudius