I have known no man of genius who had not to pay, in some affliction or defect either physical or spiritual, for what the gods had given him.

-Beerbohm, Sir (Henry) Max(imilian)
  And Even Now,'The Pines'.

And Isaid,My strengthand my hope isperished fromthe L: Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.

-Bible (Old Testament)
ORDLamentations 3:18^19.

It's better to be dead, or even perfectly well, than to suffer from the wrong affliction. The man who owns up to arthritis in a beri-beri year is as lonely as a woman in a last month's dress.

-Nash, (Frederic) Ogden
  'How'sYour Sacro-iliac?', in the Saturday Evening Post, 14 Oct.

Knowledge of physical science will not console me for ignorance of morality in time of affliction, but knowledge of morality will always console me for ignorance of physical science.

-Pascal, Blaise
c.1654^1662  Pense¤  es, no.23.

Of all affliction taught a lover yet, 'Tis sure the hardest science to forget! How shall I lose the sin, yet keep the sense, And love th'offender, yet detest th'offence? How the dear object from the crime remove, Or how distinguish penitence from love? 659

-Pope, Alexander
  'Eloisa to Abelard'.