The heart of life is good, as the song by John Mayer goes. It’s an inspiring, uplifting song. Something you should listen to when you are going through painful times in life. Because we know, that however the heart of life good, there will always be those painful times, and there is no going around it.

Those painful times take on various forms.

You might have lost a loved one to an illness or accident.

You might have broken up with a partner of many years.

You might have lost a friendship irreparably.

You might have a lost a job.

Whatever the circumstances may be, the pain is no less real. It can bring you down to your knees, and you may feel as if the world has stopped turning. But you also know deep down that at some point, you’ll be able to get back up on your feet. Maybe not now. Maybe not tomorrow. But you will.

Everyone has his own process to go through, but these quotes for painful times in life may help you deal with that process in a healthier way.

1. It is only through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage, that we move on to better things. – Theodore Roosevelt

2. A dream is what makes people love life even when it is painful. – Theodore Zeldin (So dare to dream.)

3. Numbing the pain for a while will make it worse when you finally feel it. – J.K. Rowling (So allow yourself to feel it.)

4. You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive. – James Baldwin

5. There is a saying in Tibetan, ‘Tragedy should be utilized as a source of strength.’

No matter what sort of difficulties, how painful experience is, if we lose our hope, that’s our real disaster. – Dalai Lama XIV

6. Painful as it may be, a significant emotional event can be the catalyst for choosing a direction that serves us – and those around us – more effectively. Look for the learning. – Louisa May Alcott

7. Pain is a pesky part of being human, I’ve learned it feels like a stab wound to the heart, something I wish we could all do without, in our lives here.

Pain is a sudden hurt that can’t be escaped. But then I have also learned that because of pain, I can feel the beauty, tenderness, and freedom of healing.

Pain feels like a fast stab wound to the heart. But then healing feels like the wind against your face when you are spreading your wings and flying through the air! We may not have wings growing out of our backs, but healing is the closest thing that will give us that wind against our faces. – C. JoyBell C.

8. If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment. – Marcus Aurelius

9. Don’t make it worse by thinking it’s more painful than it actually is. – John Boyne, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

10. Change happens when the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change. – Tony Robbins