Suffering, Pain and Wisdom

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"Zeus has led us on to know,
the Helmsmen lays it down as law
that we must suffer, suffer into truth."
Aeschylus
Agamemnon

"Pain comes from a darkness and we
call it wisdom. It is pain."
Randall Jarrell

       It was hot when I first took it, hot as a glede, and my hand was scorched, so that I doubt if ever again I shall be free of the pain of it. Yet even as I write it is cooled, and it seemeth to shrink, though it loseth neither its beauty nor its shape. Already the writing upon it, which at first was as clear as red flame, fadeth and is now only barely to be read. It is fashioned in the Elven-script of Eregion, for they have no letters in Mordor for such subtle work; but the language is unknown to me. I deem it to be a tongue of the Black Land, since it is foul and uncouth. What evil it saith I do not know; but I trace here a copy of it, lest it fade beyond recall. The Ring misseth, maybe, the heat of Sauron's hand, which was black, and yet burned like fire, and so Gil-galad was destroyed; and maybe were the gold made hot again, the writing would be refreshed. But for my part I will risk no hurt to this thing; of all the works of Sauron the only fair. It is precious to me, though I buy it with great pain.

J.R.R. Tolkein
The Fellowship of the Ring