From The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin:
“Suffering is misunderstanding,” …. “It exists,” Shevek said, spreading out his hands. “It`s real. I can call it a misunderstanding, but I can`t pretend that it doesn`t exist, or will ever cease to exist. Suffering is the condition on which we live. And when it comes, you know it. You know it as the truth. Of course it`s right to cure diseases, to prevent hunger and injustice, as the social organism does. But no society can change the nature of existence. We can`t prevent suffering.This pain and that pain, yes, but not Pain. A society can only relieve social suffering, unnecessary suffering. The rest remains. The root, the reality. All of us here are going to know grief; if we live fifty years, we`ll have known pain for fifty years. And in the end we`ll die. That`s the condition we`re born on.” …
