I ran across this quotation: “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so:” Hamlet in Hamlet (Act 2, Scene 2).

Along the same line: “Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional,” Buddha did not say. It’s an important idea.

I know this idea of pain/suffering changed my life. A half century of grudges, anger and hatred melted away when I reframed it. Changed nothing. Changed the way I looked at it. (You Can’t Change History But…)

– – -Stop reading here unless you are fascinated by details – – –

I couldn’t find a citation to Buddha ¹ but One Mind Dharma solved the mystery.

“[The quote] is often attributed to the Buddha incorrectly… Although this is a teaching that is certainly in-line with the Buddha’s teachings, the origins of this quotation are murky. According to Bodhipaksa of Fake Buddha Quotes, the earliest known attribution is in 1983 to Karen Casey.”

This is in line with my experience of quotations. ² Most of the universally adored quotations have been polished to a fine sheen by the game of Telephone. A word or two dropped or added by the wisdom of crowds maintains the essence of the wisdom or humor of the original, while boiling it down into a clearer and more concise expression.³ Best way to check most citations is Quote Investigator

Footnotes:

1. 1. No AIs were harmed in the search process ↩︎
2. 2. Regular readers will have heard this before. ↩︎
3. 3. Unlike this sentence ↩︎