“Nature was more merciful than men, providing for those who suffered great pain such blessedness as fainting; but men were cruel and brought their victims out of faints that the pain might start again. (On being tortured/The Tower.)”

“The sound of carriage wheels and horses was faint,seeming more distant than they actually were. Drops of water clung to the wool of my dress and my cloak, the men dragging in the grass. We were in a soft cocoon.It might have been romantic.If it wasn't for all the dead bodies.And the faint scratch of a footstep.”

“You fainted,' Tom said.Reg coughed.No, I didn't,' he said. 'Women faint. People afraid of needles faint. Men black out.”

“Then why are women by nature, by God’s own design, the gentler sex? Women faint at the slightest scare. (Morgan)Slight scare, Captain? I assure you, sir, that I have seen women suffer for days to bring a child into this world. And I have yet to see a woman faint during the labor of it. I beg you, show me a man who would willingly bear that much pain for that many hours, and not cry out for his mommy! In fact, you want to know why women have a higher tolerance for pain, Captain Drake? I’ll tell you why, it’s so that we women can put up with you men! (Serenity)”

“It is easier to find men who will volunteer to die, than to find those who are willing to endure pain with patience.”

“Tessa distinguished absolutely between pain observed and pain shared. Pain observed is journalistic pain. It’s diplomatic pain. It’s television pain, over as soon as you switch off your beastly set. Those who watch suffering and do nothing about it, in her book, were little better than those who inflicted it. They were the bad Samaritans.”