John Donne, whose words those are, may well have been a man of unusually pessimistic temperament: he dwelt frequently on death, wrote his own epitaph and had his portrait painted in his shroud. And yet in that passage he is simply stating one of the most obvious facts of human existence, that suffering is the common lot of all men. It is because suffering, in one form or another, is a common experience that religions give to suffering a place of central importance or consideration—indeed, it is often said that suffering is an important cause of religion, since the promises held out by religion represent a way in which men can feel reassured in the face of catastrophe or death.