--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: To grow is sometimes to hurt, but who…" description: "\"To grow is sometimes to hurt, but who would return to smallness?\" — Sarah-Patton Boyle" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/40a/sarah-patton-boyle-33230_gardening_to-grow-is-sometimes-to-hurt-but-who-wou_114574.jpg" --- # To grow is sometimes to hurt, but who would return to… ![“To grow is sometimes to hurt, but who would return to smallness?” quote by Sarah-Patton Boyle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/40a/sarah-patton-boyle-33230_gardening_to-grow-is-sometimes-to-hurt-but-who-wou_114574.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/40a/sarah-patton-boyle-33230_gardening_to-grow-is-sometimes-to-hurt-but-who-wou_114574.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/40a/sarah-patton-boyle-33230_gardening_to-grow-is-sometimes-to-hurt-but-who-wou_114574.jpg) > “To grow is sometimes to hurt, but who would return to smallness?” [Sarah-Patton Boyle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-patton-boyle/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Personal growth often requires pain, yet regressing to a smaller, less developed self is undesirable. **In simple terms:** Growth hurts; shrinking is not an option. Key Takeaway Pain is a necessary part of advancement. Themes growth pain self‑development resilience Mood determined encouraging Type motivational reflective When to use this quote - learning a new skill - recovering from a setback - career advancement - emotional healing Key Concepts psychology of change motivation theory Practical Applications - embrace discomfort as a signal of progress - track incremental improvements Questions to Reflect On - What discomfort have you linked to personal breakthroughs? - When might stepping back be strategic rather than a failure? ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Gardening](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/gardening/) ## Related quotes > [If we love-and-serve an ideal we reach backward in time to its inception and forward to its consummation. To grow is sometimes to hurt;…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-patton-boyle/if-we-love-and-serve-an-ideal-we-reach-backward-in-time-to-its/) [Sarah-Patton Boyle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-patton-boyle/) > [The human heart dares not stay away too long from that which hurt it most. There is a return journey to anguish that few…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lillian-smith/the-human-heart-dares-not-stay-away-too-long-from-that-which-hurt-it/) [Lillian Smith](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lillian-smith/) > [You can't stamp on people and not get hurt in return.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alexei-panshin/you-can-t-stamp-on-people-and-not-get-hurt-in-return/) [Alexei Panshin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alexei-panshin/) > [We rarely grow when we're happy, we grow when we hurt.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/maggie-q/we-rarely-grow-when-we-re-happy-we-grow-when-we-hurt/) [Maggie Q](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/maggie-q/) > [“I gain with loss. I grow with hurt”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nawaf-al-harbi/i-gain-with-loss-i-grow-with-hurt/) Nawaf Al-Harbi > [Creative scientists and saints expect revelation and do not fear it. Neither do children. But as we grow up and we are hurt, we…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/madeleine-l-engle/creative-scientists-and-saints-expect-revelation-and-do-not-fear-it/) [Madeleine L'Engle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/madeleine-l-engle/) > [There's a time in your life when enough is enough, people will always hate you or treat you like you're invisible. 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I'd be embarrassed at…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jim-cymbala/the-reason-other-churches-don-t-grow-jim-the-truth-is-i-couldn-t-have/) [Jim Cymbala](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jim-cymbala/) > [“Who you are is limited only by who you think you are.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/normandi-ellis/who-you-are-is-limited-only-by-who-you-think-you-are/) [Normandi Ellis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/normandi-ellis/) > [I've not conducted my life in the service of smallness.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/barry-diller/i-ve-not-conducted-my-life-in-the-service-of-smallness/) [Barry Diller](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/barry-diller/) ## More by Sarah-Patton Boyle > [Our minorities alone are in a position to know what the fathers of our democracy were talking about.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-patton-boyle/our-minorities-alone-are-in-a-position-to-know-what-the-fathers-of/) [Sarah-Patton Boyle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-patton-boyle/) > [If we love-and-serve an ideal we reach backward in time to its inception and forward to its consummation. To grow is sometimes to hurt;…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-patton-boyle/if-we-love-and-serve-an-ideal-we-reach-backward-in-time-to-its/) [Sarah-Patton Boyle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-patton-boyle/) > [I have known no experience more distressing than the discovery that Negroes didn't love me. Unutterable loneliness claimed me. I felt without roots, like…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-patton-boyle/i-have-known-no-experience-more-distressing-than-the-discovery-that/) [Sarah-Patton Boyle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-patton-boyle/) > [Two great areas of deafness existed in the South: White Southerners had no ears to hear that which threatened their Dream. And colored Southerners…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-patton-boyle/two-great-areas-of-deafness-existed-in-the-south-white-southerners/) [Sarah-Patton Boyle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-patton-boyle/) > [The importance of a lost romantic vision should not be underestimated. In such a vision is power as well as joy. In it is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-patton-boyle/the-importance-of-a-lost-romantic-vision-should-not-be-underestimated/) [Sarah-Patton Boyle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-patton-boyle/) > [When we lose love, we lose also our identification with the universe and with eternal values--an identification which alone makesit possible for us to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-patton-boyle/when-we-lose-love-we-lose-also-our-identification-with-the-universe/) [Sarah-Patton Boyle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-patton-boyle/) > [... most Southerners of my parents' era were raised to feel that it wasn't respectable to be rich. We felt that all patriotic Southerners…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-patton-boyle/most-southerners-of-my-parents-era-were-raised-to-feel-that-it-wasn-t/) [Sarah-Patton Boyle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-patton-boyle/) > [Serviceis love in action, love "made flesh"; service is the body, the incarnation of love. Love is the impetus, service the act, and creativity…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-patton-boyle/serviceis-love-in-action-love-made-flesh-service-is-the-body-the/) [Sarah-Patton Boyle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-patton-boyle/) > [... the structure of our public morality crashed to earth. Above its grave a tombstone read, "Be tolerant--even of evil." 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I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-patton-boyle/one-of-the-blind-spots-of-most-negroes-is-their-failure-to-realize/) [Sarah-Patton Boyle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-patton-boyle/) [Explore all 15 Sarah-Patton Boyle quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-patton-boyle/) ## More Gardening quotes > [“As dreams are the healing songs from the wilderness of our unconscious - So wild animals, wild plants, wild landscapes are the healing dreams…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dale-pendell/as-dreams-are-the-healing-songs-from-the-wilderness-of-our/) [Dale Pendell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dale-pendell/) > [It's difficult for people to come to the understanding that only a small minority of the people ever really get the word about life,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/earl-nightingale/it-s-difficult-for-people-to-come-to-the-understanding-that-only-a/) [Earl Nightingale](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/earl-nightingale/) > [A garden has a curious innocent way of consuming cash while all the time you are under the illusion that you are spending nothing.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/esther-meynell/a-garden-has-a-curious-innocent-way-of-consuming-cash-while-all-the/) [Esther Meynell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/esther-meynell/) > [My days – the blossom of my youth and the flower of my manhood – have been darkened by the dreariness of servitude. 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Submitted by Lisa Letto, Coordinator, Nutrition Resource and Volunteer Centre, College of Pharmacy…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rabindranath-tagore/plant-flowers-in-others-gardens-and-your-life-becomes-a-bouquet/) [Rabindranath Tagore](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rabindranath-tagore/) > [Love and work are to people what water and sunshine are to plants.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jonathan-haidt/love-and-work-are-to-people-what-water-and-sunshine-are-to-plants/) [Jonathan Haidt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jonathan-haidt/) > [“A flower needs the rain to grow just as much as it needs the sunshine.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/teresa-mummert/a-flower-needs-the-rain-to-grow-just-as-much-as-it-needs-the-sunshine/) [Teresa Mummert](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/teresa-mummert/) > [“Mr. Grote shows me how he grows wild rice in the stream and collects the seeds. The rice is nutty and brown. He plants…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christina-baker-kline/mr-grote-shows-me-how-he-grows-wild-rice-in-the-stream-and-collects/) [Christina Baker Kline](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christina-baker-kline/) > [I must hurry back to my house and my flowers in Monaco.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lillie-langtry/i-must-hurry-back-to-my-house-and-my-flowers-in-monaco/) [Lillie Langtry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lillie-langtry/) > [“Look for light Listen for inspiration on the wind Let water cleanse your soul Set yourself on a firm foundation Serve as the plants…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anasazi-foundation/look-for-light-listen-for-inspiration-on-the-wind-let-water-cleanse/) Anasazi Foundation [Browse all 5,790 Gardening quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/gardening/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "To grow is sometimes to hurt, but who would return to smallness?", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sarah-Patton Boyle" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-patton-boyle/to-grow-is-sometimes-to-hurt-but-who-would-return-to-smallness/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Gardening" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-patton-boyle/to-grow-is-sometimes-to-hurt-but-who-would-return-to-smallness/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/40a/sarah-patton-boyle-33230_gardening_to-grow-is-sometimes-to-hurt-but-who-wou_114574.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/40a/sarah-patton-boyle-33230_gardening_to-grow-is-sometimes-to-hurt-but-who-wou_114574.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/40a/sarah-patton-boyle-33230_gardening_to-grow-is-sometimes-to-hurt-but-who-wou_114574.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“To grow is sometimes to hurt, but who would return to smallness?” — Sarah-Patton Boyle", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Sarah-Patton Boyle", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-patton-boyle/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "To grow is sometimes to hurt,...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-patton-boyle/to-grow-is-sometimes-to-hurt-but-who-would-return-to-smallness/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-patton-boyle/to-grow-is-sometimes-to-hurt-but-who-would-return-to-smallness/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```