Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside.
The real wisdom here isn't that suffering ends—anyone can see that—but rather that Armstrong insists on naming the *specific durations* pain might occupy. By forcing us to consider whether our hurt will last sixty seconds or twelve months, he strips away the self-dramatizing sense that our present agony is somehow infinite. A person trapped in a difficult job can use this framework to ask honestly: am I enduring this for a season or indefinitely? That distinction changes everything about how we bear it. The quote matters because it makes patience tactical rather than merely sentimental.