Steven Tyler

There's a quiet subversion here worth noticing: Tyler isn't claiming sorrow *teaches* us or *strengthens* us, which would be the expected sentiment. Instead, he says it *awakens* us—suggesting we're half-asleep to begin with, and grief is often the first thing that breaks through our numbness. A person might go years attending to obligations, checking boxes, never quite present until loss arrives and suddenly the ordinary becomes vivid again. That's why a friend's betrayal sometimes matters more than years of distant kindness; pain has a way of making us suddenly, startlingly conscious of what we actually value.