One of the more profound things I have read: 

A man’s suffering is similar to the behavior of gas. If a certain quantity of gas is pumped into a chamber, it will fill the chamber completely and evenly, no matter how big the chamber. Thus suffering completely fills the human soul and conscious mind, no matter whether suffering is great or little. Therefore the “size” of human suffering is absolutely relative.

– Victor Frankl, in Man’s Search for Meaning