Sentiment is the poetry of the imagination.
—Alphonse de Lamartine (1790–1869) French Poet, Politician, Historian
There is no fire like passion, there is no shark like hatred, there is no snare like folly, there is no torrent like greed.
—The Dhammapada Buddhist Anthology of Verses
You learn to put your emotional luggage where it will do some good, instead of using it to shit on other people, or blow up aeroplanes.
—Margaret Drabble (b.1939) English Novelist, Biographer, Critic, Short Story Writer
The world makes up for all its follies and injustices by being damnably sentimental.
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95) English Biologist
It may be true of all relationships, not only between fathers and sons, but between men and women. Nothing seems fixed. Everything is always changing. We seem to have very little control over our emotional life.
—Sherwood Anderson (1876–1941) American Novelist, Short Story Writer
One’s suffering disappears when one lets oneself go, when one yields – even to sadness.
—Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900–44) French Novelist, Aviator
Where we have strong emotions, we’re liable to fool ourselves.
—Carl Sagan (1934–96) American Astronomer
The young man who has not wept is a savage, and the old man who will not laugh is a fool.
—George Santayana (1863–1952) Spanish-American Poet, Philosopher
When I repress my emotion my stomach keeps score.
—Enoch Powell (1912–98) English Conservative Politician, Scholar
The walls we build around us to keep sadness out also keep out the joy.
—Jim Rohn (1930–2009) American Entrepreneur, Author, Motivational Speaker
In this and like communities public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed; consequently he who moulds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes and decisions. He makes statutes and decisions possible or impossible to be executed.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
Any emotion, if it is sincere, is involuntary.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
Where the heart lies, let the brain lie also.
—Robert Browning (1812–89) English Poet
Emotion always has its roots in the unconscious and manifests itself in the body.
—Irene Claremont de Castillejo (1885–1967) British Psychoanalyst
To give vent now and then to his feelings, whether of pleasure or discontent, is a great ease to a man’s heart.
—Francesco Guicciardini (1483–1540) Italian Historian, Political leader
Sensitiveness is closely allied to egotism. Indeed, excessive sensitiveness is only another name for morbid self-consciousness. The cure for it is to make more of our objects, and less of ourselves.
—Christian Nestell Bovee (1820–1904) American Writer, Aphorist
As none can see the wind but in its effects on the trees, neither can we see the emotions but in their effects on the face and body.
—Nathaniel LeTonnerre
Acting deals with very delicate emotions. It is not putting up a mask. Each time an actor acts he does not hide; he exposes himself.
—Rodney Dangerfield (1921–2004) American Comedian, TV Personality, Actor
Let’s not forget that the little emotions are the great captains of our lives and we obey them without realizing it.
—Vincent van Gogh (1853–90) Dutch Painter
Love is an ocean of emotions entirely surrounded by expenses.
—Thomas Dewar, 1st Baron Dewar (1864–1930) Scottish Businessperson
Sentimentality—that’s what we call the sentiment we don’t share.
—Graham Greene (1904–91) British Novelist, Playwright, Short Story Writer
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American First Lady, Diplomat, Humanitarian
Each of us makes his own weather, determines the color of the skies in the emotional universe which he inhabits.
—Fulton J. Sheen (1895–1979) American Catholic Religious Leader, Theologian
How much has to be explored and discarded before reaching the naked flesh of feeling.
—Claude Debussy (1862-1918) French Composer