There are strings in the human heart that had better not be vibrated.
—Charles Dickens (1812–70) English Novelist
Love is an ocean of emotions entirely surrounded by expenses.
—Thomas Dewar, 1st Baron Dewar (1864–1930) Scottish Businessperson
The degree of one’s emotion varies inversely with one’s knowledge of the facts—the less you know the hotter you get.
—Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Mathematician, Social Critic
All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
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
Our emotions are only incidents in the effort to keep day and night together.
—T. S. Eliot (1888–1965) American-born British Poet, Dramatist, Literary Critic
Today there are no more irreconcilable enmities, because there are no more disinterested emotions: that’s a good thing born from a bad thing.
—Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) French Writer, Moralist
Sentimentality—that’s what we call the sentiment we don’t share.
—Graham Greene (1904–91) British Novelist, Playwright, Short Story Writer
One ought to hold on to one’s heart; for if one lets it go, one soon loses control of the head too.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
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
Nothing vivifies, and nothing kills, like the emotions.
—Philibert Joseph Roux (1780–1854) French Surgeon
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
When I repress my emotion my stomach keeps score.
—Enoch Powell (1912–98) English Conservative Politician, Scholar
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
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
The walls we build around us to keep sadness out also keep out the joy.
—Jim Rohn (1930–2009) American Entrepreneur, Author, Motivational Speaker
Sentiment is the poetry of the imagination.
—Alphonse de Lamartine (1790–1869) French Poet, Politician, Historian
The barrenest of all mortals is the sentimentalist.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
Systems die; instincts remain.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American Jurist, Author
A clear understanding of a negative emotion dismisses it .
—Vernon Howard (1918–92) American Spiritual Teacher, Philosopher
Where we have strong emotions, we’re liable to fool ourselves.
—Carl Sagan (1934–96) American Astronomer
Emotions have taught mankind to reason.
—Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–47) French Moralist, Essayist, Writer
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American First Lady, Diplomat, Humanitarian
The heart errs like the head; its errors are not any the less fatal, and we have more trouble getting free of them because of their sweetness.
—Anatole France (1844–1924) French Novelist
How do I change?
If I feel depressed I will sing.
If I feel sad I will laugh.
If I feel ill I will double my labour.
If I feel fear I will plunge ahead.
If I feel inferior I will wear new garments.
If I feel uncertain I will raise my voice.
If I feel poverty I will think of wealth to come.
If I feel incompetent I will think of past success.
If I feel insignificant I will remember my goals.
Today I will be the master of my emotions.
—Og Mandino (1923–96) American Self-Help Author
The evidence of the emotions, save in cases where it has strong objective support, is really no evidence at all, for every recognizable emotion has its opposite, and if one points one way then another points the other way. Thus the familiar argument that there is an instinctive desire for immortality, and that this desire proves it to be a fact, becomes puerile when it is recalled that there is also a powerful and widespread fear of annihilation, and that this fear, on the same principle proves that there is nothing beyond the grave. Such childish proofs are typically theological, and they remain theological even when they are adduced by men who like to flatter themselves by believing that they are scientific gents…
—H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic
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
Sentiment is intellectualized emotion; emotion precipitated, as it were, in pretty crystals by the fancy.
—James Russell Lowell (1819–91) American Poet, Critic
An emotion is an automatic response, an automatic effect of man’s value premises. An effect, not a cause. There is no necessary clash, no dichotomy between man’s reason and his emotions
—Ayn Rand (1905–82) Russian-born American Novelist, Philosopher