The heart is half a prophet.


The only questions worth asking today are whether humans are going to have any emotions tomorrow, and what the quality of life will be if the answer is no.


The young man who has not wept is a savage, and the old man who will not laugh is a fool.


There are strings in the human heart that had better not be vibrated.


There can be no transforming of darkness into light and of apathy into movement without emotion.


We find nothing easier than being wise, patient, superior. We drip with the oil of forbearance and sympathy, we are absurdly just, we forgive everything. For that very reason we ought to discipline ourselves a little; for that very reason we ought to cultivate a little emotion, a little emotional vice, from time to time. It may be hard for us; and among ourselves we may perhaps laugh at the appearance we thus present. But what of that! We no longer have any other mode of self-overcoming available to us: this is our asceticism, our penance.


We know too much and feel too little. At least, we feel too little of those creative emotions from which a good life springs.


When I repress my emotion my stomach keeps score.


Where the heart lies, let the brain lie also.


You can't expect to prevent negative feelings altogether. And you can't expect to experience positive feelings all the time. The Law of Emotional Choice directs us to acknowledge our feelings but also to refuse to get stuck in the negative ones.


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.

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