“Emotion is the poetry of life.”
“Emotion and instinct were the basis of all our decisions, our actions, everything we valued, the way we saw the world. Reason and rationality were a thin coat of paint on a ragged surface.”
“Romanticism is the expression of man’s urge to rise above reason and common sense, just as rationalism is the expression of his urge to rise above theology and emotion.”
“Poetry most often communicates emotions, not directly, but by creating imaginatively the grounds for those emotions. It therefore communicates something more than the emotion; only by means of that something more does it communicate the emotion at all.”
“Imagination paints a charming view of the future, conveniently adapted to the demands of our current emotion.”
“Conversation, to take another example, is one of the common pleasures of life, but not all conversation is pleasurable. The stutterer finds talking painful, and the listener is equally pained. Persons who are inhibited in expressing feeling are not good conversationalists. Nothing is more boring than to listen to a person talk in a monotone without feeling. We enjoy a conversation when there is a communication of feeling. We have pleasure in expressing our feelings, and we respond pleasurably to another person s expression of feeling. The voice, like the body, is a medium through which feeling flows, and when this flow occurs in an easy and rhythmic manner, it is a pleasure both to the speaker and listener.”
“i must feel this emotion with my whole being and as it sweeps me off my feet enjoy the sensation of falling falling endlessly into the arms of no lover”
“Logic in all its infinite potential, is the most dangerous of vices. For one can always find some form of logic to justify his action, and rest comfortably in the assurance, that what he did abides by reason. That is why, for us brittle beings, Intention is the only true weapon of peace.”
“Is lawlessness to be permitted, simply because it is effected with a certain style? Jane, Jane! Where are your finer sensibilities? All o erthrown, by a man with a golden tongue and a mocking glance?”
“I wish I could have lived just one day when the world was new. I wish—I wish I could have reaped just one single, solitary, big Emotion before the world had caught it and—appraised it—and taxed it—and licensed it—and staled it!”
“... as a convention, you get up and walk to the window to make the audience believe that you re looking out. It s for the audience, not for you! And what it means to you is something emotional [...] If you went to the Actors Studio you d spend six months seeing the snow before you could say, Look at the snow. This takes a terrible burden away from the actor, who thinks he s got to see the woods and the snow. Give me my gun! I see a rabbit! Give me my gun! Meisner sounds thrilled at the possibility of a hunt. That happens when you re still sitting there reading. Then when they put in the scenery you move to the window. Isn t that simple? How simple it is to solve the problem of seeing things when you know that it s all in you emotionally, and that walking to the window is only a convention.”
“All these many-coloured feelings fell... like light on a black surface, producing no change, meeting no return.”
“Rosy lifted her arm, tried to say something, then pointed at the cafe, held her head, covered her mouth and—humiliation of humiliations—she began to cry. Right there in the street. “I’m so confused,” she said but it came out as a great honking wail. “Come here, you silly girl,” Phyllis said. The woman put her arms around Rosy, patted her back, and for the first time in forever, Rosy allowed herself to just cry. A young mother with twins in a pram passed them. The children’s eyes tracked Rosy for a second before their faces crumpled and they started to cry too. “I’m sorry,” Rosy said, and flapped her arms. “I’m sorry.”
“The perfect relationship is defined by you. It’s not defined by what you read or the unrealistic expectations people give to validate themselves.”
“Extreme in hating and in loving; Abhorring all whom I dislike, Adoring who my fancy strike; In forming judgements never long, And for the most part judging wrong;”
“I might have been made of metal once, but not anymore. Like Pinocchio, I d turned into a real girl. So far it sucked. But there was nothing I could do about it.”
“One of the best exercises in meekness we can perform is when the subject Is in ourselves. We must not fret over our own imperfections. Although reason requires that we must be displeased and sorry whenever we commit a fault we must refrain from bitter, gloomy,spiteful, and emotional displeasure. Many people are greatly at fault in this way. When overcome by anger they become angry at being angry, disturbed at being disturbed and vexed at being vexed. By such means they keep their hearts drenched and steeped in passion.”