Henry Wadsworth Longfellow on emotion

The heights by great men reached and kept, were not obtained by sudden flight. But they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night.

I heard the bells on Christmas Day. Their old, familiar carols play. And wild and sweet the words repeat. Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man’s life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.

Mankind are governed more by their feelings than by reason.

Samuel Adams1722–1803Letter to Samuel Cooper (30 April 1776)

I am very conscious of the fact that our feelings and strivings are often contradictory and obscure and that they cannot be expressed in easy and simple formulas.

Albert Einstein1879–1955Why Socialism? (1949)

Never apologize for showing feeling, my friend. Remember that when you do so, you apologize for truth.

Benjamin Disraeli1804–1881Contarini Fleming (1832), Part 1, Chapter 13