Daniel Defoe on emotion

All men would be tyrants if they could.

Great families of yesterday we show,
And lords whose parents were the Lord knows who.

We never see the true state of our condition till it is illustrated to us by its contraries, nor know how to value what we enjoy, but by the want of it.

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