Emotions and Feelings

As the Sandwich Islander believes that the strength and valor of the enemy he kills passes into himself, so we gain the strength of the temptation we resist.

Integrity which has been attacked by no temptation can at best be considered but as gold not yet brought to the test, of which therefore the true value cannot be assigned.

Genius is talent exercised with courage.

Talent is a docile creature. It bows its head meekly while the world slips the collar over it. . . . But genius is always impatient of its harness; its wild blood makes it hard to train.

Don’t flatter yourselves that friendship authorizes you to say disagreeable things to your intimates. On the contrary, the nearer you come into relation with a person, the more necessary do tact and courtesy become.

In the battle of existence, Talent is the punch; Tact is the clever footwork.

The austere principles of tact tell the tongue to keep away from the aching thought.

The scene of suffering is a scene of joy when the suffering is past; and the silent reminiscence of hardships departed, is sweeter than the presence of delight

To suffering must be added mourning, understanding, patience, love, openness, and the willingness to remain vulnerable.

To suffering must be added mourning, understanding, patience, love, openness, and the willingness to remain vulnerable.

When suffering knocks at your door and you say there is no seat for him, he tells you not to worry because he has brought his own stool.

Deep, unspeakable suffering may well be called a baptism, a regeneration, the initiation into a new state.

He who bears in his heart a cathedral to be built is already victorious.

The barriers are not erected which can say to aspiring talents and industry, “Thus far and no farther.”

One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.

Success is sweet, the sweeter if long delayed and attained through manifold struggles and defeats.

I’ve never forgotten for long at a time that living is struggle. I know that every good and excellent thing in the world stands moment by moment on the razor-edge of danger and must be fought for—whether it’s a field, or a home, or a country.

One day, in retrospect, the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful.

It’s better to lose some of the battles in the struggles for your dreams than to be defeated without ever knowing what you’re fighting for.

Beauty is not the goal of competitive sports, but high-level sports are a prime venue for the expression of human beauty. The relation is roughly that of courage to war.

Where there is sorrow there is holy ground.

Believe me, every heart has his secret sorrows which the world knows not, and oftentimes we call a man cold, when he is only sad.

In this sad world of ours, sorrow comes to all; and, to the young, it comes with bitterest agony, because it takes them unawares.

In this sad world of ours, sorrow comes to all; and, to the young, it comes with bitterest agony, because it takes them unawares.