There is hardly any contact more depressing to a young ardent creature than that of a mind in which years full of knowledge seem to have issued in a blank absence of interest or sympathy.
in certain crises direct expression of sympathy is the least possible to those who most feel sympathy.
even those who call themselves 'intimate' know very little about each other - hardly ever know just how a sorrow is felt, and hurt each other by their very attempts at sympathy or consolation. We can bear no hand on our bruises.
The human heart finds nowhere shelter but in human kind.
Surely, surely the only one true knowledge of our fellow man is that which enables us to feel with him--which gives us a fine ear for the heart-pulses that are beating under the mere clothes of circumstance and opinion.
If you had a table spread for a feast, and was making merry with your friends, you would think it was kind to let me come and sit down and rejoice with you, because you'd think I should to share those good things; but I should better to share in your trouble and your labour.
The strongest principle of growth lies in the human choice.
Marriage must be a relation either of sympathy or of conquest.
Only in the agony of parting do we look into the depths of love.
Sympathetic people often don't communicate well, they back reflected images which hide their own depths.
Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving us worthy evidence of the fact.