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Quotations about Crying & Tears
The sorrow which has no vent in tears may make other organs weep. ~Henry Maudsley, M.D.
[J]okes can be noble. Laughs are exactly as honorable as tears. Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion... I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning-up to do afterward... ~Kurt Vonnegut, "Hypocrites You Always Have With You," 1980
There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition, and of unspeakable love. If there were wanting any argument to prove that man is not mortal, I would look for it in the strong convulsive emotion of the breast, when the soul has been deeply agitated; when the fountains of feeling are rising, and tears are gushing forth in crystal streams. Oh, speak not harshly of the stricken one — weeping in silence! Break not the solemnity by rude laughter, or intrusive footsteps. Despise not a woman's tears — they are what make her an angel. Scoff not if the stern heart of manhood is sometimes melted to tears of sympathy — they are what help to elevate him above the brute. I love to see the tears of affection. They are painful tokens, but still most holy. There is a pleasure in tears — an awful pleasure! If there were none on earth to shed a tear for me, I should be loath to live; and if not one might weep over my grave, I could never die in peace. ~Author unknown, c.1841
Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts. ~Charles Dickens, Great Expectations, 1860
I saw a rare flower growing, and I sought to know whence came its entrancing redolence, its wondrous glow, and I saw that where it grew the ground was wet with tears. ~Muriel Strode (1875–1964), My Little Book of Prayer, 1904
Tears are sometimes the only mirror in which heaven is seen. ~Ouina (Cora L. V. Scott Richmond), given through her Medium "Water Lily," "Dewdrops for My Flowers," Ouina's Canoe, 1882
The human body is 60% water, and like water everywhere it is forever recycling. The teardrop that evaporates on your cheek falls again as a drop of rain nourishing the plant that another eats. As human beings we not only share the same sorrows, we may, in the end, cry the same tears. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com
Not in the time of pleasure
Hope doth set her bow;
But in the sky of sorrow,
Over the vale of woe.
Through gloom and shadow look we
On beyond the years:
The soul would have no rainbow
Had the eyes no tears.
~John Vance Cheney, "Tears," 1892
Sally felt as though a rainbow was shining in Sylvia's soul and out through the rain clouds in her eyes. ~Etta Merrick Graves, The Castle Builder, 1916
Tearless grief bleeds inwardly. ~Christian Nestell Bovee, Thoughts, Feelings, and Fancies, 1857
Time engraves our faces with all the tears we have not shed. ~Natalie Clifford Barney
...weep copious draughts of large salt tears... ~William Ellis, 1899
Heavy hearts, like heavy clouds in the sky, are best relieved by the letting of a little water. ~Antoine Rivaroli, Count de Rivarol, as quoted in Maturin M. Ballou, Edge-Tools of Speech, 1886
Your heart throbs: — throbs harder, — throbs tumultuously. You bite your lip; for there are lookers on. But it will not do. You hurry away: you find your chamber: you close and lock the door, and burst into a flood of tears.
...the tears come, and I cannot brush them away; I would not if I could, for they are the only tribute I can pay... ~Emily Dickinson, 1851
to cry is beautiful—
the beauty of one's pain
leaving the heart
~Terri Guillemets, "Water cycle," 2019, blackout poetry created from Maud Casey, The Man Who Walked Away, 2014, pages 114–115
Because those who do not know how to weep with their whole heart don't know how to laugh either. ~Golda Meir, 1973
The tender music brought the relief of a flood of tears to the overcharged hearts of the parents; and it was well, for tears are the safety valve of sorrow, and he who can weep will not die of a broken heart. ~Gustav Nieritz (1795–1876), "The Garden Grave," The Cobbler, the Clerk, and the Lawyer of Liebstein, translated from the German by Annie Harwood, 1868
Tears are the safety-valve of grief, but, if they flow inwards, they are apt to burst the heart. ~Charles Searle, Look Here!, 1885
Tears are the safety-valve of the heart when too much pressure is laid on. ~Albert Smith, c. 1885
Every man that suffers and weeps is a poet; every tear is a verse, and every heart a poem. ~Marc André, quoted in A Thousand Flashes of French Wit, Wisdom, and Wickedness, collected and translated by J. De Finod, 1880
At midnight tears
Run into your ears
~Louise Bogan (1897–1970), "Solitary Observation Brought Back from a Sojourn in Hell," Poems and New Poems, 1941
Lil leaned back in her chair and a big hot tear fell slowly down each cheek. ~Mabel Collins, In the Flower of Her Youth, 1883
Here HOMENAS burst into a food of tears, which falling down helter-skelter, ding dong without any kind of intermission for six minutes and almost twenty-five seconds, had a marvellous effect upon his discourse; for the aforesaid tears, do you mind, did so temper the wind that was rising upon the aforesaid discourse, but falling for the most part perpendicularly, and hitting the spirits at right angles, which were mounting horizontally all over the surface of his harangue, they not only play'd the devil and all with the sublimity — but moreover the said tears, by their nitrous quality, did so refrigerate, precipitate, and hurry down to the bottom of his soul, all the unsavory particles of which lay fermenting, to form the coolest and chastest style soliloquy that ever mortal man uttered. ~Laurence Sterne (1713–1768), a fragment in the manner of Rabelais
The Holy Scriptures praise the dew of the morning and the dew of the evening; ros matutinum, ros serotinum! Happy is he who possesses the gift of tears! when young, he will bear flowers; when old, fruit! ~Joseph Roux, Meditations of a Parish Priest, translated from French by Isabel F. Hapgood
Smiles do not always echo cheer,
Nor tear-drops measure grief,
For sorrow seeks a gilded mask,
And joy in tears, relief.
~Georgia Douglas Camp Johnson (1880–1966), "Transpositions," The Heart of a Woman and Other Poems, 1918
Finding words of no avail, I next resorted to tears. ~Emily Dickinson, 1848
When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.
When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight. ~Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931), The Prophet
Tears shed for another's woes, moisten the lilies in the gardens of paradise. ~Ouina (Cora L. V. Scott Richmond), given through her Medium "Water Lily," "April Showers for My Flowers," Ouina's Canoe, 1882
Never fear to weep;
For tears are summer showers to the soul,
To keep it fresh and green...
~Alfred Austin, Savonarola: A Tragedy, 1881
Tears poured from my eyes. In my vehemence I became inarticulate. I panted, I sobbed, I groaned... the morning sun shining through the open window into my eyes. I was gasping. The tears were streaming down my face, and I quivered in every nerve. ~Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward: 2000–1887, 1888
Lips that taste of tears, they say,
Are the best for kissing.
~Dorothy Parker
Hide not thy tears: weep boldly — and be proud
To give the flowing virtue manly way.
'Tis nature's mark, to know an honest heart by.
~Aaron Hill (1685–1750), Alzira, 1736
Laughter through tears is my favorite emotion. ~Robert Harling, Steel Magnolias, 1987
Mine eyes are full of tears, my heart of grief. ~William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part II, c.1590 [II, 3, Duke of Gloucester]
The dear old soul wept... she was wild with grief, and refused to be comforted. She threw herself on the bed in her room... buried her head in the bedclothes, and sobbed like a broken-hearted child. ~Pliny Berthier Seymour, Woodhull, 1907
The tear, down Childhood's cheek that flows,
Is like the dew-drop on the rose;
When next the summer breeze comes by,
And waves the bush, the flower is dry...
~Walter Scott, Rokeby, 1813
I am tired of hand, and tired of heart;
I pity myself, and the tear-drops start...
~Sara L. Vickers Oberholtzer, "Weariness," Come for Arbutus, and Other Wild Bloom, 1882
"I wish I was a girl," he thought fiercely, "so's I could cry and cry!" ~L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Ingleside, 1939
When you allow the tears to flow out, you're allowing relief and hope and faith and all sorts of good things to come in. ~Terri Guillemets
Every tear should live its purpose. Don't ever wipe the reason away. ~Jessica Simpson, @JessicaSimpson, tweet, 2009
I didn't want my picture taken because I was going to cry. I didn't know why I was going to cry, but I knew that if anybody spoke to me or looked at me too closely the tears would fly out of my eyes and the sobs would fly out of my throat and I'd cry for a week. I could feel the tears brimming and sloshing in me like water in a glass that is unsteady and too full. ~Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar, 1963
Dry your tears quickly, if they are selfish ones, that they may better see the sunshine. Tears of sympathy are not like those of sorrow, the former brightens the spirit, the latter corrodes. ~Ouina (Cora L. V. Scott Richmond), given through her Medium "Water Lily," "Dewdrops for My Flowers," Ouina's Canoe, 1882
Nan would not cry. Big girls of ten must not cry. But she felt indescribably dreary. ~L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Ingleside, 1939
I know of a cure for everything: salt water... Sweat, or tears, or the sea. ~Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen), "The Deluge at Norderney," 1933
I cannot weep; for all my body's moisture
Scarce serves to quench my furnace-burning heart:
Nor can my tongue unload my heart's great burthen;
For selfsame wind that I should speak withal
Is kindling coals that fires all my breast,
And burns me up with flames that tears would quench.
To weep is to make less the depth of grief...
~William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part III, c.1590 [II, 1, Richard III – Duke of Gloucester]
Unless you have been very, very lucky, you have undoubtedly experienced events in your life that have made you cry. So unless you have been very, very lucky, you know that a good, long session of weeping can often make you feel better, even if your circumstances have not changed one bit. ~Lemony Snicket
Make the man cry. He will else go mad. ~Elsa d'Esterre-Keeling, "Dandy and Dandizette: The Story of a Year and a Day," 1898
More grievous than tears is the sight of them. ~Antonio Porchia (1886–1968), Voces, 1943–1966, translated from the Spanish by W.S. Merwin (1927–2019), c.1968
I was undoubtedly at the end of my strength. A flood of tears gushed from my eyes. I wouldn't have been able to tell the reason for these tears, which were not tears of distress, and which, to the contrary, gave me relief and relaxation. Physical tears… tears of weakness, fatigue and fever, tears of enervation before sights too cruel for my debilitated senses, before odors too strong for my sense of smell, before the continual oscillation of my carnal desires from impotence to frenzy... the tears of a woman... tears for nothing at all! ~Octave Mirbeau, "The Garden," The Torture Garden, 1899, translated from the French by Alvah C. Bessie, 1931
These tears need to be shed, wept into the earth where there is no hope of consolation. Sometimes a man has to cry alone. ~Edmond Manning, King Perry, 2011
A sentence from a very old, very true, very wonderful Book came to her lips, "Weeping may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning." ~L. M. Montgomery, Anne of the Island, 1915 [Psalm 30:5
Weep, wretched man, I'll aid thee tear for tear;
And let our hearts and eyes, like civil war,
Be blind with tears, and break o'ercharged with grief.
~William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part III, c.1590 [II, 5, Henry VI]
It is such a secret place, the land of tears. ~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
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