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Harshness Quotes

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Harshness Quotes

“The kindness that we receive from others in life, is also the kindness that we will want to give. The harshness that we receive from others in life, will also be the harshness that we will give. But true strength lies in seeing the harshness that we have received in life; and living in such a way so that that others will never feel the same from us.”

“If I had to describe the interpersonal relationship between Donald Trump and me in a few words, I’d say we’re opposites that attract—or maybe similars that repel. Either way, it’s a very complicated relationship. Because however much we disagree ideologically and politically, when it comes to all the little choices and quirks that make up every person’s special sauce of life, far removed from partisan politics and religious affinities, POTUS and I turn out to be terrifyingly similar. Just like my orange doppelganger, I always launch into things with huge enthusiasm and verve, but very soon lose interest. And just like him, yours truly favors spontaneity and last-minute decisions, even with things other people prefer to plan ahead, like, say, war with Iran or where to have Passover dinner. And we both love this freedom so much that we’re willing to pay a heavy price for it, whether that means offending our brother-in-law or tolerating sky-high gas prices. But the greatest similarity between Trump and me might be that when our feelings are hurt and we reach the boiling point, we’re both capable of using harsh words that we later regret (or not). Another curious parallel: just like The Donald, I married a very beautiful woman who thinks I talk too much, and I, too, have a young son who is a head taller than me and barely glances in my direction.”

“During your struggle society is not a bunch of flowers, it is a bunch of cactus.”

“I am impressed anew by... how much the harshness that challenges life is what causes the beauty. Birds fly because they must escape predators and search for food. Trees grow skyward because they compete fiercely with other trees for light. Living things need something to push off of. Each of us needs challenges to give us the right shape.”

“Speaking a painful truth should be done only in love - like wielding a sword with no hilt - it should pain oneself in direct proportion to the amount of force exerted.”

“You had to form for yourself a lucid language for the world, to overcome the battering of experience, to replace everyday life's pain and harshness and wretched dreariness with - no not with certainty but with an ignorance you could live with. Deep ignorance, but still a kind that knew its limits. The limits were crucial.”

“It is much to my advantage that several of my pictures should be seen together, as it displays to advantage their varieties of conception and also of execution, and what they gain by the mellowing hand of time which should never be forced or anticipated. Thus my pictures when first coming forth have a comparative harshness which at the time acts to my disadvantage.”

“There are two visions of America. One precedes our founding fathers and finds its roots in the harshness of our Puritan past. It is very suspicious of freedom, uncomfortable with diversity hostile to science, unfriendly to reason, contemptuous of personal autonomy. It sees America as a religious nation. It views patriotism as allegiance to God. It secretly adores coercion and conformity. Despite our constitution, despite the legacy of the Enlightenment, it appeals to millions of Americans and threatens our freedom.”

“Those who have lost an infant are never, as it were, without an infant child. Their other children grow up to manhood and womanhood, and suffer all the changes of mortality; but this one alone is rendered an immortal child; for death has arrested it with his kindly harshness, and blessed it into an eternal image of youth and innocence.”

“The best and simplest cosmetic for women is constant gentleness and sympathy for the noblest interests of her fellow-creatures. This preserves and gives to her features an indelibly gay, fresh, and agreeable expression. If women would but realize that harshness makes them ugly, it would prove the best means of conversion.”

“Oh! if people were but acquainted with piety, they would not fear it so much, or give it so unattractive a character; 'tis the balm of life, and perhaps in the world it is believed to consist of bitterness, harshness, uncouthness; but, take my word for it, nothing is more gentle, more yielding, more loving than a pious soul.”

“[Comics is] one of the last havens for honesty when it comes to a reader's genuine response to art. Most of us, if we don't find any sympathy or pleasure, for example, in a modern painting, are likely to blame our own ignorance of the history and theory of painting. But nobody pretends to like a bad comic strip. Such harshness is necessary for any real truth to surface, I think, and for art to really contribute anything to life. Though I don't know. I could be wrong.”

“The maxims of Christian life, which should draw upon the truths of the Gospel, are always partially symbolic of the mind and temperament of those who teach them to us. The former, by their natural sweetness, show us the quality of God's mercy; the latter, by their harshness, show us God's justice.”

“There's good in this world. I mean I'm not at all blind to that. God is a good God himself. There are good things. He gives good gifts to His children. But within this world there's a harshness and some of it is unanswered. I don't think I'm trying to provide an answer as much as I am begging people to walk with me in awareness so that we can push back the darkness.”

“Be an example to your men, in your duty and in private life. Never spare yourself, and let the troops see that you don't in your endurance of fatigue and privation. Always be tactful and well-mannered and teach your subordinates to do the same. Avoid excessive sharpness or harshness of voice, which usually indicates the man who has shortcomings of his own to hide.”