“Words can bruise and break hearts, and minds as well. There are no black and blue marks, no broken bones to put in plaster casts, and therefore no prison bars for the offender.”

Source: Handle with Care

Source: All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten (1986)
Context: Yelling at living things does tend to kill the spirit in them. Sticks and stones may break our bones, but words will break our hearts.

Papadopoulos (1968:171), cited in: Emmi Mikedakis " Manipulating Language- Metaphors in the Political Discourse of Georgios Papadopoulos (1967-1973) http://dspace.flinders.edu.au/jspui/bitstream/2328/25577/1/Emmi%20Mikedakis%20.pdf]." In: E. Close, M. Tsianikas and G. Frazis (Eds.) Greek Research in Australia- Proceedings of the [3rd] Annual Conference of Greek Studies, Flinders University, 23-24 June 2000. Flinders University Department of Languages – Modern Greek- Adelaide, p. 76-86
With the patient Papadopoulos was referring to Greece
Context: We have a patient. We put him in a plaster cast. We try to see whether he could walk without the cast. We break open the first cast, and we eventually put the new one on, where it is needed. […] Let us pray that he will not need a plaster cast again. If he needs it, then we shall put it on him. And the only thing that I can promise you, is to invite you also to see the leg without a plaster cast!

All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten (1986)

Source: Lullaby (2002), Chapter 14

Source: One Door Away from Heaven

Variant: And thus the heart will break, yet brokenly live on.

"Fidelity"
Begin to Hope (2006)
Context: I never loved nobody fully
Always one foot on the ground
And by protecting my heart truly
I got lost in the sounds
I hear in my mind
All these voices
I hear in my mind all these words
I hear in my mind all this music
And it breaks my heart
It breaks my heart...