“If all hearts were open and all desires known — as they would be if people showed their souls — how many gapings, sighings, clenched fists, knotted brows, broad grins, and red eyes should we see in the market-place!”

—  Thomas Hardy

Diary entry (18 August 1908), quoted in The Later Years of Thomas Hardy (1930), by Florence Emily Hardy, ch. 10, p. 133

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Oct. 27, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "If all hearts were open and all desires known — as they would be if people showed their souls — how many gapings, sighi…" by Thomas Hardy?
Thomas Hardy photo
Thomas Hardy 171
English novelist and poet 1840–1928

Related quotes

“We hold each other’s lives in our open hands, not in clenched fists.”

Source: The Chronicles of Prydain (1964–1968), Book II: The Black Cauldron (1965), Chapter 2

“There is more power in the open hand than in the clenched fist.”

Herbert N. Casson (1869–1951) Canadian journalist and writer

Herbert N. Casson cited in: The International Chemical Worker Vol. 13-15 (1953). p. 192
1950s and later

Margaret Thatcher photo

“Socialists cry "Power to the people", and raise the clenched fist as they say it. We all know what they really mean—power over people, power to the State.”

Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British stateswoman and politician

Speech to Conservative Central Council (15 March 1986) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=106348
Second term as Prime Minister
Context: Popular capitalism, which is the economic expression of liberty, is proving a much more attractive means for diffusing power in our society. Socialists cry "Power to the people", and raise the clenched fist as they say it. We all know what they really mean— power over people, power to the State. To us Conservatives, popular capitalism means what it says: power through ownership to the man and woman in the street, given confidently with an open hand.

John Ruysbroeck photo
Nikos Kazantzakis photo

“Her green eyes fluttered swiftly twice or thrice, then glazed,
her mouth gaped open, bleating, then her jaws hung loose
and retched up all her soul in lumps of clotting blood.”

Nikos Kazantzakis (1883–1957) Greek writer

Death of Phida, Book VIII, line 410
The Odyssey : A Modern Sequel (1938)

Cassandra Clare photo
Yehuda Ashlag photo
Auguste Rodin photo
Bobby Sands photo

“They won't break me because the desire for freedom, and the freedom of the Irish people, is in my heart. The day will dawn when all the people of Ireland will have the desire for freedom to show. It is then we'll see the rising of the moon.”

Bobby Sands (1954–1981) Irish volunteer of the Provisional Irish Republican Army

Diary entry, (17 March 1981), translated from the original Irish, in Skylark Sing your Lonely Song : An Anthology of the Writings of Bobby Sands (1991)
Other writings

Related topics