Quotes about crying
page 11

“It takes a big man to cry, but it takes a bigger man to laugh at that man.”

Jack Handey (1949) American comedian

Deep Thoughts: Inspiration for the Uninspired (1992), Berkley Books, ISBN 0-425-13365-6

Vincent Van Gogh photo
Conor Oberst photo

“Well let the poets cry themselves to sleep
And all their tearful words will turn back into steam”

Conor Oberst (1980) American musician

I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning (2005)

Statius photo

“A cry like the last yell when warring cities are opened up.”
Clamorem, bello supremus apertis urbibus.

Source: Thebaid, Book III, Line 56. J. H. Mozley's translation: "...that last cry when cities are flung open to the victors".

Robert Sheckley photo
Sufjan Stevens photo
Jack Johnson (musician) photo
Jerome K. Jerome photo
Richard Rodríguez photo
Anna Akhmatova photo
Herman Wouk photo

“An infant crying in the crib can better appreciate the character of its mother than we can fathom the full nature of God.”

Kirby Page (1890–1957) American clergyman

What Does God Want Us to Do About Russia? (1948)

Lloyd deMause photo
Mariah Carey photo
Nina Kiriki Hoffman photo
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti photo
Charles Krauthammer photo
Slavoj Žižek photo
John Updike photo
Murasaki Shikibu photo

“Does it not move you strangely, the love-bird's cry, tonight when, like the drifting snow, memory piles up on memory?”

Source: Tale of Genji, The Tale of Genji, trans. Arthur Waley, Ch. 20: Asagao

José Martí photo

“I dream of cloisters of marble
where in divine silence
the heroes, standing, rest;
at night, in light of the soul,
I speak with them: at night!
They are in a row: I walk
among the rows: the stone hands
I kiss them;
the stone eyes open;
the stone lips move;
the stone beards tremble;
they seize the sword of stone; they cry:
place the sword in the sheath!
Mute, I kiss their hand.”

José Martí (1853–1895) Poet, writer, Cuban nationalist leader

Sueño con claustros de mármol
donde en silencio divino
los héroes, de pie, reposan;
¡de noche, a la luz del alma,
hablo con ellos: de noche!
Están en fila: paseo
entre las filas: las manos
de piedra les beso: abren
los ojos de piedra: mueven
los labios de piedra: tiemblan
las barbas de piedra: empuñan
la espada de piedra: lloran:
¡viba la espade en la vaina!
Mudo, les beso la mano.
Simple Verses (1891), I dream of cloisters of marble

Nigel Cumberland photo

“Saying ‘yes’ to major life decisions when inside you are crying out to say ‘no’ is more serious. Doing the opposite of what you feel is right can destroy your chances of achieving your dreams and goals. I have coached too many people who regret going with the flow on major life decisions and now need help living with the consequences.”

Nigel Cumberland (1967) British author and leadership coach

Your Job-Hunt Ltd – Advice from an Award-Winning Asian Headhunter (2003), Successful Recruitment in a Week (2012) https://books.google.ae/books?idp24GkAsgjGEC&printsecfrontcover&dqnigel+cumberland&hlen&saX&ved0ahUKEwjF75Xw0IHNAhULLcAKHazACBMQ6AEIGjAA#vonepage&qnigel%20cumberland&ffalse, 100 Things Successful People Do: Little Exercises for Successful Living (2016) https://books.google.ae/books?idnu0lCwAAQBAJ&dqnigel+cumberland&hlen&saX&ved0ahUKEwjF75Xw0IHNAhULLcAKHazACBMQ6AEIMjAE

Patrick Buchanan photo
Francis Turner Palgrave photo
Edmond Rostand photo
Theobald Wolfe Tone photo
Alan Sugar photo
Sarah Dessen photo
John Heyl Vincent photo

“He was Himself forsaken that none of His children might ever need to utter His cry of loneliness.”

John Heyl Vincent (1832–1920) American theologian

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 73.

George Henry Boker photo

“"Freedom!" their battle-cry,—
"Freedom! or leave to die!"”

George Henry Boker (1823–1890) American poet, playwright, and diplomat

The Black Regiment.

Harry Chapin photo

“If you try to look
But you don't touch
Then you won't touch
But you'll never feel
And if you don't feel
You'll never cry
And if you don't cry
Then you'll never heal.”

Harry Chapin (1942–1981) American musician

If You Want to Feel
Song lyrics, Living Room Suite (1978)

Pauline Kael photo
Vannevar Bush photo
Bob Dylan photo

“I might need a good lawyer, could be your funeral, my trial
Well, I cried for you, now it's your turn, you can cry awhile”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Song lyrics, Love and Theft (2001), Cry A While

Abraham Kuyper photo

“Oh, no single piece of our mental world is to be hermetically sealed off from the rest, and there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: ‘Mine!”

Abraham Kuyper (1837–1920) Dutch politician

Sphere Sovereignty (p. 488) cited in James D. Bratt, ed., Abraham Kuyper, A Centennial Reader, (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1998).

Christopher Hitchens photo

“What a country, and what a culture, when the liberals cry before they are hurt, and the reactionaries pose as brave nonconformists, while the radicals make a fetish of their own jokey irrelevance.”

Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) British American author and journalist

"Politically Correct" (1991).
1990s, For the Sake of Argument: Essays and Minority Reports (1993)

Dolores O'Riordan photo
Jahangir photo

“On the 7th azar I went to see and shoot on the tank of Pushkar, which is one of the established praying-places of the Hindus, with regard to the perfection of which they give (excellent) accounts that are incredible to any intelligence, and which is situated at a distance of three kos from Ajmir. For two or three days I shot waterfowl on that tank, and returned to Ajmir. Old and new temples which, in the language of the infidels, they call Deohara are to be seen around this tank. Among them Rana Shankar, who is the uncle of the rebel Amar, and in my kingdom is among the high nobles, had built a Deohara of great magnificence, on which 100,000 rupees had been spent. I went to see that temple. I found a form cut out of black stone, which from the neck above was in the shape of a pig's head, and the rest of the body was like that of a man. The worthless religion of the Hindus is this, that once on a time for some particular object the Supreme Ruler thought it necessary to show himself in this shape; on this account they hold it dear and worship it. I ordered them to break that hideous form and throw it into the tank. After looking at this building there appeared a white dome on the top of a hill, to which men were coming from all quarters. When I asked about this they said that a Jogi lived there, and when the simpletons come to see him he places in their hands a handful of flour, which they put into their mouths and imitate the cry of an animal which these fools have at some time injured, in order that by this act their sins may be blotted out. I ordered them to break down that place and turn the Jogi out of it, as well as to destroy the form of an idol there was in the dome”

Jahangir (1569–1627) 4th Mughal Emperor

Ajmer, Pushkar (Rajasthan) , Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri, translated into English by Alexander Rogers, first published 1909-1914, New Delhi Reprint, 1978, Vol. I, pp. 254-55.

Billy Joel photo
Zooey Deschanel photo

“When I was a little bit younger
The strain I was under could make me cry.
Now I’m a little bit older,
A little bit bolder,
Never so shy”

Zooey Deschanel (1980) American actress, musician, and singer-songwriter

"Sweet Darlin" (written with Jason Schwartzman).
She & Him : Volume One (2008)

Kate Bush photo

“I still dream of Orgonon.
I wake up crying.
You're making rain,
And you're just in reach,
When you and sleep escape me.”

Kate Bush (1958) British recording artist; singer, songwriter, musician and record producer

Song lyrics, Hounds of Love (1985)

Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay photo
Edward Dorr Griffin photo
Eleanor Farjeon photo

“It’s no use crying over spilt evils. It’s better to mop them up laughing.”

Eleanor Farjeon (1881–1965) English children's writer

Gypsy and Ginger (1920)

Thomas Brooks photo
Charles Dickens photo
Sarah Chauncey Woolsey photo

“The Autumn seems to cry for thee,
Best lover of the Autumn-days!”

Sarah Chauncey Woolsey (1835–1905) writer

Cousin Helen's Visit (1935).

M. R. James photo

“I heard one cry in the night, and I heard one laugh afterwards. If I cannot forget that, I shall not be able to sleep again.”

M. R. James (1862–1936) British writer

"Count Magnus", from Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1904); The Collected Ghost Stories of M. R. James (London: Edward Arnold, 1947) p. 111.

Georges Rouault photo

“Painting for me is merely a means of forgetting life. It is a cry in the night. A sob broken off. A strangled laugh.”

Georges Rouault (1871–1958) French painter

quoted by Henri Perruchot, in T-Lautrec, transl. Humphrey Hare; The World Publishing Company, Cleveland, Ohio, 1960/61, p. 51
Quotes, undated
Source: https://ia800500.us.archive.org/20/items/tlautrec00perr/tlautrec00perr_bw.pdf

Jonas Salk photo
Florbela Espanca photo

“To be a poet is to be taller, to be bigger
Than men! It is to bite as if you’re kissing!
It is to give alms, although you are a beggar like
King of the Realm where only pain is missing!It is to have a thousand desires for splendor
And do not even know what we want!
It is to have inside yourself a flaming star,
It is to have the condor’s mighty claw and wing!It is to be hungry, to be thirsty of Infinity!
By helmet, golden and satin mornings…
It is to condense the world into one lonely cry!And it is loving you, thus, hopelessly…
And it is you being soul, and blood, and life in me
And tell it singing to everyone!”

Florbela Espanca (1894–1930) Portuguese poet

Ser poeta é ser mais alto, é ser maior
Do que os homens! Morder como quem beija!
É ser mendigo e dar como quem seja
Rei do Reino de Áquem e de Além Dor!<p>É ter de mil desejos o esplendor
E não saber sequer que se deseja!
É ter cá dentro um astro que flameja,
É ter garras e asas de condor!<p>É ter fome, é ter sede de Infinito!
Por elmo, as manhas de oiro e de cetim...
É condensar o mundo num só grito!<p>E é amar-te, assim, perdidamente...
É seres alma, e sangue, e vida em mim
E dizê-lo cantando a toda a gente!
Quoted in Citações e Pensamentos de Florbela Espanca (2012), p. 163
Translated http://emocaoeeuforia.wordpress.com/2012/12/10/beautiful-flower-flor-bela/ by Isabel Teles
The Flowering Heath (1931), "Perdidamente"

Molly Shannon photo

“If you're a woman who doesn't know how to write, you're going to cry every night. But if you do, no problem.”

Molly Shannon (1964) American actress

Interview on Cranky Critic http://www.crankycritic.com/qa/mollyshannon.html

Samuel Butler (poet) photo

“Or shear swine, all cry and no wool.”

Samuel Butler (poet) (1612–1680) poet and satirist

Canto I, line 852
Source: Hudibras, Part I (1663–1664)

“Then once more comes deep grief to their hearts, when he comrades sat in their places and no lion's hide was there to see, but the empty seat upon that mighty thwart. Loyal Aeacides weeps, the heart of Philoctetes is sad, brother Pollux with his dear Castor makes lament. The ship is flying fast, and still all cry "Hercules," all cry "Hylas," but the names are lost in the middle of the sea.”
Hic vero ingenti repetuntur pectora luctu, ut socii sedere locis nullaeque leonis exuviae tantique vacant vestigia transtri. flet pius Aeacides, maerent Poeantia corda, ingemit et dulci frater cum Castore Pollux. omnis adhuc vocat Alciden fugiente carina, omnis Hylan, medio pereunt iam nomina ponto.

Source: Argonautica, Book III, Lines 719–725

Nikos Kazantzakis photo
William Lloyd Garrison photo
Ze Frank photo
Robert Mugabe photo

“We cannot have a situation where people decide to sit in places not allowed and when police remove them they say no. We can’t have that. That is a revolt to the system. Some are crying that they were beaten. Yes you will be thoroughly beaten. When the police say move you move. If you don’t move, you invite the police to use force.”

Robert Mugabe (1924–2019) former President of Zimbabwe

Addressing delegates at the Zimbabwe embassy in Cairo, Egypt, on the arrest, torture and mistreatment of 15 trade union activists in Zimbabwe, 23 September 2006.
2000s, 2005 - 2009

Kate Bush photo
Vincent Van Gogh photo
Davey Havok photo
Ron Paul photo
Meng Haoran photo
Robert A. Dahl photo

“"I underestimated you, woman."… "The cry of men down the ages."”

Source: Drenai series, The King Beyond the Gate, Ch. 15

Pope Benedict XVI photo

“How many questions arise in this place! Constantly the question comes up: Where was God in those days? Why was he silent? How could he permit this endless slaughter, this triumph of evil? … We must continue to cry out humbly yet insistently to God: Rouse yourself! Do not forget mankind, your creature!”

Pope Benedict XVI (1927) 265th Pope of the Catholic Church

On visited the former concentration camp at Auschwitz, Poland, on May 28, 2006. Quoted in The Watchtower magazine, in the article: “Why, Lord, Did You Remain Silent?”, (15 May 2007)
2007

Dejan Stojanovic photo

“To hide feelings when you are near crying is the secret of dignity.”

Dejan Stojanovic (1959) poet, writer, and businessman

Simplicity http://www.poetrysoup.com/famous/poem/21390/Simplicity
From the poems written in English

Stephen Fry photo
Brigham Young photo
Giacomo Casanova photo

“[Malipiero's advice to Casanova. ] If you wish your audience to cry, you must shed tears yourself, but if you wish to make them laugh you must contrive to look as serious as a judge.”

Giacomo Casanova (1725–1798) Italian adventurer and author from the Republic of Venice

Memoirs (trans. Machen 1894), book 1 (Venetian Years), chap. 14 http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/c/casanova/c33m/chapter14.html
Referenced

Bill Maher photo

“As [Phoenix] drew near her room, she heard a woman's voice saying, "It will be easier for us when that monster of yours dies."
"There will be another one, and she will be the same," answered Chia Lien's voice.
"You can make Patience your wife," the woman said. "She will be easier to manage."
"She won't even let me touch Patience," Chia Lien said. "And Patience doesn't dare complain, though she doesn't like her vigilance either. I wonder what I have done to deserve such a wife."
Phoenix shook with rage. Thinking that Patience must have complained behind her back, she turned to her and slapped her face. She then burst into the room, seized Pao-er's wife and struck her repeatedly. Fearing that Chia Lien would bolt from the room, she planted herself at the door while she denounced the woman. "Prostitute!" she cried, "you seduce your mistress's husband and then plot to murder her! And you," she turned to Patience, "you prostitutes are all in conspiracy against me, though you pretend to be on my side." She struck Patience again.
Patience was outraged. She cried, "You two—is it not enough for you to do this shameful thing without dragging me in?" She also made for Pao-er's wife.
Chia Lien, who had until now stood helplessly watching Phoenix beat Pao-er's wife, took the opportunity to hide his own embarrassment by beating Patience. "Who are you to raise your hand against her?" he said to the maid.
Patience retreated and said, weeping, "But why did you drag me into it?"
Phoenix's anger mounted when she saw that Patience was afraid of Chia Lien and commanded her to ignore him and beat Pao-er's wife. The maid, outraged and helpless, ran out of the room, crying and threatening to kill herself.
Phoenix now threw herself at Chia Lien, crying that he might as well kill her then and there since he wanted to get rid of her. Chia Lien grew desperate. He seized a sword from the wall and said he would gladly oblige if she insisted.
Yu-shih and others arrived on the scene. "What is the matter now?"”

Wang Chi-chen (1899–2001)

she asked. "Everything was going well a moment ago."
Emboldened by the presence of the newcomers, Chia Lien became more menacing. Phoenix, on the other hand, quieted herself and left the scene to seek the protection of the Matriarch. She threw herself sobbing into the Matriarch's arms and said, "Save me, Lao Tai-tai. Lien Er-yeh wants to kill me."
Source: Dream of the Red Chamber (1958), pp. 198–199

L. Frank Baum photo
Rukmini Devi Arundale photo

“Animals cannot speak, but can you and I not speak for them and represent them? Let us all feel their silent cry of agony and let us all help that cry to be heard in the world.”

Rukmini Devi Arundale (1904–1986) Indian Bharatnatyam dancer

Quotations:Rukmini Devi Arundale, 1 December 2013, publisher-All Creatures Organization http://www.all-creatures.org/aro/q-arundale-rukminidevi.html,

Aleister Crowley photo
Saul D. Alinsky photo

“The cry of the Have-Nots has never been "give us our hearts," but always "get off our backs"; they ask not for love but for breathing space.”

Saul D. Alinsky (1909–1972) American community organizer and writer

Source: Rules for Radicals: A Practical Primer for Realistic Radicals (1971), p. 19

Gwendolyn Brooks photo
Bashō Matsuo photo

“Spring passes
and the birds cry out—tears
in the eyes of fishes”

行く春や
鳥啼き魚の
目は泪
yuku haru ya
tori naki uo no
me wa namida
Matsuo Bashō, Narrow Road to the Interior and other writings, Boston, 2000, p. 4 (Translation: Sam Hamill)
Spring is passing by!
Birds are weeping and the eyes
Of fish fill with tears.
Matsuo Bashō, The Narrow Road to Oku, Tokyo, 1996, p. 23 (Translation: Donald Keene)
The passing of spring—
The birds weep and in the eyes
Of fish there are tears.
Donald Keene, Travelers of a Hundred Ages, New York, 1999, p. 310 (Translation: Donald Keene)
Oku no Hosomichi

Kage Baker photo
Anthony Burgess photo
John Bright photo

“You say the right hon. baronet [Peel] is a traitor. It would ill become me to attempt his defence after the speech which he delivered last night—a speech, I will venture to say, more powerful and more to be admired than any speech which has been delivered within the memory of any man in this House. I watched the right hon. baronet as he went home last night, and for the first time I envied him his feelings. That speech was circulated by scores of thousands throughout the kingdom and throughout the world; and wherever a man is to be found who loves justice, and wherever there is a labourer whom you have trampled under foot, that speech will bring joy to the heart of the one, and hope to the breast of the other. You chose the right hon. baronet—why? Because he was the ablest man of your party. You always said so, and you will not deny it now. Why was he the ablest? Because he had great experience, profound attainments, and an honest regard for the good of the country. You placed him in office. When a man is in office he is not the same man as when in opposition. The present generation, or posterity, does not deal as mildly with men in government as with those in opposition. There are such things as the responsibilities of office. Look at the population of Lancashire and Yorkshire, and there is not a man among you who would have the valour to take office and raise the standard of Protection, and cry, "Down with the Anti-Corn Law League, and Protection for ever!" There is not a man in your ranks who would dare to sit on that bench as the Prime Minister of England pledged to maintain the existing law. The right hon. baronet took the only, the truest course—he resigned. He told you by that act: "I will no longer do your work. I will not defend your cause. The experience I have had since I came into office renders it impossible for me at once to maintain office and the Corn Laws."”

John Bright (1811–1889) British Radical and Liberal statesman

The right hon. baronet resigned—he was then no longer your Minister. He came back to office as the Minister of his Sovereign and of the people.
Speech in the House of Commons (17 February 1846), quoted in G. M. Trevelyan, The Life of John Bright (London: Constable, 1913), p. 148.
1840s

Ben Gibbard photo
Algernon Charles Swinburne photo
Nikos Kazantzakis photo
Pope John Paul II photo

“And I cry – I who am a son of the land of Poland and who am also Pope John Paul II – I cry from all the depths of this Millennium, I cry on the vigil of Pentecost: Let your Spirit descend! Let your Spirit descend! And renew the face of the earth. The face of this land!”

Pope John Paul II (1920–2005) 264th Pope of the Catholic Church, saint

I wołam, ja, syn polskiej ziemi, a zarazem ja: Jan Paweł II papież, wołam z całej głębi tego tysiąclecia, wołam w przeddzień święta Zesłania, wołam wraz z wami wszystkimi: Niech zstąpi Duch Twój! Niech zstąpi Duch Twój! I odnowi oblicze ziemi. Tej ziemi!
the Polish word ziemi means both "earth" and "land"; on the former utterance, it refers to the entire planet, on the latter – to Poland.
Homily during the Holy Mass in Victory Square in Warsaw on 2 June 1979, during the pope's first apostolic journey to Poland
Source: Libreria Editrice Vaticana http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/homilies/1979/documents/hf_jp-ii_hom_19790602_polonia-varsavia_en.html

Jack Johnson (musician) photo

“And the water below gives a gift to the sky
And the clouds give back every time that they cry
And make the grass grow green beneath my toes.”

Jack Johnson (musician) (1975) American musician

Talk of the Town.
Song lyrics, Sing-A-Longs and Lullabies for the Film Curious George (2006)

Marguerite de Navarre photo

“They cry sour grapes when the object of their desires is beyond their grasp.”

Ilz font semblant de n'aymer poinct les raisins quand ilz sont si haults, qu'ilz ne les peuvent cueillir.
Sixth Day, Novel LIII (trans. P. A. Chilton)
L'Heptaméron (1558)

Ludovico Ariosto photo

“For when the water is up to your neck you must be truly stubborn not to cry for help.”

Che chi ne l'acqua sta fin'alla gola
Ben'e ostinato se merce non grida.
Canto I, stanza 50 (tr. G. Waldman)
Orlando Furioso (1532)