“In love affairs, there is no mediator like a merry, simple-hearted child — ever ready to cement divided hearts, to span the unfriendly gulf of custom, to melt the ice of cold reserve, and overthrow the separating walls of dread formality and pride.”

Source: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848), Ch. X : A Contract and a Quarrel; Gilbert Markham

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "In love affairs, there is no mediator like a merry, simple-hearted child — ever ready to cement divided hearts, to span…" by Anne Brontë?
Anne Brontë photo
Anne Brontë 148
British novelist and poet 1820–1849

Related quotes

Anatole France photo

“I bring you the light and heat of the soul. Just as the sun melts the ice of your mountains so Jesus Christ will melt the ice of your hearts.”

Book I : The Beginnings, Ch. V : The Baptism Of The Penguins
Penguin Island (1908)
Context: Touched by their attention, the holy man taught them the Gospel.
"Inhabitants of this island, the earthly day that has just risen over your rocks is the image of the heavenly day that rises in your souls. For I bring you the inner light; I bring you the light and heat of the soul. Just as the sun melts the ice of your mountains so Jesus Christ will melt the ice of your hearts."
Thus the old man spoke. As everywhere throughout nature voice calls to voice, as all which breathes in the light of day loves alternate strains, these penguins answered the old man by the sounds of their throats. And their voices were soft, for it was the season of their loves.

Thomas Aquinas photo

“Of these the first is "melting," which is opposed to freezing. For things that are frozen, are closely bound together, so as to be hard to pierce. But it belongs to love that the appetite is fitted to receive the good which is loved, inasmuch as the object loved is in the lover…Consequently the freezing or hardening of the heart is a disposition incompatible with love: while melting denotes a softening of the heart, whereby the heart shows itself to be ready for the entrance of the beloved.”

I-II, q. 28, art. 5
Summa Theologica (1265–1274)
Context: it is to be observed that four proximate effects may be ascribed to love: viz. melting, enjoyment, languor, and fervor. Of these the first is "melting," which is opposed to freezing. For things that are frozen, are closely bound together, so as to be hard to pierce. But it belongs to love that the appetite is fitted to receive the good which is loved, inasmuch as the object loved is in the lover... Consequently the freezing or hardening of the heart is a disposition incompatible with love: while melting denotes a softening of the heart, whereby the heart shows itself to be ready for the entrance of the beloved.

Han-shan photo
Elton John photo
Haruki Murakami photo
Edward Thomson photo
Benjamín Netanyahu photo

“Israel without Jerusalem is like a body without a heart. Our heart will never be divided again.”

Benjamín Netanyahu (1949) Israeli prime minister

During a ceremony marking Jerusalem Day Netanyahu: Israel will continue to build Jerusalem and keep it united (20 May 2012) http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/netanyahu-israel-will-continue-to-build-jerusalem-and-keep-it-united-1.431563
2010s, 2012

Han-shan photo

“Her heart was warmed and melted like the dew on roses under the morning sun.”

Source: Argonautica (3rd century BC), Book III. Jason and Medea, Lines 1019–1021

Related topics