“Soft words soften the hearts that are harder than rock, harsh words harden hearts that are softer than silk.”

— Abu Hamid al-Ghazali

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Abu Hamid al-Ghazali 37

Persian Muslim theologian, jurist, philosopher, and mystic 1058–1111

Bhartrihari (570) Indian linguist, poet and writer

Nītiśataka 65
Śatakatraya

“Harsh words live in the dungeon of the heart”

Norman Mailer The Gospel According to the Son

Source: The Gospel According to the Son

“Even Gandhi, with all his charisma, did not "melt the hearts" of his oppressors, as he had hoped. After softening, hearts harden again.”

Theodore Zeldin (1933) English academic

An Intimate History of Humanity (1994)
Context: Even Gandhi, with all his charisma, did not "melt the hearts" of his oppressors, as he had hoped. After softening, hearts harden again. Asoka too was wrong to think that he was changing the course of history, and that his righteousness would last "as long as the sun and the moon."

“I rock a beat harder than you could beat it with rocks”

Eminem (1972) American rapper and actor

"313"
1990s, Infinite (1996)

“Often the hearts of men and women are stirred, as likewise they are soothed in their sorrows, more by example than by words.”

Peter Abelard (1079–1142) French scholastic philosopher, theologian and preeminent logician

Foreword
Historia Calamitatum (c. 1132)
Context: Often the hearts of men and women are stirred, as likewise they are soothed in their sorrows, more by example than by words. And therefore, because I too have known some consolation from speech had with one who was a witness thereof, am I now minded to write of the sufferings which have sprung out of my misfortunes, for the eyes of one who, though absent, is of himself ever a consoler. This I do so that, in comparing your sorrows with mine, you may discover that yours are in truth nought, or at the most but of small account, and so shall you come to bear them more easily.