Quotes and Sayings about Tears

"Racism tears down your insides so that no matter what you achieve, you're not quite up to snuff."
- Alvin Ailey
(Related: Racism, Tears)

"This land, which we have watered with our tears and our blood, is now our mother country, and we are well satisfied to stay where wisdom abounds and gospel is free."
- Richard V. Allen
(Related: Wisdom, Mother, Blood, Country, Land, Now, Tears)

"Tears are the symbol of the inability of the soul to restrain its emotion and retain its self command."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
(Related: Soul, Emotion, Self, Symbol, Tears)

"Repentant tears wash out the stain of guilt."
- Saint Aurelius Augustine
(Related: Guilt, Tears)

"Tears are the summer showers to the soul."
- Alfred Austin
(Related: Soul, Summer, Tears)

"There are more tears shed over answered prayers than over unanswered prayers."
- Saint Teresa of Avila
(Related: Tears)

"I recorded the song live in front of an orchestra, and yes, I was very moved, I was in tears."
- Burt Bacharach
(Related: Song, Tears)

"I listened to it last night for the first time since we started this project. I went out to my car and put it in and went to an empty parking lot and just listened and read the little pamphlet that came with it. After two or three songs I burst into tears."
- Randy Bachman
(Related: Car, Time, First, Night, Project, Songs, Tears)

"Sensitive, responsive, eagerly welcomed everywhere, the drama, holding the mirror up to nature, by laughter and by tears reveals to mankind the world of men."
- George P. Baker
(Related: Men, Nature, Drama, Laughter, Mankind, Tears, World)

"Tears of joy are like the summer rain drops pierced by sunbeams."
- Hosea Ballou
(Related: Joy, Rain, Summer, Tears)

"Time engraves our faces with all the tears we have not shed."
- Natalie Clifford Barney
(Related: Time, Faces, Tears)

"It is little men know of women; their smiles and their tears alike are seldom what they seem."
- Amelia Barr
(Related: Men, Women, Smiles, Tears)

"The tears of the world are a constant quality. For each one who begins to weep, somewhere else another stops. The same is true of the laugh."
- Samuel Beckett
(Related: Quality, Tears, World)

"I do not weep: I loathe tears, for they are a sign of slavery."
- Max Beckmann
(Related: Slavery, Tears)

"Tears are often the telescope by which men see far into heaven."
- Henry Ward Beecher
(Related: Men, Heaven, Tears)

"Music should strike fire from the heart of man, and bring tears form the eyes of woman."
- Ludwig van Beethoven
(Related: Music, Heart, Eyes, Fire, Man, Tears, Woman)

"I remember being in tears at the hospital after Chloe was born, at the thought that someday she would have to leave home."
- Candice Bergen
(Related: Home, Thought, Being, Tears)

"I remember one day sitting at the pool and suddenly the tears were streaming down my cheeks. Why was I so unhappy? I had success. I had security. But it wasn't enough. I was exploding inside."
- Ingrid Bergman
(Related: Success, Day, Security, Tears)

"The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity... and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself."
- William Blake
(Related: Imagination, Nature, Eyes, Joy, Man, Ridicule, Tears)

"Dr. Rice went well beyond offering a helping hand - she went so far as to shed tears and share hugs with those who, in a matter of just a few hours, had lost everything to the rising floodwaters."
- Jo Bonner
(Related: Hugs, Tears)

"Tears are nature's lotion for the eyes. The eyes see better for being washed by them."
- Christian Nestell Bovee
(Related: Nature, Being, Eyes, Tears)

"The sorrow which has no vent in tears may make other organs weep."
- Francis J. Braceland
(Related: May, Sorrow, Tears)

"If a man, for private profit, tears at the public news, does so with the impatience of one who thinks he actually owns the news you get, it is against the national interest."
- Jimmy Breslin
(Related: Impatience, Interest, Man, News, Profit, Public, Tears)

"Oh, I am very weary, Though tears no longer flow; My eyes are tired of weeping, My heart is sick of woe."
- Anne Bronte
(Related: Heart, Eyes, Tears, Weeping)

"Southern states in the confederacy were not ready to give up their fight to secede or give up their way of life, which was made possible in large part through the blood, sweat and tears of African slaves."
- Corrine Brown
(Related: Life, African, Blood, Fight, states, Tears)

"Smiles, tears, of all my life! - and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death."
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning
(Related: Death, Love, God, Smiles, Tears)

"The stars are scattered all over the sky like shimmering tears, there must be great pain in the eye from which they trickled."
- Georg Buchner
(Related: Eye, Pain, Sky, Stars, Tears)

"Tears are sometimes an inappropriate response to death. When a life has been lived completely honestly, completely successfully, or just completely, the correct response to death's perfect punctuation mark is a smile."
- Julie Burchill
(Related: Life, Death, Smile, Tears)

"An actress who has the gift of swaying the emotions of an audience, of compelling tribute of tears, or of moving the public to joyous merriment, cannot always be satisfied to set aside her whole career, in the work that she loves, simply because she is married."
- Billie Burke
(Related: Work, Career, Emotions, Merriment, Public, Tears, Tribute)

"The busy have no time for tears."
- Lord Byron
(Related: Time, Tears)

"Men must live and create. Live to the point of tears."
- Albert Camus
(Related: Men, Tears)

"The Chinese seemed to be mourning Mao in a heartfelt fashion. But I wondered how many of their tears were genuine. People had practiced acting to such a degree that they confused it with their true feelings."
- Jung Chang
(Related: People, Feelings, Acting, Fashion, Mourning, Tears)

"I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat."
- Winston Churchill
(Related: Blood, Nothing, Tears)

"I will never forget my beautiful days with you in Shanklin, they are certainly the most pleasant ones of my life. Look, I have tears in my eyes just to think about it. I am furious to be here, it is the end of happiness for a whole year."
- Camille Claudel
(Related: Happiness, Life, End, Eyes, Forget, Tears, Will)

"A woman came up to me after one of the screenings with tears pouring down her face and sobbed, You've defined my entire life for me on the screen."
- Jill Clayburgh
(Related: Life, Tears, Woman)

"My tears will keep no channel, know no laws to guide their streams, but like the waves, their cause, run with disturbance till they swallow me as a description of his misery."
- John Cleveland
(Related: Cause, Laws, Misery, Tears, Will)

"Words are made for a certain exactness of thought, as tears are for a certain degree of pain. What is least distinct cannot be named; what is clearest is unutterable."
- Rene Daumal
(Related: Thought, Pain, Tears, Words)

"I don't know why people are so surprised by my live performances. My approach is so simple; every song I sing, every story I tell, every move I make, must move the audience to laughter, tears or inspiration. Otherwise, why should I do it?"
- John Davidson
(Related: People, Inspiration, Laughter, Song, Tears)

"I never did pal around with actresses. Their talk usually bored me to tears."
- Bette Davis
(Related: Talk, Tears)

"And I just remember, you know, breaking into tears and feeling so empty because, as long as Elvis was in the world, you always knew something was going and he always had something that kept everybody mesmerized."
- Jackie DeShannon
(Related: Feeling, Tears, World)

"The pit of a theatre is the one place where the tears of virtuous and wicked men alike are mingled."
- Denis Diderot
(Related: Men, Tears, Theatre)

"The tears I have cried over Germany have dried. I have washed my face."
- Marlene Dietrich
(Related: Germany, Tears)

"The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea."
- Isak Dinesen
(Related: Cure, Sea, Tears)

"There isn't a single human being who hasn't plenty to cry over, and the trick is to make the laughs outweigh the tears."
- Dorothy Dix
(Related: Being, Tears)

"All good poetry is forged slowly and patiently, link by link, with sweat and blood and tears."
- Alfred Douglas
(Related: Poetry, Blood, Tears)

"Why would I cry over a boy? I would never waste my tears on a boy. Why waste your tears on someone who makes you cry?"
- Kirsten Dunst
(Related: Tears, Waste)

"Pitching... sometimes I did so poorly, it brought me to tears."
- Dennis Eckersley
(Related: Tears)

"I hope you will go out and let stories happen to you, and that you will work them, water them with your blood and tears and you laughter till they bloom, till you yourself burst into bloom."
- Clarissa Pinkola Estes
(Related: Work, Hope, Blood, Laughter, Tears, Water, Will)

"You cry tears when a man leaves you at any age - it doesn't matter whether you are 20 or 60."
- Linda Evans
(Related: Age, Man, Tears)

"This is the kind of situation that can tear people apart. It tears at the fabric of your soul and can certainly tear at your marriage and ours has gotten only stronger."
- Shelley Fabares
(Related: Marriage, Soul, People, Tears)

"The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it."
- Edward Fitzgerald
(Related: Piety, Tears, Wit, Word)

"They'll take everything, even your tears."
- George Foreman
(Related: Tears)

"No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader."
- Robert Frost
(Related: Tears, Writer)

"Tears may be dried up, but the heart - never."
- Marguerite Gardiner
(Related: Heart, May, Tears)

"I try to bring the audience's own drama - tears and laughter they know about - to them."
- Judy Garland
(Related: Drama, Laughter, Tears)

"Adversity is like a strong wind. It tears away from us all but the things that cannot be torn, so that we see ourselves as we really are."
- Arthur Golden
(Related: Adversity, Tears, Wind)

"The Christian life is not a constant high. I have my moments of deep discouragement. I have to go to God in prayer with tears in my eyes, and say, 'O God, forgive me,' or 'Help me.'"
- Billy Graham
(Related: Life, God, Christian, Deep, Discouragement, Eyes, Moments, Prayer, Tears)

"Tears shed for self are tears of weakness, but tears shed for others are a sign of strength."
- Billy Graham
(Related: Strength, Self, Tears, Weakness)

"Whatever tears one may shed, in the end one always blows one's nose."
- Heinrich Heine
(Related: End, May, Tears)

"Tears are the noble language of the eye."
- Robert Herrick
(Related: Eye, Language, Tears)

"Disney has the best casting. If he doesn't like an actor he just tears him up."
- Alfred Hitchcock
(Related: Actor, Disney, Tears)

"I have seen what a laugh can do. It can transform almost unbearable tears into something bearable, even hopeful."
- Bob Hope
(Related: Tears)

"Next to a circus there ain't nothing that packs up and tears out faster than the Christmas spirit."
- Kin Hubbard
(Related: Christmas, Nothing, Spirit, Tears)

"Joy's smile is much closer to tears than laughter."
- Victor Hugo
(Related: Joy, Laughter, Smile, Tears)

"Sympathizing and selfish people are alike, both given to tears."
- Leigh Hunt
(Related: People, Tears)

"There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition, and of unspeakable love."
- Washington Irving
(Related: Love, Power, Deep, Grief, Tears, Weakness)

"Both tears and sweat are salty, but they render a different result. Tears will get you sympathy; sweat will get you change."
- Jesse Jackson
(Related: Change, Sympathy, Result, Tears, Will)

"For women's tears are but the sweat of eyes."
- Juvenal
(Related: Women, Eyes, Tears)

"In art there are tears that lie too deep for thought."
- Louis Kronenberger
(Related: Art, Lie, Thought, Deep, Tears)

"Without going into too much detail, the end of my major action scene, after the climax of the scene, there was one little change that I suggested regarding the way things should turn out. It was in the detail of the tears of blood."
- Chiaki Kuriyama
(Related: Change, Action, Blood, Detail, End, Tears)

"Oh eyes, no eyes, but fountains fraught with tears; O life, no life, but lively form of death; Oh world, no world, but mass of public wrongs."
- Thomas Kyd
(Related: Death, Life, Eyes, Public, Tears, World, Wrongs)

"And that's why I chose on purpose not to have a death scene. We've seen them in a million movies and it's too much like cranking the tears out. I didn't want that scene."
- Christine Lahti
(Related: Death, Movies, Purpose, Tears, Want)

"Delicious tears! The heart's own dew."
- Letitia Landon
(Related: Heart, Dew)

"We make the kind of movies we like to watch. I love to laugh. I love to be amazed by how beautiful it is. But I also love to be moved to tears. There's lots of heart in our films."
- John Lasseter
(Related: Love, Movies, Heart, Tears)

"Pearls mean tears."
- Doris Lessing
(Related: Pearls, Tears)

"It is acceptable to bring someone to tears if it explains to them in an emotional way why a product, a service, or a candidate is the right person, is the right thing to do."
- Frank Luntz
(Related: Right, Service, Tears)

"When we lose one we love, our bitterest tears are called forth by the memory of hours when we loved not enough."
- Maurice Maeterlinck
(Related: Love, Memory, Tears)

"When a child can be brought to tears, and not from fear of punishment, but from repentance he needs no chastisement. When the tears begin to flow from the grief of their conduct you can be sure there is an angel nestling in their heart."
- Horace Mann
(Related: Heart, Fear, Grief, Needs, Punishment, Repentance, Tears)

"Nobody deserves your tears, but whoever deserves them will not make you cry."
- Gabriel Garcia Marquez
(Related: Tears, Will)

"When onstage, I always try to take my audience through as many emotions as I possibly can. I want them to go from laughter to tears, be shocked and surprised and walk out the door with a renewed sense of themselves - and maybe a smile."
- Reba McEntire
(Related: Emotions, Laughter, Sense, Smile, Tears, Want)

"Christmas carols always brought tears to my eyes. I also cry at weddings. I should have cried at a couple of my own."
- Ethel Merman
(Related: Christmas, Eyes, Tears, Weddings)

"I always try to balance the light with the heavy - a few tears of human spirit in with the sequins and the fringes."
- Bette Midler
(Related: Balance, Light, Spirit, Tears)

"When one tears away the veils and shows them naked, people's souls give off such a pungent smell of decay."
- Octave Mirbeau
(Related: People, Tears)

"The most efficient water power in the world - women's tears."
- Wilson Mizner
(Related: Power, Women, Tears, Water, World)

"It is only to the happy that tears are a luxury."
- Thomas Moore
(Related: Luxury, Tears)

"The most despairing songs are the most beautiful, and I know some immortal ones that are pure tears."
- Alfred de Musset
(Related: Songs, Tears)

"Some words having to do with the death of the people in the World Trade Center attack had been added, and when I got to it, I had this overwhelmingly emotional experience. I struggled to get through the words; tears were streaming down my cheeks."
- Leonard Nimoy
(Related: Death, Experience, People, Tears, Trade, Words, World)

"It took a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get to where we are today, but we have just begun. Today we begin in earnest the work of making sure that the world we leave our children is just a little bit better than the one we inhabit today."
- Barack Obama
(Related: Work, Blood, Children, Tears, Today, World)

"The office of drama is to exercise, possibly to exhaust, human emotions. The purpose of comedy is to tickle those emotions into an expression of light relief; of tragedy, to wound them and bring the relief of tears. Disgust and terror are the other points of the compass."
- Laurence Olivier
(Related: Purpose, Comedy, Disgust, Drama, Emotions, Exercise, Expression, Light, Office, Tears, Terror, Tragedy)

"Shining through tears, like April suns in showers, that labour to overcome the cloud that loads 'em."
- Thomas Otway
(Related: April, Tears)

"Tears at times have the weight of speech."
- Ovid
(Related: Speech, Tears, Weight)

"I believe in things that move people, if the audience isn't deeply caught up and moved to either laughter or tears then I don't think it is theater."
- Estelle Parsons
(Related: People, Laughter, Tears, Theater)

"When I was flying to Rome, we flew over London; I felt like bursting into tears. It's part of me, so I can't leave London behind for good."
- Robert Pattinson
(Related: Flying, London, Rome, Tears)

"Two aged men, that had been foes for life, Met by a grave, and wept - and in those tears They washed away the memory of their strife; Then wept again the loss of all those years."
- Jean Paul
(Related: Life, Men, Grave, Loss, Memory, Tears, Years)

"A word is not the same with one writer as with another. One tears it from his guts. The other pulls it out of his overcoat pocket."
- Charles Peguy
(Related: Tears, Word, Writer)

"And tears are heard within the harp I touch."
- Petrarch
(Related: Tears)

"I think you have to pay for love with bitter tears."
- Edith Piaf
(Related: Love, Tears)

"Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme development, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears."
- Edgar Allan Poe
(Related: Beauty, Soul, Development, Tears)

"It is better to write of laughter than of tears, for laughter is the property of man."
- Francois Rabelais
(Related: Laughter, Man, Property, Tears)

"Before the reward there must be labor. You plant before you harvest. You sow in tears before you reap joy."
- Ralph Ransom
(Related: Harvest, Joy, Labor, Reward, Tears)

"I wonder at the idleness of tears."
- Lizette Woodworth Reese
(Related: Idleness, Tears, Wonder)

"Nothing dries sooner than tears."
- Samuel Richardson
(Related: Nothing, Tears)

"The pleasures of the mighty are obtained by the tears of the poor."
- Samuel Richardson
(Related: Poor, Tears)

"Since she got a cause and stopped being funny. I think she's real funny, but lately it's all been hearts and flowers and tears and saving teenagers and creating a role model. And that ain't funny. No giggles there."
- Andy Richter
(Related: Funny, Being, Cause, Flowers, Tears, Teenagers)

"Forgive me, Spirit of my spirit, for this, that I have found it easier to read the mystery told in tears and understood Thee better in sorrow than in joy."
- George William Russell
(Related: Joy, Mystery, Sorrow, Spirit, Tears)

"It is such a secret place, the land of tears."
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery
(Related: Land, Tears)

"Those most moved to tears by every word of a preacher are generally weak and a rascal when the feelings evaporate."
- Sallust
(Related: Feelings, Tears, Word)

"TV happens. And once it's happened, it's gone. When it's gone, you move on, no tears, no tantrums, no videotape."
- Mary Schmich
(Related: Tears)

"When the object that is produced, the photographic image has the ability to make tears come to your eyes; to inspire you to the point where you have to catch your breath, then nothing else matters."
- John Sexton
(Related: Ability, Eyes, Nothing, Tears)

"If you have tears, prepare to shed them now."
- William Shakespeare
(Related: Now, Tears)

"Laughter and grief join hands. Always the heart Clumps in the breast with heavy stride; The face grows lined and wrinkled like a chart, The eyes bloodshot with tears and tide. Let the wind blow, for many a man shall die."
- Karl Shapiro
(Related: Heart, Eyes, Grief, Laughter, Man, Tears, Wind)

"I have sometimes imagined my own death and brought myself to tears."
- Martin Short
(Related: Death, Tears)

"The tender heart, the broken and contrite spirit, are to me far above all the joys that I could ever hope for in this vale of tears."
- Charles Simeon
(Related: Heart, Hope, Spirit, Tears)

"Tears are the natural penalties of pleasure. It is a law that we should pay for all that we enjoy."
- William Gilmore Simms
(Related: Law, Pleasure, Tears)

"My life so common it disappears and sometimes even music cannot substitute for tears."
- Paul Simon
(Related: Life, Music, Tears)

"If it were possible to cure evils by lamentation and to raise the dead with tears, then gold would be a less valuable thing than weeping."
- Sophocles
(Related: Cure, Gold, Tears, Weeping)

"I always knew looking back on my tears would bring me laughter, but I never knew looking back on my laughter would make me cry."
- Cat Stevens
(Related: Laughter, Tears)

"You can forgive people who do not follow you through a philosophical disquisition; but to find your wife laughing when you had tears in your eyes, or staring when you were in a fit of laughter, would go some way towards a dissolution of the marriage."
- Robert Louis Stevenson
(Related: Marriage, Wife, People, Eyes, Laughter, Tears)

"The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone."
- Harriet Beecher Stowe
(Related: Deeds, Tears, Words)

"Red Skelton... I broke into tears when I met him."
- Rip Taylor
(Related: Tears)

"More tears are shed over answered prayers than unanswered ones."
- Saint Teresa
(Related: Tears)

"The book of female logic is blotted all over with tears, and Justice in their courts is forever in a passion."
- William Makepeace Thackeray
(Related: Justice, Logic, Passion, Tears)

"The laughter of man is more terrible than his tears, and takes more forms hollow, heartless, mirthless, maniacal."
- James Thurber
(Related: Laughter, Man, Tears)

"When I first found out that I was an Idol finalist, I cried tears of happiness. I was just so happy, and my family was there and the fact that got to see that moment and share that moment with me was just everything to me."
- Pia Toscano
(Related: Family, Happiness, Fact, First, Tears)

"I shine in tears like the sun in April."
- Cyril Tourneur
(Related: April, Sun, Tears)

"The band's never taken a year off. Last August we decided to take one, and three months in I was bored to tears."
- Steven Tyler
(Related: Months, Tears)

"Tears may be dried up, but the heart - never."
- Marguerite de Valois
(Related: Heart, May, Tears)

"I adore art... when I am alone with my notes, my heart pounds and the tears stream from my eyes, and my emotion and my joys are too much to bear."
- Giuseppe Verdi
(Related: Art, Heart, Emotion, Eyes, Tears)

"Tears fall in my heart like the rain on the town."
- Paul Verlaine
(Related: Heart, Rain, Tears)

"Tears are the silent language of grief."
- Voltaire
(Related: Grief, Language, Tears)

"Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward."
- Kurt Vonnegut
(Related: Exhaustion, Frustration, Laughter, Tears)

"If we have been brought up with the idea that life is for suffering and sacrifice, then of course we would seek death to escape this 'vale of tears'."
- Claude Vorilhon
(Related: Death, Life, Sacrifice, Idea, Suffering, Tears)

"When Alexander of Macedon was 33, he cried salt tears because there were no more worlds to conquer. Eric Bristow is only 27."
- Sid Waddell
(Related: Tears)

"I believe the National Park Service has demonstrated strong partnerships geared towards respecting the private property of citizens in its administering of the current Trail of Tears National Historic Trail and will continue to do so upon the addition of the routes."
- Zach Wamp
(Related: Property, Service, Tears, Will)

"But there are other things than dissipation that thicken the features. Tears, for example."
- Rebecca West
(Related: Example, Tears)

"In any really good subject, one has only to probe deep enough to come to tears."
- Edith Wharton
(Related: Deep, Tears)

"Rumors of sneezing, kissing, tears, sweat, and saliva spreading AIDS caused people to panic."
- Ryan White
(Related: People, Kissing, Rumors, Tears)

"And the smile that is worth the praises of earth is the smile that shines through tears."
- Ella Wheeler Wilcox
(Related: Earth, Smile, Tears, Worth)

"My tears of love are a waste of time if I turn away."
- Kim Wilde
(Related: Love, Time, Tears, Waste)

"Remember me with smiles and laughter, for that is how I will remember you all. If you can only remember me with tears, then don't remember me at all."
- Laura Ingalls Wilder
(Related: Laughter, Smiles, Tears, Will)

"There is little for the great part of the history of the world except the bitter tears of pity and the hot tears of wrath."
- Woodrow Wilson
(Related: History, Pity, Tears, World, Wrath)

"To me the meanest flower that blows can give thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears."
- William Wordsworth
(Related: Lie, Thoughts, Deep, Tears)

"Certainly tears are given to us to use. Like all good gifts, they should be used properly."
- Loretta Young
(Related: Gifts, Tears)

"They're not willing to admit that I've also shed blood and tears and often paid dearly for my success. This makes me feel extremely sad."
- Zhang Ziyi
(Related: Success, Blood, Tears)