Emotion is the color in the story of a life, the pulse beneath each choice and turning point. As Mayra Mannes observed, “The sign of an intelligent people is their ability to control emotions by the application of reason.” These quotations honor the fire and tenderness of feeling—from quiet compassion to boiling passion—and remind us that how we hold our emotions can shape who we become.

“When I play, I’m boiling inside. I just try not to show it because it’s a lack of composure, and if you give in to your emotions after one loss, you’re liable to have three or four in a row.” ~ Chris Evert

“Knowledge of the means to express our emotion is essential, and is acquired only after a very long experience.” ~ Paul Cézanne

“The longer I live, the less I trust ideas, the more I trust emotions.” ~ Louis Malle

“I try to see the dark and light in everything. This is my way of comforting myself when I am dealing with those emotions.” ~ Francesca Lia Block

“Our worth is determined by the good deeds we do, rather than by the fine emotions we feel.” ~ Elias L. Magoon

“There can be no transforming of darkness into light and of apathy into movement without emotion.” ~ Carl Jung

“Some emotions don’t make a lot of noise. It’s hard to hear pride. Caring is real faint, like a heartbeat. And pure love, why, some days it’s so quiet, you don’t even know it’s there.” ~ Erma Bombeck

“You have to be able to center yourself, to let all of your emotions go. Don’t ever forget that you play with your soul as well as your body.” ~ Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

“I’m highly emotional, so I’m highly aware of humiliation.” ~ Sally Field

“At first when I realized I was a romantic, I was sort of shocked and shamed. But it is true that the material I work most with is emotion.” ~ Albert Paley

“No emotion is the final one.” ~ Jeanette Winterson, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

“Art, whether painting or music, is an expression of the emotions.” ~ Thomas Moran

“It’s the emotional punches that you can’t see that are just overwhelmingly devastating to your heart, your moral fiber.” ~ Mike Tyson

“An ounce of emotion is equal to a ton of facts.” ~ John Junor