#cruel

At first I did not love you, Jude; that I own. When I first knew you I merely wanted you to love me. I did not exactly flirt with you; but that inborn craving which undermines some women's morals almost more than unbridled passion--the craving to attract and captivate, regardless of the injury it may do the man--was in me; and when I found I had caught you, I was frightened. And then--I don't know how it was-- I couldn't bear to let you go--possibly to Arabella again--and so I got to love you, Jude. But you see, however fondly it ended, it began in the selfish and cruel wish to make your heart ache for me without letting mine ache for you. ↗

— Thomas Hardy

#cruel #deception #flirting #heartbreaker #heartbroken

But the hearts of small children are delicate organs. A cruel beginning in this world can twist them into curious shapes. The heart of a hurt child can shrink so that forever afterward it is hard and pitted as the seed of a peach. Or again, the heart of such a child may fester and swell until it is a misery to carry within the body, easily chafed and hurt by the most ordinary things. ↗

— Carson McCullers

#cruelty #heart #love #neglect #love

Cruelty is a language that the blind can see, the deaf can hear, and the heart feels forever. ↗

— Shannon L. Alder

#cruelty #hateful-people #love #relationships #unrequited-love

That's not cruel. This is. You come here in the middle of the night, expecting me to be awake, and ask—no, demand—me to give you things that belong to me as much as they belong to you. Never mind what it does to me. Never mind that each time I see you, I wonder if I'll ever hold you in my arms again, or be able to touch you without you cringing away like I'm a monster. I think it's fair to ask if there's an 'us,' my dear, because I suspect you're trying to use me just now. Tell me that's not cruel, and I'll let you go. ↗

— Nenia Campbell

#cruelty #love #romance #sad #love

If she had learnt any lesson today it was that men were stupid, helpless creatures made needlessly cruel by their terror of showing their feelings. ↗

— Jayne Bauling

#feelings #helpless #lesson #men #stupid

The nicest men in the world were horribly cruel. They took no great pleasure from it, it was just part of being a male, with a perpetual deep gulf between the sexes. ↗

— Margaret Way

#cruelity #male #men #men

It may well be on such a night of clouds and cruel colors that there is brought forth upon the earth such a portent as a respectable poet. You say you are a poet of law; I say you are a contradiction in terms. I only wonder there were not comets and earthquakes on the night you appeared in this garden. ↗

— G.K. Chesterton

#comets #cruel-colors #earthquakes #garden #night

April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain. ↗

— T.S. Eliot

#cruelty #poetry #seasons #weather #dead

...here's what I've learned - people will hurt you, but you don't have to respond - not every mean comment or cruel act deserves to be noticed ... ↗

— John Geddes

#comments #cruelty #hurt #ignore #response

Kissing in front of the loveless is an act of cruelty. ↗

— Maggie Stiefvater

#maggie-stiefvater #cruelty