Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps; for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are, and what they ought to be.
—William Hazlitt
Let him cry whoever feels like crying, for we were animals before we became reasoning beings, and the shedding of a tear, whether of forgiveness or of pity or of sheer delight at beauty, will do him a lot of good.
—Lin Yutang
I didn’t know why I was going to cry, but I knew that if anybody spoke to me or looked at me too closely the tears would fly out of my eyes and the sobs would fly out of my throat and I’d cry for a week. I could feel the tears brimming and sloshing in me like water in a glass that is unsteady and too full.
—Sylvia Plath in The Bell Jar
Sometimes you do have to laugh to keep from crying. And sometimes the world feels all right and good and kind of like it’s becoming nice again around you. And you realize it, and realize how happy you are in it, and you just gotta laugh.
—Jacqueline Woodson in Peace, Locomotion
Somewhere inside of me I am crying, too, because I'm feeling things at last. I'm feeling not just the physical pain, but all that I have lost, and it is profound and catastrophic and will leave a crater in me that nothing will ever fill.
—Gayle Forman in If I Stay
Don't apologize for crying. Without this emotion, we are only robots.
—Elizabeth Gilbert in Love
Nature, like man, sometimes weeps from gladness.
—Benjamin Disraeli
Crying is all right in its own way while it lasts. But you have to stop sooner or later, and then you still have to decide what to do.
—C. S. Lewis
When he died, I suddenly realized I wasn't crying for him at all, but for the things he did. I cried because he would never do them again.
—Ray Bradbury in Fahrenheit 451
I wouldn't cry today. I wouldn't cry over him again. Not ever.
—Abbi Glines in Sometimes It Lasts
I thoroughly believe in crying, yelling, pulling my hair out, and experiencing heartache, BUT once I'm done I dissect the pain and learn lessons from it.
—Lilly Singh in How to Be a Bawse