Sentimentality Quotes

• There is no more subtle dissolvent of morals than sentimentality.

  Woodrow Wilson

  Moral, Subtle

  Woodrow Wilson, Woodrow Wilson Foundation, Princeton University (1974). “The papers of Woodrow Wilson”

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• I don't trust sentimentality in men; it goes with tyranny; you can't have one without the other.

  Caitlin Thomas

  Men, Tyranny, Don't Trust

  18 Copy quote

• If there is anybody I detest, it is weak-minded sentimentalists-all those melancholy people who, out of an excess of sympathy for others, miss the thrill of their own essence and drift through life without identity, like a human fog, feeling sorry for everyone.

  John Cheever

  Sorry, Fog, Essence

  John Cheever, Blake Bailey (2009). “John Cheever: Collected Stories and Other Writings”

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• Through all he said, even through his appalling sentimentality, I was reminded of something-an elusive rhythm, a fragment of lost words, that I heard somewhere a long time ago. For a moment a phrase tried to take shape in my mouth and my lips parted like a dumb man's, as though there was more struggling upon them than a wisp of startled air. But they made no sound and what I had almost remembered was uncommunicable forever.

  F. Scott Fitzgerald

  Struggle, Men, Air

  F. Scott Fitzgerald (2007). “The Great Gatsby”, p.127, Broadview Press

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

• Sentimentality is a form of fatigue.

  Leonora Carrington

  Form, Fatigue

  20 Copy quote

• A sentimentalist is simply one who desires to have the luxury of an emotion without paying for it.

  Oscar Wilde

  Emotional, Luxury, Feelings

  Oscar Wilde, Moira Muldoon (2005). “The Picture of Dorian Gray and Other Writings”, p.348, Simon and Schuster

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• Love without truth is sentimentality; it supports and affirms us but keeps us in denial about our flaws. Truth without love is harshness; it gives us information but in such a way that we cannot really hear it.

  Timothy Keller

  Love, Marriage, Giving

  Timothy Keller (2011). “The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God”, p.31, Penguin

  58 Copy quote

  Show source

• Sentimentality is unearned emotion.

  James Joyce

  Sentimental, Emotion

  11 Copy quote

• Sentimentality is a superstructure covering brutality.

  Carl Jung

  Covering, Brutality, Sentimental

  7 Copy quote

• Sentimentality about nature denatures everything it touches.

  Jane Jacobs

  Jane Jacobs (2016). “The Death and Life of Great American Cities”, p.447, Vintage

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Sentimentalists are they who seek to enjoy without incurring the Immense Debtorship for a thing done.

  George Meredith

  Done, Enjoy, Immense

  George Meredith (1922). “The Complete Works of George Meredith”, p.473, Library of Alexandria

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Sentimentality, the ostentatious parading of excessive and spurious emotion, is the mark of dishonesty, the inability to feel.

  James A. Baldwin

  Inability, Emotion, Dishonesty

  "Everybody’s Protest Novel". Essay by James A. Baldwin (1949), as quoted in "Uneasy Rider" by Alexandra Schwartz, www.newyorker.com. November 9, 2015.

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• There is nothing I hate more than sentimentality.

  Max Beckmann

  Hate, I Hate, Appetizers

  Max Beckmann, Barbara Copeland Buenger (1997). “Self-Portrait in Words: Collected Writings and Statements, 1903-1950”, p.183, University of Chicago Press

  14 Copy quote

  Show source

• In dread fear of sentimentality, another thing true is not said-that for its staff the paper is a source of pride and, I do believe, an object of affection and-yes, love.

  Arthur Ochs Sulzberger

  True Love, Believe, Pride

  6 Copy quote

• Sentimentality - that's what we call the sentiment we don't share.

  Graham Greene

  Relationship, Communication, Sentimental

  9 Copy quote

• In deep sadness there is no place for sentimentality.

  William S. Burroughs

  Grief, Sadness, Deep Sadness

  "Queer: A Novel". Book by William S. Burroughs, 1985.

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• And if I have a strong point, it's that I like to believe it's not cheap or schmaltzy sentimentality.

  Toots Thielemans

  Strong, Believe, Ifs

  6 Copy quote

• When I talked to my medical friends about the strange silence on this subject in American medical magazines and textbooks, I gained the impression that here was a subject tainted with Socialism or with feminine sentimentality for the poor.

  Alice Hamilton

  Silence, Textbooks, Magazines

  Alice Hamilton, (2013). “Exploring the Dangerous Trades - The Autobiography of Alice Hamilton, M.D.”, p.93, Read Books Ltd

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Only a struggle twists sentimentality and lust together into love.

  E. M. Forster

  Struggle, Lust, Together

  6 Copy quote

• I think I avoid stepping into sentimentality by trying to be as truthful as possible with performances.

  Lasse Hallstrom

  Thinking, Trying, Truthful

  6 Copy quote

• There's nothing I hate more than nothing.

  Edie Brickell

  Hate, I Hate, Appetizers

  9 Copy quote

• I didn't want to be on the losing side. I was fed up with Jewish weakness, timidity and fear. I didn't want any more Jewish sentimentality and Jewish suffering. I was sickened by our sad songs.

  Lionel Blue

  Song, Suffering, Sides

  19 Copy quote

• Sentimentality is the emotional promiscuity of those who have no sentiment.

  Norman Mailer

  Emotional, Sentimental, Sentiments

  Cannibals and Christians (1966) p. 51

  21 Copy quote

  Show source

• The barrenest of all mortals is the sentimentalist.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Sentimental, Sentiments, Mortals

  Thomas Carlyle, Henry Duff Traill (2010). “The Works of Thomas Carlyle”, p.9, Cambridge University Press

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• The sentimentality of baseball is very deeply rooted in the American baseball fan. It is the one sport that is transmitted from fathers to sons.

  Michael Lewis

  Sports, Baseball, Father

  "Michael Lewis on Moneyball". Interview with Robert Birnbaum, www.identitytheory.com. June 16, 2003.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source