Collective Emotions Quotes

A great poet does not express his or her self; he expresses all of our selves.

The strange power of art is sometimes it can show that what people have in common is more urgent than what differentiates them. It seems to me it's something that theatre can do, but it's rare; it's very rare.

No revolutionary movement is complete without its poetical expression. If such a movement has caught hold of the imagination of the masses, they will seek a vent in song for the aspirations, the fears and hopes, the loves and hatreds engendered by the struggle.

It's hard to articulate what everybody else is feeling.

I have often noticed how primate groups in their entirety enter a similar mood. All of a sudden, all of them are playful, hopping around. Or all of them are grumpy. Or all of them are sleepy and settle down. In such cases, the mood contagion serves the function of synchronizing activities.

A good civilization gives the greatest possible scope to the common passions and makes them intelligible among the great number of people.

Several years ago, when I was about to start a novel, I thought I might get some mileage out of the idea of a civilization in which people somehow felt - that is, they shared - all the pain and all the pleasure they caused one another.

If there is a sort of national American emotion I would call it optimism. If there is an English one I would call it embarrassment - not even pessimism - just sheer shame, embarrassment and confusion.

Ultimately we're all faced with the same things and that's what brings us together. It's just human nature to be terrified and that doesn't necessarily manifest itself in completely different ways.

I feel like the one insight that's extremely comforting to me about the world is that we all share the same pool of emotion that we draw from.

Our emotions resonate with each other - for better and for worse.

Raindrops are beating, a large puddle is forming, there on the balcony. It all floats in Emptiness, in purest Transparency, with no one here to watch it. If there is an I, it is all that is arising, right now and right now and right now. My lungs are the sky; those mountains are my teeth; the clouds are my skin; the thunder is my heart beating time to the timeless; the rain itself, the tears of our collective estate, here where nothing is really happening.

I think we all suffer the same pain, all feel the same happiness, and we all have the same emotions within us.

I wondered if emotions were like menstrual cycles, if you get enough women together. Give it time, and everyone was crying.

Most of the time, our deeper, stronger feelings are things we all have in common.

Lou knew that joy unshared was a halved emotion, just as sadness and loss, when borne alone, were often doubled.

I think because we're ourselves, we tend to think we're unique. 'I have problems that are just specific to me.' Then you connect with one of your parents and you realize, 'Oh yeah, we had all that stuff, too.' You're not that original. I mean, in a good way, because it makes you feel like you're connected and a part of the world and not an island.

there is a spirit in every home, a sort of composite spirit composed of the thoughts and feelings of the members of the family as a composite photograph is formed of the features of different individuals.