The world either breaks or hardens the heart.
[En vivant et en voyant les hommes, il faut que le cœur se briese ou se bronze.]
Nicolas Chamfort (1741-1794) French writer, epigrammist (b. Nicolas-Sébastien Roch)
Products of Perfected Civilization [Produits de la Civilisation Perfectionnée], Part 2 “Characters and Anecdotes [Caractères et Anecdotes],” ch. 3 (frag. 771) (1795) [tr. Finod (1880)]
(Source)
(Source (French))
Attributed by Chamfort as a statement in a philosophical debate, made by M. D---. Finod's translation is very much a paraphrase, as is:
Contact with the world either breaks or hardens the heart.
[ed. Ballou (1882)]
More literal translations:
Living among men and observing them, the heart must either break or turn to bronze.
[tr. Merwin (1969)]
In living and in seeing men, the heart must break or be bronzed.
[Source]
Though attributed by Chamfort to "M. D----," he also used the phrase himself, and it is usually attributed to him. Toward the end of his life, he wrote:
Je m'en vais enfin, de ce monde où il faut que le cœur se briese ou se bronze.
[I am leaving at last from this world where the heart must break or become bronze.]
Quotations about:
harden
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The heart never grows better by age; I fear rather worse; always harder. A young liar will be an old one; and a young knave will only be a greater knave as he grows older.
Lord Chesterfield (1694-1773) English statesman, wit [Philip Dormer Stanhope]
Letter to his son, #225 (17 May 1750)
(Source)
The more you try to avoid suffering, the more you suffer, because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you, in proportion to your fear of being hurt. The one who does most to avoid suffering is, in the end, the one who suffers most.
Thomas Merton (1915-1968) French-American religious and writer [a.k.a. Fr. M. Louis]
The Seven Storey Mountain (1948)
Perhaps the worst thing about suffering is that it finally hardens the hearts of those around it.
Gloria Steinem (b. 1934) American feminist, journalist, activist
Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions, “Ruth’s Song” (1983)
