Since the great foundation of fear is pain, the way to harden and fortify children against fear and danger is to accustom them to suffer pain.
Things can harden meaningfully in the moment of indecision
The tears of the compassionate are sweeter than dewdrops falling from roses on the bosom of the earth. Shut not thine ear, therefore, against the cries of the poor, neither harden thine heart against the calamities of the innocent.
To harden the earth the rocks took charge: instantly they grew wings: the rocks that soared: the survivors flew up the lightning bolt, screamed in the night, a watermark, a violet sword, a meteor. The succulent sky had not only clouds, not only space smelling of oxygen, but an earthly stone flashing here and there changed into a dove, changed into a bell, into immensity, into a piercing wind: into a phosphorescent arrow, into salt of the sky.
I think men, growing up, you have to go through some form of hardship. You've got to harden the metal.
And when your back stops aching and your hands begin to harden, You will find yourself a partner in the Glory of the Garden.
Damage hardens us all. It will harden you too, when it finds you—and it will find you
He who thinks with difficulty believes with alacrity. A fool is a natural proselyte, but he must be caught young, for his convictions, unlike those of the wise, harden with age.
Tears harden lust, though marble wear with raining.
Rage and bitterness do not foster femininity. They harden the heart and make the body sick.
All that God had to do to harden Pharaoh's heart, or to harden your heart, is to withhold His own grace.
Harden our hearts to the innocents in the womb, and we have hardened our hearts to the need for compassion, and mercy, and fellow-feeling, and charity, and decency in this world.
This is life! It can harden and it can exalt!
God, harden me against myself!
Only one thing matters: live a good, happy life. Do your heart's bidding, even when it leads you on paths that timid souls would avoid. Even when life is a torment, don't let it harden you.
One applauds the industry of professional philanthropy. But it has its dangers. After a while the private heart begins to harden. We fling letters into the wastebasket, are abrupt to telephoned solicitations. Charity withers in the incessant gale.
Life is unjust, people can be cruel, and yet if you harden your heart, you will lose what little love there is in this world.
Pace yourself, pace yourself, pace yourself. And take time to rest. I guess if you don't rest and rejuvenate, then you harden, and I don't want to harden.
Direct pressure always tends to harden and consolidate the resistance of an opponent.
The tendency to cruelty should be watched in children and if they incline to any such cruelty, they should be taught the contrary usage. For the custom of tormenting and killing other animals will, by degrees, harden their hearts even toward man. Children should from the beginning, be brought up in an abhorrence of killing or tormenting living beings.
