William James
Philosopher, Psychologist
"There is an organic affinity between joyousness and tenderness."
Affinity quotes
Affinity
34 quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
George Santayana
Philosopher, Poet
"It is a great bond to dislike the same things."
Aesop
Fabulist
"There can be little liking where there is no likeness."
Henry David Thoreau
Writer, Philosopher
"You cannot receive a shock unless you have an electric affinity for that which shocks you."
Theodore Parker
Transcendentalist, Minister
"Truth never yet fell dead in the streets; it has such affinity with the soul of man, the seed however broadcast will catch somewhere and produce its hundredfold."
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Browse quotes that often appear alongside affinity — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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Affinity quotes (page 1 of 2)
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"It is not in how one soul approaches another but in how it withdraws that I knowr its affinity and solidarity with the other."
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"I found myself being more and more involved with people who were rejected by society - with drug addicts, alcoholism, battered this, battered that - and I found an affinity there."
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"I don't know what it says about me that I have a greater affinity with the damaged. Probably nothing good."
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"Whatever bears affinity to cunning is despicable."
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"There certainly is an affinity between a person and his work, but it is not easy to define what this affinity is, and on that question many judge quite wrongly."
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"Heaven? I don't have an affinity with that place."
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"The profoundest affinities are those most readily felt."
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"It is one thing to recognise certain potentially useful affinities, and another to act on them."
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"We feel an affinity with a certain thinker because we agree with him; or because he shows us what we were already thinking; or because he shows us in a more articulate form what we were already thinking; or because he shows us what we were on the point of thinking; or what we would sooner or later have thought; or what we would have thought much later if we hadn’t read it now; or what we would have been likely to think but never would have thought if we hadn’t read it now; or what we would have liked to think but never would have thought if we hadn’t read it now."
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