"Have a strong mind and a soft heart"
About this Quote
Then the second half swerves: “soft heart.” Not “kind,” not “good,” but soft - a word that usually gets weaponized as an insult. D’Angelo reclaims it, implying that emotional permeability is not a defect but a choice. The subtext is a critique of a culture that confuses cynicism with intelligence and callousness with authority. A soft heart isn’t naive; it’s deliberately unarmored.
The elegance is in the pairing’s tension. A strong mind without a soft heart curdles into cold performance: efficient, correct, and morally vacant. A soft heart without a strong mind becomes easily manipulated, compassionate but scattered, endlessly reacting. Put together, the quote sketches an ideal modern character type: someone who can think rigorously and still feel deeply, who can say no without becoming cruel, who can empathize without surrendering judgment.
Context matters: D’Angelo writes in the motivational tradition, where brevity is the tool and the audience is people trying to live better in a noisy world. The sentence works because it offers a simple ethic that’s hard to fake. It asks for both spine and vulnerability - a harder combo than either alone.
Quote Details
| Topic | Kindness |
|---|---|
| Source | Later attribution: A Toolbox for Humanity (Lloyd Albert Johnson, 2004) modern compilationISBN: 9781412009560 · ID: D8TJX35RMgMC
Evidence: ... Have a strong mind and a soft heart. ** Anthony J. D'Angelo (1936 - ), The College Blue Book ** Your mind is like a parachute. It only works if it is open. ** Anthony J. D'Angelo (1936 - ), The College Blue Book ** It is not enough to ... Other candidates (1) Donald Trump (Anthony J. D'Angelo) compilation50.0% a sadist then you have a big problem in that case fire your boss and get a new j |
| Featured | This quote was our Quote of the Day on September 19, 2023 |
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Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
D'Angelo, Anthony J. (2026, January 11). Have a strong mind and a soft heart. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/have-a-strong-mind-and-a-soft-heart-100841/
Chicago Style
D'Angelo, Anthony J. "Have a strong mind and a soft heart." FixQuotes. January 11, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/have-a-strong-mind-and-a-soft-heart-100841/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Have a strong mind and a soft heart." FixQuotes, 11 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/have-a-strong-mind-and-a-soft-heart-100841/. Accessed 11 Feb. 2026.













