"...life, though largely, is not entirely carried on by literature. We are
subject to physical passions and contortions; the voice breaks and
changes, and speaks by unconscious and winning inflections; we have
legible countenances, like an open book; things that cannot be said look
eloquently through the eyes; and the soul, not locked into the body as a
dungeon, dwells ever on the threshold with appealing signals. Groans
and tears, looks and gestures, a flush or a paleness, are often the most
clear reporters of the heart, and speak more directly to the hearts of
others. The message flies by these interpreters in the least space of
time, and the misunderstanding is averted in the moment of its birth. To
explain in words takes time and a just and patient hearing; and in the
critical epochs of a close relation, patience and justice are not
qualities on which we can rely. But the look or the gesture explains
things in a breath; they tell their message without ambiguity; unlike
speech, they cannot stumble, by the way, on a reproach or an allusion
that should steel your friend against the truth; and then they have a
higher authority, for they are the direct expression of the heart, not
yet transmitted through the unfaithful and sophisticating brain."
— Robert Louis Stevenson, "Truth of Intercourse" in Essays: English and American.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.
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