Dialogue Between Head and Heart

"Head—This is one of the scrapes into which you are ever leading us.
You must look forward before you take a step that may interest our
peace.
Heart—Let the gloomy monks, sequestered from the world, seek unsocial
pleasures in the bottom of his cell. Had they ever felt the solid
pleasure of one generous spasm of the heart, they would exchange for it
all the frigid speculations of their lives.
Head—Do not bite at the bait of pleasure til you know there is no
hook beneath it. The art of life is the art of avoiding pain.
Heart—Leave me to decide when and where friendships are to be
contracted. We have no rose without its thorn; no pleasure without its
alloy. "
—Thomas Jefferson (1786; A dialogue between his head and heart,
written upon falling in love with Maria Cosway)