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Heart

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It is the heart that carries one to heaven. ~ Anonymous
All great and extraordinary actions come from the heart. ~ Sydney Smith
"I shall take the heart," returned the Tin Woodsman; "for brains do not make one happy, and happiness is the best thing in the world." ~ L. Frank Baum

The heart is a vital muscular organ in humans and other animals which pumps blood through the body's arteries and veins. The word itself, and stylized depictions of hearts have long been used as symbols of love, and to refer to the spiritual, emotional, moral, or intellectual core or soul of human beings. More generally the word can refer to the center, or essential core of any physical or non-physical entities or ideas.It is like the head office which is controlling the body. Some aspects of devotion to Jesus Christ in Roman Catholic and other branches of Christianity refer to his "Sacred Heart".

Arranged alphabetically by author or source:
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A

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  • A man's first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart; his next to escape the censures of the world: if the last interferes with the former, it ought to be entirely neglected.
  • When love once pleas admission to our hearts,
    (In spite of all the virtue we can boast),
    The woman that deliberates is lost.
    • Joseph Addison, Cato, A Tragedy (1713), Act IV, scene i; the last line has often been misreported as "He who hesitates is lost", a sentiment inspired by it but not penned by Addison, as reported in They Never Said It: A Book of Fake Quotes, Misquotes, & Misleading Attributions (1989) by Paul F. Boller, Jr. and John George, p. 3.
  • O ye powers that search
    The heart of man, and weigh his inmost thoughts,
    If I have done amiss, impute it not!
    The best may err, but you are good.
  • In the nine heavens are eight Paradises;
    Where is the ninth one? In the human breast.
    Only the blessed dwell in th' Paradises,
    But blessedness dwells in the human breast.
  • Treason is judged not by its causes but by its effects.
    Each one is free, but is judged by his deeds.
    Initiation is not found through heartless action.
    Happiness is gained through labor.
    • Agni Yoga, Leaves of Morya’s Garden I, The Call, 384. (1924)
  • To see with the eyes of the heart; to hear the roar of the world with the ears of the heart; to peer into the future with the understanding of the heart; to remember past accumulations through the heart—that is how the aspirant must boldly advance on the path of ascent.
  • Since the heart is an accumulator and transmuter of various energies, there must be more favorable conditions for arousing and attracting these energies. The most fundamental condition is work, mental as well as physical. In the motion of work, energies are gathered from space; but one must understand work as a natural process that enriches life. Thus, every kind of work is a blessing, while the vagaries of inaction are extremely harmful in a cosmic sense.
  • A person can think with the heart or think with the brain. There was perhaps a time when people forgot about the work of the heart, but now is the era of the heart, and we must focus our efforts in that direction. Thus, without freeing the brain of its work, we are ready to recognize the heart as a motive power. People have thought up a thousand ways to place limitations on the heart. The works of the heart are understood in a narrow sense, and not even always in a pure sense. We must bring the entire world into the sphere of the heart, because the heart is the microcosm of everything that exists. A person who is not inspired by the great concept of the heart will end up belittling his own significance. We tell people to give up getting irritated, but only greatness of heart will save a person from the poison of irritability. We speak about the ability to embrace, but where is there an all-embracing ocean outside of the heart? We remind people about the distant worlds, but it is the heart, not the brain, that can remember about Infinity. So let us not belittle the organ that has been bestowed upon us to be a receptacle of Grace.

B

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  • My favoured temple is an humble heart.
  • "All the same," said the Scarecrow, "I shall ask for brains instead of a heart; for a fool would not know what to do with a heart if he had one."
  • "I shall take the heart," returned the Tin Woodman; "for brains do not make one happy, and happiness is the best thing in the world."
  • HEART, n. An automatic, muscular blood-pump. Figuratively, this useful organ is said to be the seat of emotions and sentiments -- a very pretty fancy which, however, is nothing but a survival of a once universal belief. It is now known that the sentiments and emotions reside in the stomach, being evolved from food by chemical action of the gastric fluid. The exact process by which a beefsteak becomes a feeling -- tender or not, according to the age of the animal from which it was cut; the successive stages of elaboration through which a caviar sandwich is transmuted to a quaint fancy and reappears as a pungent epigram; the marvelous functional methods of converting a hard-boiled egg into religious contrition, or a cream-puff into a sigh of sensibility -- these things have been patiently ascertained by M. Pasteur, and by him expounded with convincing lucidity.
    • Ambrose Bierce, The Cynic's Dictionary (1906); republished as The Devil's Dictionary (1911).
  • My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here;
    My heart's in the Highlands a-chasing the deer.
    • Robert Burns, My Heart's in the Highlands, from an old song, The Strong Walls of Derry.
  • Maid of Athens, ere we part,
    Give, oh, give me back my heart!
  • His heart was one of those which most enamour us,
    Wax to receive, and marble to retain.

C

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  • A loving heart is the beginning of all knowledge.
    • Thomas Carlyle, "The Works of Thomas Carlyle" (1839), Vol. 15, p. 260.
  • mi corazón, lugar de las hogueras
  • My heart is wax to be moulded as she pleases, but enduring as marble to retain.
  • No command of art,
    No toil, can help you hear;
    Earth's minstrelsy falls clear
    But on the listening heart.
  • Some hearts are hidden, some have not a heart.

D

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  • "There are strings," said Mr. Tappertit, "…in the human heart that had better not be wibrated."
  • The heart asks pleasure first,
    And then, excuse from pain;
    And then, those little anodynes
    That deaden suffering;

    And then, to go to sleep;
    And then, if it should be
    The will of its Inquisitor,
    The liberty to die.

E

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  • I (God) will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.

F

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  • The heart has been ignored in anthropology, and the great philosophical tradition finds it a foreign notion, preferring other concepts such as reason, will or freedom.
  • Devotion to the heart of Christ is not the veneration of a single organ apart from the Person of Jesus. What we contemplate and adore is the whole Jesus Christ, the Son of God made man, represented by an image that accentuates his heart.
    • Pope Francis, Dilexit nos (2024), paragraph 48
  • When we want to say something deeply personal, we often say that we are speaking “from the heart".
    • Pope Francis, Dilexit nos (2024), paragraph 53

G

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  • It is an affirmative command to give tzedaka to the poor of Israel. ... Anyone who sees a poor man begging alms and turns away his glance from him and does not give him tzedaka transgresses a negative command, as it is said, "You shall not harden your heart nor shut your hand to your needy brother" (Deuteronomy 15:7).
    • Shlomo Ganzfried as translated by George Horowith in The Spirit of the Jewish Law (New York: 1953)
  • All these things shall love do unto you
    that you may know the secrets of your heart,
    and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life's heart.
    But if in your fear you would seek only
    love's peace and love's pleasure,
    Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing floor,
    Into the seasonless world where you
    shall laugh, but not all of your laughter,
    and weep, but not all of your tears.
  • Ganz unbefleckt geniesst sich nur das Herz.
  • Daughter of Jove, relentless power,
    Thou tamer of the human breast,
    Whose iron scourge and tort'ring hour
    The bad affright, afflict the best!

H

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  • There is an evening twilight of the heart,
    When its wild passion-waves are lulled to rest.
  • Got only one heart/One heart with no spares/Must save it for loving/Somebody who cares

I

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And the former things will not be called to mind,
Nor will they come up into the heart.

J

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  • The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Deep in December, it's nice to remember - Without a hurt the heart is hollow ... - Deep in December, it's nice to remember - The fire of September that made us mellow ... our hearts should remember - And follow. ~ Tom Jones, "Try to Remember"
  • I, Jehovah, am searching the heart,
Examining the innermost thoughts,
To give to each one according to his ways,
According to the fruitage of his works.
  • And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.
  • I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.
  • Deep in December, it's nice to remember - Without a hurt the heart is hollow ... - Deep in December, it's nice to remember - The fire of September that made us mellow ... our hearts should remember - And follow

K

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  • The wonders of the creation may be described, but the springs of the heart operate in the heart alone.

L

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  • Let your heart guide you. It whispers, so listen closely.
  • Wo das Herz reden darf braucht es keiner Vorbereitung.
  • For his heart was in his work, and the heart
    Giveth grace unto every Art.
  • Something the heart must have to cherish,
    Must love, and joy, and sorrow learn;
    Something with passion clasp, or perish,
    And in itself to ashes burn.

M

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  • For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.
  • Better to have the poet's heart than brain,
    Feeling than song.
  • The heart is like an instrument whose strings
    Steal nobler music from Life's many frets:
    The golden threads are spun thro' Suffering's fire,
    Wherewith the marriage-robes for heaven are woven:
    And all the rarest hues of human life
    Take radiance, and are rainbow'd out in tears.
  • And when once the young heart of a maiden is stolen,
    The maiden herself will steal after it soon.
  • If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother.

N

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  • Zwei Kammern hat das Herz.
    Drin wohnen,
    Die Freude und der Schmerz.
    • Two chambers hath the heart.
      There dwelling,
      Live Joy and Pain apart.
    • Hermann Neumann, Das Herz; translation by T. W. H. Robinson; found in Echoes from Kottabos; another translation by Ernest Radford, is Chambers Twain.

O

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  • Yonkers that have hearts of oak at fourscore yeares.
    • Old Meg of Herefordshire (1609).

P

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  • Oh, the heart is a free and a fetterless thing,—
    A wave of the ocean, a bird on the wing.
  • We must never say, even in fun, that we are disheartened, because someone might take us at our word.
  • The incense of the heart may rise.
  • Keep some fires burning in your heart; I would extinguish it if I could, or get myself engulfed with it.
  • Where heart lived is what is lived.
  • I shall not go out at all
    given that my love is here
    shall always stay attached to these hearts
    I shall never bid farewell to this place!

    But I have to send this body
    anyhow from here.
  • I'm searching a heart
    inside me--
    a heart
    that's ebullient by swallowing
    the entire pain of the creation,
    a heart jubilant by accepting
    the entire tears of the world,
    a heart aglow by merging
    the entire dark within itself
    a heart that's smooth, effervescent and clean.
  • I know you'll speak no truth at this time.
    I've to be guided
    solely by your silence, your eyes and
    the inaudible appeals of your heart.
  • I wanted my heart to bloom
    and shelter a shadow of love
  • I wanted to paint a picture,
    in indelible print, across
    the canvass of my heart.
  • Through years of my prime
    I walked with a heart
    crazy about love.
  • What heart touched is what is touched
    what heart experienced is what is experienced
    where heart lived is what is lived.
  • Eyes that obstruct the road can be removed
    but what happens when hearts block the passage?
  • I’ve climbed up here
    holding the hilt of time’s sword
    after driving it
    into my tender heart.
  • Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it is the wellspring of life.
    • Proverbs 4:23, World English Bible
  • O ye simple, understand wisdom: and, ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart.
    • Proverbs 8:5, King James Version
  • The heart knoweth his own bitterness.
    • Proverbs, 14:10.
  • A sound heart is the life of the flesh: but envy the rottenness of the bones.
    • Proverbs 14:30, King James Version
  • A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance.
    • Proverbs 15:13.
  • He that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast.
    • Proverbs 15:15.
  • A man's heart deviseth his way; but the Lord directeth his steps.
    • Proverbs 16:9.
  • A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.
    • Proverbs 17:22, King James Version
  • The thoughts of a man’s heart are like deep waters,
    But the discerning man draws them out.
    • Proverbs 20:5 (New World Translation).
  • A king’s heart is like streams of water in Jehovah’s hand.
    He directs it wherever He pleases.
    • Proverbs 21:1 (New World Translation)
  • For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.
    • Proverbs 23:7, King James Version
  • He fashioneth their hearts alike.
    • Psalms 33:15.

Q

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  • The heart is a small thing, but desireth great matters. It is not sufficient for a kite's dinner, yet the whole world is not sufficient for it.
  • (Who say), "Our Lord, let not our hearts deviate after You have guided us and grant us from Yourself mercy. Indeed, You are the Bestower.
  • So have they not traveled through the earth and have hearts by which to reason and ears by which to hear? For indeed, it is not eyes that are blind, but the blind are the hearts which are within the breasts.
    • Variant: It is not the eyes that are blind but the hearts.
    • Quran 22:46

R

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  • Have you listened to your heart? Does it beat in rhythm with the Perfect Heart which embraces all of you? Thus, I shall finish with the words about the heart. Let woman affirm this great symbol, which can transfigure the whole of life. Let her strive to transmute the spiritual life of mankind.
  • My heart is like a singing bird
    Whose nest is in a water'd shoot;
    My heart is like an apple-tree
    Whose boughs are bent with thick-set fruit;
    My heart is like a rainbow shell
    That paddles in a halcyon sea;
    My heart is gladder than all these,
    Because my love is come to me.
  • Malebranche dirait qu'il n'y a plus une âme:
    Nous pensons humblement qu'il reste encor des cœurs.
    • Malebranche would have it that not a soul is left; we humbly think that there still are hearts.
    • Edmond Rostand, Chantecler, Prélude.
  • C'est toujours un mauvais moyen de lire dans le cœur des autres que d'affecter de cacher le sien.
    • It is always a poor way of reading the hearts of others to try to conceal our own.
    • Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Confessions, II.
  • Listen to your heart
    when he's calling for you.
    Listen to your heart
    there's nothing else you can do.
    I don't know where you're going
    and I don't know why,
    but listen to your heart
    before you tell him goodbye.

S

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  • Voici mon secret. Il est très simple: on ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux.
  • Nicht Fleisch und Blut; das Herz macht uns zu Vätern und Söhnen.
    • It is not flesh and blood but the heart which makes us fathers and sons.
    • Friedrich Schiller, Die Räuber, I. 1.
  • The very firstlings of my heart shall be
    The firstlings of my hand.
  • I will wear my heart upon my sleeve
    For daws to peck at; I am not what I am.
  • Not for the body, but for the heart; companion and company are needed.
  • My heart didn't want to believe it, but the truth was right in front of me.
  • Actions done against the will of the heart never bring good to anyone. Refusing may bring pain for a while, just for a moment, but agreeing to something merely to please someone aches forever and hurts everyone."
  • Perhaps it is the deprivation that keeps hearts connected. Once everything is fulfilled, wings sprout in everyone’s heart, and they fly off to different destinations. How can a relationship stay warm with just the body, when the heart is absent?"
  • May I meet you someday like this
    may there be no rush of saying goodbye
    may there be no fear of interruptions
    may all the emotions be poured out,
    and every nook and cranny of my heart be emptied.
    may I hold no regrets within
    may memories not haunt us later.

Love is in winning hearts through genuine care, not through threats or pressure.

  • All great and extraordinary actions come from the heart. There are seasons in human affairs, when qualities fit enough to conduct the common business of life, are feeble and useless; and when men must trust to emotion, for that safety which reason at such times can never give.
    • Sydney Smith, Elementary Sketches of Moral Philosophy (1849), Lecture XXVIL: On Habit

T

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V

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  • L'oreille est le chemin du cœur.
    • The ear is the avenue to the heart.
    • Voltaire, Réponse au Roi de Prusse.
  • La bouche obéit mal lorsque le cœur murmure.
    • The mouth obeys poorly when the heart murmurs.
    • Voltaire, Tancrède, I. 4.

W

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He has the pass-key of hearts, to him the response of the prying of hands on the knobs. ~ Walt Whitman
  • He is the Answerer,
    What can be answer'd he answers, and what cannot be answer'd he shows how it cannot be answer'd.

    A man is a summons and challenge,
    (It is vain to skulk — do you hear that mocking and laughter? do you hear the ironical echoes?)

    Books, friendships, philosophers, priests, action, pleasure, pride, beat up and down seeking to give satisfaction,
    He indicates the satisfaction, and indicates them that beat up and down also.

    Whichever the sex, whatever the season or place, he may go freshly and gently and safely by day or by night,
    He has the pass-key of hearts, to him the response of the prying of hands on the knobs.

    His welcome is universal, the flow of beauty is not more welcome or universal than he is,
    The person he favors by day or sleeps with at night is blessed.

Y

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  • Who, for the poor renown of being smart,
    Would leave a sting within a brother's heart?
  • Heaven's Sovereign saves all beings but himself,
    That hideous sight, a naked human heart.
    • Edward Young, Night Thoughts (1742-1745), Night III, line 226.

Z

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Anonymous

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  • It is the heart that carries one to heaven.
    • Anonymous proverb, as quoted in "The Mind of the African Negro as reflected in his Proverbs" in The Journal of Negro History, Volume 1 (1916), edited by Carter Godwin Woodson.

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