Quotes and passages on heart

When the heart speaks, the mind
finds it indecent to object.

Milan Kundera
The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one's weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart. Mohandas Gandhi

Her heart--like every heart, if only its fallen sides were cleared away--was an inexhaustible fountain of love: she loved everything she saw. George MacDonald The Day Boy and the Night Girl

As you get older, the heart sheds its leaves like a tree. You cannot hold out against certain winds. Each day tears away a few more leaves; and then there are the storms that break off several branches at one go. And while nature’s greenery grows back again in the spring, that of the heart never grows back. Gustave Flaubert The shape of my life is, of course, determined by many things; my background and childhood, my mind and its education, my conscience and its pressures, my heart and its desires. Anne Morrow Lindbergh Gift from the Sea

Our heart always transcends us. Rainer Maria Rilke

All the knowledge I possess everyone else
can acquire, but my heart is all my own.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Be the one who nurtures and builds. Be the one who has an
understanding and a forgiving heart one who looks for the
best in people. Leave people better than you found them.

Marvin J. Ashton

There are many things in your heart you can never tell to
another person. They are you, your private joys and sorrows,
and you can never tell them. You cheapen yourself, the inside
of yourself, when you tell them.

Greta Garbo

Small is the number of those who see with their
own eyes and feel with their own hearts.

Albert Einstein

When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find
it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.
When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall
see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

Khalil Gibran

Reese, your books might not tell you this, so I will. Every heart has
two parts, the part that pumps and the part that loves. If you’re
going to spend your life fixing broken hearts, then learn about both.
You can’t just fix one with no concern for the other.

Charles Martin

Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either -- but right through every human heart -- and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained. And even in the best of all hearts, there remains. . . an un-uprooted small corner of evil.

Since then I have come to understand the truth of all the religions of the world: They struggle with the evil inside a human being (inside every human being). It is impossible to expel evil from the world in its entirety, but it is possible to constrict it within each person.

Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn
The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956

"I’ve been through all this before," he says to his heart.
“Yes, you have been through all this before," replies his heart.
"But you have never been beyond it.”

Paulo Coelho
Warrior of the Light

The only calibration that counts is how much heart people invest, how much
they ignore their fears of being hurt or caught out or humiliated. And the only
thing people regret is that they didn't live boldly enough, that they didn't invest
enough heart, didn't love enough. Nothing else really counts at all.

Ted Hughes
Letters of Ted Hughes

It is only with the heart that one can see rightly;
what is essential is invisible to the eye.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
The Little Prince

All our actions take their hue from the complexion of
the heart, as landscapes their variety from light.

Francis Bacon

There is no better exercise for the heart than reaching
down and lifting up people.

John Andrew Holmer

Oscar Wilde once wrote to a friend that "hearts are made to be broken."
Wilde's point wasn't that we will always feel sad; it was that when we
follow love rather than fear, we risk suffering the kind of heartbreak
that allows us to grow, rather than crippling us. Pushing away our innate
desires lacerates the heart so badly that it may not be able to recover;
consciously risking heartbreak en route to the fulfillment of those desires
actually makes us stronger. The heart is a muscle, and as any weightlifter
knows, muscles grow stronger and more fit if they are torn just a little bit,
then allowed to heal. Make no mistake: putting your heart out into the world
by taking risks for your true self means that it will be broken--and
it will heal stronger than it was when you began.

Martha Beck
The Joy Diet

So it is more useful to watch a person in times of peril, and in
adversity to discern what kind of person he or she is; for then
at last words of truth are drawn from the depths of one's heart,
and the mask is torn off, reality remains.

Titus Lucretius Carus

Those speak foolishly who ascribe their anger or their impatience to such
as offend them or to tribulation. Tribulation does not make people impatient,
but proves that they are impatient. So everyone may learn from tribulation
how their hearts are constituted.

Martin Luther

Your heart's voice is your true voice. It is easy to ignore it, for sometimes
it says what we'd rather it did not--and it is so hard to risk the things
we have. But what life are we living, if we don't live by our hearts?
Not a true one. And the person living it is not the true you.

Susan Fletcher
The Highland Witch

When we focus on the song of our soul and heart, then others will be
touched similarly. Sometimes people wonder or worry whether people
will like or approve of their creative expression. It's none of your
business. It's your business to stay present and focused for the work of
your deepest dreams. It might look crooked or strange, or be very odd--
but if it delights you, then it is yours, and will find its way into other hearts.

Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy

This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for
complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is
our temple; the philosophy is kindness.

the Dalai Lama

The human species has all but lost its heart; we gave it up
for the illusionary fruits of the material world. But a life
without heart is a life without life force. The psyche, as well
as the body, needs both heart and brain in order to survive.
Like Chinese women who bound their feet and the could
no longer walk freely, we have bound our hearts,
and thus stunted our growth as moral beings.

Marianne Williamson
Illuminata

The human heart, has hidden treasures,
In secret kept, in silence sealed;--
The thoughts, the hopes, the dreams, the pleasures,
Whose charms were broken if revealed.

Charlotte Bronte

The door to the human heart can be opened only from the inside.

Spanish proverb

A good head and a good heart are a formidable combination.

Nelson Mandela

The experience I'm talking about has given me one certainty: the
salvation of this human world lies nowhere else than in the human
heart, in the human power to reflect, in human meekness and in
human responsibility. Without a global revolution in human
consciousness, nothing will change for the better, and the
catastrophe toward which this world is headed will be unavoidable.

Vaclav Havel

People share the same basic drives: a need for love, for freedom
and respect, and the desire to feel as if their lives have meaning.
By looking within, the keys to understanding human behavior can
be revealed if you are courageous enough to search your innermost
heart. But how many of us know where that heart is? How many
of us have fallen into the habit of being out of touch with what we
intuitively know? Often this seems to be most true when we apply
it to knowing our own feelings. The noisy hustle and bustle of the
outer world can distract us so much that we have a hard time
listening to that still, small voice that usually knows
the truth of any situation.

John Marks Templeton
Worldwide Laws of Life

It is the inclination and tendency of the heart which
finally determines the opinions of the mind.

Christoph Luthardt

Everybody's heart is open, you know, when they have recently escaped
from severe pain, or are recovering the blessing of health.

Jane Austen

Keep your heart above the world, and you will not be troubled by the changes in it.

Brilliana Harley

If you keep your heart immersed always in the ocean of divine love, your
heart is sure to remain ever full to overflowing with the waters of divine love.

Ramakrishna

Can you walk on water? You have done no better than a straw.
Can you fly in the air? You have done no better than a bluebottle.
Conquer your heart; then you can be somebody.

Ansari of Herat

It is not through the conquest of things, but the conquest of the heart
that leads us to a richer life. Draw up an inventory of all your feelings
from hate to love, and you will discover the rating of your heart. How
do we conquer our heart? By rejecting negative values in favor of
positive ones. By opening our heart to the needs of others. By letting
the heart as well as the mind examine a problem. By giving the heart
the authority to make us more aware and sensitive to life around us.

Wilferd A. Peterson
The Art of Creative Thinking

The moment we become truly aware of our heart, we feel comfort and
release right away. Our heart has been working day and night, pumping
thousands of gallons of blood to nourish all the cells in our body and
preserve our peace, and we know that if our heart stops beating, we will
die. But still, we do not take good care of our heart. We eat, drink, and
work in ways that bring about tension and stress. When we touch our
heart with mindfulness, we see clearly that a heart in good condition is
an element of real peace and happiness; and we vow to live in a way
that keeps our heart in good condition.

Thich Nhat Hanh
Living Buddha, Living Christ

What we hold in our hearts for others is the way we'll act toward them.
A hard heart makes for hard judgments; a compassionate heart
understands the humanity of the one we presume to judge.

Joan Chittister
Seeing with Our Souls

There never was any heart truly great and generous,
that was not also tender and compassionate.

Robert South

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Why do you read many books? The great book is within your heart.
Open the pages of this inexhaustible book, the source of all
knowledge. You will know everything.

Sivananda

If wrinkles must be written upon our brows, let them not be
written upon the heart. The spirit should not grow old.

James A. Garfield

Great hearts send forth steadily the secret forces that incessantly draw great events.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

A perfect mind comes from a perfect heart, not the heart known by
a doctor's stethoscope but the heart which is the seat of God.

Mohandas Gandhi

Find the god in your own heart and you will understand by direct intuition
what all the great teachers, real mystics, true philosophers and inspired
people have been trying to tell you by the tortuous method of using words.

Paul Brunton

Surely we come to know ourselves only when we have found the
best that is in us, and have satisfied our hearts with the highest
achievement we are fit for. It is only then that we know
what our hearts demand.

Woodrow Wilson

The heart has reasons that reason doesn't understand.

Jacques Bossuet

We must be ever on the search for some persons whom we shall
love and who will love us in return. If good will and
affection are taken away, every joy is taken from life.

Cicero

Listen to me! Listen to me--I'm your heart. Why do you never dare to let me be free to become what I was born to become? Your passionate power. Why do you close the door to me when I laugh and cry? When I sing my songs of hopes and hurts? Why do you always want to control everything and everyone who touches you--even me!

I'm your heart. There are mysterious, warm, refreshing, and renewing moods that I want to share with you! Forceful, fortifying, friendly feelings live with me. Why do you shut me out of your power plays? Are you afraid that I'll embarrass you? Or are you perhaps afraid that I'll upstage you?

I could and would be your best friend. Be honest with me. You don't need to be afraid to tell me if you're tired, bewildered, confused, or overwhelmed. I'm the one and only friend you can trust with your secret dreams and your sad hurts--and even your vain ambitions.

Come to me. Are you lost? I can see another way from where I live. The heart can see a path that's out of sight to the head--a path you'll surely overlook, left alone on your lofty perch up there, too distracted by your world to see the real world where I live. I live on the level of laughter, tears, and--yes--prayer.

Robert H. Schuller
If It's Going To Be, It's Up To Me

The course of human history is determined, not by what happens
in the skies, but by what takes place in our hearts.

Arthur Keith

The fountain of beauty is the heart, and every generous
thought illustrates the walls of your chamber.

Francis Quarles

A pure heart is one that is unencumbered, unworried, uncommitted and
which does not want its own way about anything but which,
rather, is submerged in the loving will of God.

Meister Eckhart

The heart of one person moves another's. If one's own heart
is closed then the doors of other people's hearts will also shut
tight. On the other hand, someone who makes all those around
him or her into allies, bathing them in the sunlight of spring,
will be treasured by all.

Daisaku Ikeda
Buddhism Day by Day

The heart has dreams and hopes it hides from public view. The heart
has secret sorrows, private woes. Listening to my heart, I must listen
with gentle ears. If I judge too harshly, my heart will not speak of
disappointments and their pain will remain. My heart requires my
tenderness to speak its secrets. My heart rewards my love by being
the true compass by which I may steer my life.

Julia Cameron
Transitions: Prayers and
Declarations for a Changing Life

When I loved myself enough, I became my own authority
by listening to the wisdom of my heart. This is how God
speaks to me. This is intuition.

Kim McMillen
When I Loved Myself Enough