Heart

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.

• 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.
  • Joseph Addison, on "Sir Roger", in The Spectator No. 122 (20 July 1711).

• 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.
  • Joseph Addison, Cato, A Tragedy (1713), Act IV, scene iv

• 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.
  • William R. Alger, "The Ninth Paradise", Poetry of the Orient (1865), p. 223.

• For the lady who cares for all the countries, the queen, mother Nance, sees into their hearts. [...] Nance sees into the heart of the Land as if it were a split reed.
  • Anonymous, A hymn to Nanshe, late 3rd millennium BCE, at The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature.

• 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.
  • Agni Yoga, Heart 1, (1932)

• 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.
  • Agni Yoga, Heart, 79. (1932)

• 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.
  • Agni Yoga, Heart 277, (1932)

• I have a heart with room for every joy.
  • Philip James Bailey, Festus (1813), scene A Mountain.

• My favoured temple is an humble heart.
  • Philip James Bailey, Festus (1813), scene Colonnade and Lawn.

• "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."
  • L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

• "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."
  • L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

• 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).

• When your heart is a party, solitude becomes crowded with memories.
  • Giannina Braschi, Assault on Time," in Empire of Dreams". (1981)

• 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.

• A warrior can change his metal, but not his heart.
  • Edgar Rice Burroughs, A Princess of Mars (1917).

• Maid of Athens, ere we part,
  Give, oh, give me back my heart!
  • Lord Byron, Maid of Athens, Stanza 1.

• His heart was one of those which most enamour us,
  Wax to receive, and marble to retain.
  • Lord Byron, Beppo (1818), Stanza 34.

• Whatever pretended pessimists in search of notoriety may say, most people are naturally kind, at heart.
  • James Branch Cabell, The Cream of the Jest (1917).

• 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, site of bonfires
  • The selected poems of Rosario Castellanos (1989)

• Alma de esparto y corazon de encina.
  • Soul of fibre and heart of oak.
  • Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote, II. 70.

• My heart is wax to be moulded as she pleases, but enduring as marble to retain.
  • Miguel de Cervantes, The Little Gypsy.

• No command of art,
  No toil, can help you hear;
  Earth's minstrelsy falls clear
  But on the listening heart.
  • John Vance Cheney, The Listening Heart.

• Some hearts are hidden, some have not a heart.
  • George Crabbe, The Borough (1810), Letter XVII

• "There are strings," said Mr. Tappertit, "…in the human heart that had better not be wibrated."
  • Charles Dickens, Barnaby Rudge, Chapter XXII.

• I want to see what is there in the heart! Natural curiosity!
  • Laxmi Prasad Devkota, Story of a Sadhu

• 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.
  • Emily Dickinson, Poems (Ed. 1891), IX.

• I 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.
  • Ezekiel 11:19 NIV

• You will always hold a special place in the organ that pumps my blood.
  • the character Eska in the episode "Light in the Dark" of Season 2 of The Legend of Korra, bidding adieu to her beloved

• 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.
  • Pope Francis, Dilexit nos (2024), paragraph 10

• 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.
  • Khalil Gibran, The Prophet.

• Meine Ruh ist hin,
  Mein Herz ist schwer.
  • My peace is gone, my heart is heavy.
  • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust, I. 15.

• Ganz unbefleckt geniesst sich nur das Herz.
  • Only the heart without a stain knows perfect ease.
  • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Iphigenia auf Tauris, IV. 4. 123.

• Daughter of Jove, relentless power,
  Thou tamer of the human breast,
  Whose iron scourge and tort'ring hour
  The bad affright, afflict the best!
  • Thomas Gray, Hymn to Adversity, St. 1 (1742)

• There is an evening twilight of the heart,
  When its wild passion-waves are lulled to rest.
  • Fitz-Greene Halleck, Twilight.

• Great literature, past or present, is the expression of great knowledge of the human heart; great art is the expression of a solution of the conflict between the demands of the world without and that within.
  • Edith Hamilton, The Greek Way (1930).

• Got only one heart/One heart with no spares/Must save it for loving/Somebody who cares
  • Billie Holiday No More (1948)

• For look! I am creating new heavens and a new earth;

And the former things will not be called to mind,

Nor will they come up into the heart.

• Isaiah, 65:17

• The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
  • Jeremiah 17:9
  • Variant translation:
  • The heart is more treacherous than anything else and is desperate. Who can know it?
  • Jehovah, Book of Jeremiah, 17:9, NWT

• 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.

• Jeremiah 17:10

• 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.
  • Jeremiah 24:7 KJV

• I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.
  • Book of Job 29:13.

• Let not your heart be troubled.
  • Gospel of John 14:1.

• 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" (1960)

• The wonders of the creation may be described, but the springs of the heart operate in the heart alone.
  • Nikolay Karamzin, Poor Liza and Other Tales

• When the mind lies
  The heart tells the truth.
  • Eyran Katsenelenbogen, One Time (2016)

• What comes from the heart goes into the heart.
  • Eyran Katsenelenbogen, One Time (2023)

• Give to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil.
  • 1 Kings 3:9 (NKJV)

• Let your heart guide you. It whispers, so listen closely.
  • Last words of Littlefoot's Mother, in The Land Before Time (1988).

• Wo das Herz reden darf braucht es keiner Vorbereitung.
  • When the heart dares to speak, it needs no preparation.
  • Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Mina von Barnhelm, V. 4.

• For his heart was in his work, and the heart
  Giveth grace unto every Art.
  • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Building of the Ship (1849), line 7.

• 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.
  • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Hyperion (1839), Book II. Introduction.

• Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
  • Gospel of Matthew 6:21.

• For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.
  • Matthew 15:19

• Better to have the poet's heart than brain,
  Feeling than song.
  • George MacDonald, Within and Without, Part III, scene 9, line 30.

• 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.
  • Gerald Massey, Wedded Love.

• But the beating of my own heart
  Was all the sound I heard.
  • Richard Monckton Milnes, 1st Baron Houghton (Lord Houghton), The Brookside.

• And when once the young heart of a maiden is stolen,
  The maiden herself will steal after it soon.
  • Thomas Moore, Ill Omens

• 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.
  • Moses, Deuteronomy 15:7 ESV

• 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.

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

• Oh, the heart is a free and a fetterless thing,—
  A wave of the ocean, a bird on the wing.
  • Julia Pardoe, The Captive Greek Girl.

• We must never say, even in fun, that we are disheartened, because someone might take us at our word.
  • Cesare Pavese, This Business of Living (5 August 1940).

• The incense of the heart may rise.
  • John Pierpont, Every Place a Temple.

• Keep some fires burning in your heart; I would extinguish it if I could, or get myself engulfed with it.
  • Suman Pokhrel, Setting Fire on Desires

• Where heart lived is what is lived.
  • Suman Pokhrel, I shall Bid no Farewell

• 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.
  • Suman Pokhrel, I shall Bid no Farewell

• 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.
  • Suman Pokhrel, I am Searching a Heart

• 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.
  • Suman Pokhrel, Between Rainbow and Melody

• I wanted my heart to bloom
  and shelter a shadow of love
  • Suman Pokhrel, The Tajmahal and my Love

• I wanted to paint a picture,
  in indelible print, across
  the canvass of my heart.
  • Suman Pokhrel, The Tajmahal and my Love

• Through years of my prime
  I walked with a heart
  crazy about love.
  • Suman Pokhrel, The Tajmahal and my Love

• What heart touched is what is touched
  what heart experienced is what is experienced
  where heart lived is what is lived.
  • Suman Pokhrel, I shall bid no Farewell

• Eyes that obstruct the road can be removed
  but what happens when hearts block the passage?
  • Suman Pokhrel, in ‘While Parting’

• I’ve climbed up here
  holding the hilt of time’s sword
  after driving it
  into my tender heart.
  • Suman Pokhrel, in ‘While Parting’

• 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.

• 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.
  • Francis Quarles, Emblems, Book I. Hugo de Anima.

• (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.
  • Quran 3:08

• O Prophet, say to whoever is in your hands of the captives, "If God knows (any) good in your hearts, He will give you (something) better than what was taken from you, and He will forgive you; and God is Forgiving and Merciful."
  • Quran 8:70

• 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

• The head is always the dupe of the heart.
  • François de La Rochefoucauld, Maxims. No. 105.

• 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.
  • Helena Roerich Letters of Helena Roerich Volume I: 1929-1935, (1940)
• 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.
  • Christina G. Rossetti, A Birthday.

• 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.
  • Roxette, song "Listen to Your Heart" (1988).

• Voici mon secret. Il est très simple: on ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux.
  • Here is my secret. It is very simple: 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.

• 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.

• Even at this sight
  My heart is turn'd to stone: and while 'tis mine,
  It shall be stony.
  • William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part II (c. 1590-91), Act V, scene 2, line 49.

• The very firstlings of my heart shall be
  The firstlings of my hand.
  • William Shakespeare, Macbeth (1605), Act IV, scene 1, line 147.

• He hath a heart as sound as a bell and his tongue is the clapper, for what his heart thinks his tongue speaks.
  • William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing (1598-99), Act III, scene 2, line 12.

• I will wear my heart upon my sleeve
  For daws to peck at; I am not what I am.
  • William Shakespeare, Othello (c. 1603), Act I, scene 1, line 64.

• Not for the body, but for the heart; companion and company are needed.
  • Sanu Sharma, Inaam

• My heart didn't want to believe it, but the truth was right in front of me.
  • Sanu Sharma, Inaam

• 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."
  • Sanu Sharma, The Intimate

• 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?"
  • Sanu Sharma, Baako Chashma

• 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.
  • Sanu Sharma, May I Meet You Someday Like This

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

• • Sanu Sharma, Utsarga

• Worse than a bloody hand is a hard heart.
  • Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Cenci (1819), Act V, scene 2.

• 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

• Expectation postponed makes the heart sick, but a desire realized is a tree of life.
  • Solomon, Proverbs 13:12, NWT

• A loving heart maintains a family; a hateful heart destroys a family.
  • Šuruppak, Instructions of Shuruppak (3rd millennium BCE). [1]
  • A variant is found in a collection of Sumerian proverbs: "A loving heart builds houses. A hating heart destroys houses." [2]

• My heart, the bird of the wilderness, has found its sky in your eyes.
  • Rabindranath Tagore, Gardener, 31.

• I lift my heart as spring lifts up
  A yellow daisy to the rain;
  My heart will be a lovely cup
  Altho' it holds but pain.
  • Sara Teasdale, "Alchemy"

• When people keep repeating
  That you'll never fall in love
  When everybody keeps retreating
  But you can't seem to get enough
  Let my love open the door
  Let my love open the door
  Let my love open the door
  To your heart.
  • Pete Townshend, in "Let My Love Open the Door" on Empty Glass (1980).

• 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.

• 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.

  • Walt Whitman, in "Song of the Answerer" (1855; 1856; 1881), in Leaves of Grass

• This heart is black
  like blood that has dried
  • Charlotte Wessels, Here Come the Vultures, The Human Contradiction (2014)

• Who, for the poor renown of being smart,
  Would leave a sting within a brother's heart?
  • Edward Young, Love of Fame (1725-28), Satire II, line 113.

• 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.

• 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.

• Blood
• Broken heart
• Compassion
• Flesh
• Love