Hearts

Endure, my heart: you once endured something even more dreadful. ~~ Homer

Kiss the hand of him who can renounce what he has publicly taught, when convicted of his error; and who, with heartfelt joy, embraces the truth, though with the sacrifice of favorite opinions. ~~ Johann Kaspar Lavater

There is a wisdom of the head, and … a wisdom of the heart. ~~ Charles Dickens

Do what you feel in your heart to be right -- for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't. ~~ Eleanor Roosevelt

One cannot live with sighted eyes and feeling heart and not know and react to the miseries which afflict this world. ~~ Lorraine Hansberry

When I look back now over my life and call to mind what I might have had simply for taking and did not take, my heart is like to break. ~~ William Hale White

I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours. I love to keep it by me: the idea of getting rid of it nearly breaks my heart. ~~ Jerome K. Jerome

In matters of the heart, nothing is true except the improbable. ~~ Madame de Stael

At the heart of our friendly or purely social relations, there lurks a hostility momentarily cured by recurring in fits and starts. ~~ Marcel Proust

he world stands out on either side

No wider than the heart is wide;

Above the world is stretched the sky --

No higher than the soul is high.

The heart can push the sea and land

Farther away on either hand;

The soul can split the sky in two,

And let the face of God shine through. ~~ Edna St Vincent Millay

There is a road from the eye to the heart that does not go through the intellect. ~~ G. K. Chesterton

Happiness is essentially a state of going somewhere, wholeheartedly, one-directionally, without regret or reservation. ~~ William H. Sheldon

To her fair works did Nature link

The human soul that through me ran;

And much it grieved my heart to think

What Man has made of Man. ~~ William Wordsworth

The salvation of this human world lies nowhere else than in the human heart, in the human power to reflect, in human meekness and human responsibility. ~~ Vaclav Havel

Fine art is that in which the hand, the head, and the heart of man go together. ~~ John Ruskin

Human life consists in mutual service. No grief, misfortune, or "broken heart" is excuse for cutting off one's life while any power of service remains. But when all usefulness is over, when one is assured of an unavoidable and imminent death, it is the simplest of human rights to choose a quick and easy death in place of a slow and horrible one. ~~ Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Believe me, every heart has its secret sorrows, which the world knows not; and oft times we call a man cold when he is only sad. ~~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

It is a mistake for a taciturn, serious-minded woman to marry a jovial man, but not for a serious-minded man to marry a lighthearted woman. ~~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The teeth are smiling, but is the heart? ~~ Congolese proverb

Broken hearts heal slowly, but a speedy application of chocolate can often help stop the initial bleeding. ~~ Ashleigh Brilliant

Golf is like a love affair: if you don't take it seriously, it's no fun. If you do take it seriously, it breaks your heart. ~~ Arnold Daly

Winter is on my head, but eternal spring is in my heart. ~~ Victor Hugo

There are times when fear is good.

It must keep its watchful place

At the heart's controls. There is

Advantage in the wisdom won from pain. ~~ Aeschylus

Watch a man in times of … adversity to discover what kind of man he is; for then at last words of truth are drawn from the depths of his heart, and the mask is torn off. ~~ Lucretius

If we had a keen vision of all that is ordinary in human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow or the squirrel's heart beat, and we should die of that roar which is the other side of silence. ~~ George Eliot

Where is home? Home is where the heart can laugh without shyness. Home is where the heart's tears can dry at their own pace. ~~ Vernon G. Baker

Every woman keeps a corner in her heart where she is always 21. ~~ Unattributed

The hand, the heart, and the head form a triangle that can bring untold happiness, if used together. One alone is not much service, any more than one blade of a scissors. ~~ William C. Hunter

There are more serious problems in life than financial ones, and I've had a lot of those. I've been broke before, and will be again. Heartbroke? That's serious. Lose a few bucks. That's not. ~~ Willie Nelson

I know the answer! The answer lies within the heart of all mankind! The answer is twelve? I think I'm in the wrong building. ~~ Charlie Brown [Peanuts by Charles Schulz]

An honest heart being the first blessing, a knowing head is the second. ~~ Thomas Jefferson

The radical novelty of modern science lies precisely in the rejection of the belief, which is at the heart of all popular religion, that the forces which move the stars and atoms are contingent upon the preferences of the human heart. ~~ Walter Lippman

Praise out of season, or tactlessly bestowed, can freeze the heart as much as blame. ~~ Pearl S. Buck

There are no elements so diverse that they cannot be joined in the heart of a man. ~~ Jean Giraudoux

Some of the most intense affairs are between actors and characters. There's a fire in the human heart and we jump into it with the same obsession as we have with our lovers. ~~ Sigourney Weaver

There were a total of four cats. Twelve years ago, my wife bought the first one, Noko Marie, for three dollars. We kept one male, Norton, from the first litter. And we kept Nitty from the second batch. Nitty was my favorite -- a big, fat, striped cat. Then some little kids gave my wife a stray we named Burton Rustle. As a kid, I used to hate them because I was violently allergic, but I loved those four cats. One day Norton just disappeared. It almost broke my heart. Nitty got feline leukemia and died in my arms -- that did break my heart. ~~ B. Kliban

Once freedom lights its beacon in a man's heart, the gods are powerless against him. ~~ Jean-Paul Sartre

We have all got our "good old days" tucked away inside our hearts, and we return to them in dreams like cats to favorite armchairs. ~~ Brian Carter

Every actor in his heart believes everything bad that's printed about him. ~~ Orson Welles

Divorce is the psychological equivalent of a triple coronary bypass. After such a monumental assault on the heart, it takes years to amend all the habits and attitudes that led up to it. ~~ Mary Kay Blakely

A woman would run through fire and water for such a kind heart. ~~ William Shakespeare [The Merry Wives of Windsor]

On days when warmth is the most important need of the human heart, the kitchen is the place you can find it. ~~ E. B. White

God, grant me peace in my heart, serenity in my soul, and laughter on my face. ~~ Unattributed

Ordinarily kindhearted people will like a child unless it annoys them or causes a great deal of work. ~~ Raymond Postgate

Since God has given me a cheerful heart, He will forgive me for serving Him cheerfully. ~~ Franz Joseph Haydn

It's very hard to get your heart and head together in life. In my case, they're not even friendly. ~~ Woody Allen

Each one sees what he carries in his heart. ~~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

For Mercy has a human heart,

Pity, a human face,

And Love, the human form divine,

And Peace, the human dress. ~~ William Blake [Songs of Innocence]

Experience is in the fingers and the head. The heart is inexperienced. ~~ Henry David Thoreau

[Just before he was beheaded:] To be a man will continue to demand a heroic heart as long as mankind is not quite human. ~~ Julius Fucik

Hateful to me as are the gates of hell,

Is he who, hiding one thing in his heart,

Utters another. ~~ Homer [Iliad]

If you've really been poor, you remain poor at heart all your life. ~~ Arnold Bennett

Women keep a special corner in their hearts for sins they have never committed. ~~ Cornelia Otis Skinner

The heart is not on the left side of the chest. It's about in the center with its strongest portion on the left side, thus, it can be heard slightly better from the left. ~~ Deane Jordan [1001 Facts Somebody Screwed Up]

The heart's memory eliminates the bad and magnifies the good; and thanks to this artifice we manage to endure the burdens of the past. ~~ Gabriel Garcia Marquez

It takes your enemy and your friend, working together, to hurt you to the heart: the one to slander you and the other to get the news to you. ~~ Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens)

There are two tragedies in life. One is not to get your heart's desire. The other is to get it. ~~ George Bernard Shaw

To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men -- that is genius. ~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Educate the heart -- educate the heart. Let us have good men. ~~ Hiram Powers

Hope deferred maketh the heart sick. ~~ The Bible [Proverbs]

Hatred comes from the heart; contempt from the head; and neither feeling is quite within our control. ~~ Arthur Schopenhauer

The head never rules the heart, but just becomes its partner in crime. ~~ Mignon McLaughlin

A taste for irony has kept more hearts from breaking than a sense of humor, for it takes irony to appreciate the joke which is on oneself. ~~ Jessamyn West

America is a willingness of the heart. ~~ F. Scott Fitzgerald

The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of. ~~ Blaise Pascal

Hearts that are delicate and kind, and tongues that are neither -- these would make the finest company in the world. ~~ Logan Pearsall Smith

He has a right to criticize who has a heart to help. ~~ Abraham Lincoln

The great man is he who does not lose his child-heart. ~~ Mencius

People judge you by your actions, not your intentions. You may have a heart of gold, but so has a hard-boiled egg. ~~ Unattributed

It's hard to tell whether some people are light hearted or light headed. ~~ Joe Moore

Many think they have a kind heart who have only weak nerves. ~~ Marie Von Ebner-Eschenbach

I just knew in my heart that it was not right for Dick Nixon to ever be President of this country. ~~ Lyndon Baines Johnson

To serve is beautiful, but only if it is done with joy and a whole heart and a free mind. ~~ Pearl S. Buck

Who ever is adequate? We all create situations each other can't live up to, then break our hearts at them because they don't. ~~ Elizabeth Bowen

If you have not known poverty, heart-hunger and misunderstanding, God has overlooked you, and you are to be pitied. ~~ Elbert Hubbard

My advice to those who are about to begin, in earnest, the journey of life, is to take their heart in one hand and a club in the other. ~~ Josh Billings

Most things break, including hearts. The lessons of life amount not to wisdom, but to scar tissue and callus. ~~ Walter Stegner

To my way of thinking there's something wrong, or missing, with any person who hasn't got a soft spot in their hearts for an animal of some kind. ~~ Will James

Some people's hearts are shrunk in them, like dried nuts. You can hear 'em rattle as they walk. ~~ Douglas Jerrold

Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes. ~~ Carl Jung

People want to know why I do this, why I write such gross stuff. I like to tell them that I have the heart of a small boy -- and I keep it in a jar on my desk. ~~ Stephen King

It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye. ~~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Morality cannot be legislated, but behavior can be regulated. Judicial decrees may not change the heart, but they can restrain the heartless. ~~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Whenever he was out of luck and a little down-hearted, he would fall to mourning over the loss of a wonderful cat he used to own (for where women and children are not, men of kindly impulses take up with pets, for they must love something). And he always spoke of the strange sagacity of that cat with the air of a man who believed in his secret heart that there was something human about it -- maybe even supernatural. ~~ Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens)

Constancy in love is a perpetual inconstancy, in which the heart attaches itself successively to each of the lover's qualities, giving preference now to one, now to another. ~~ Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Breathes there the man, with soul so dead,

Who never to himself hath said,

This is my own, my native land!

Whose heart hath ne'er within him burn'd

As home his footsteps he hath turn'd

From wandering on a foreign strand! ~~ Sir Walter Scott

He who, having lost one ideal, refuses to give his heart and soul to another and nobler, is like a man who declines to build a house on rock because the wind and rain ruined his house on the sand. ~~ Constance Naden

Extremely happy and extremely unhappy men are alike prone to grow hard hearted. ~~ Baron de Montesquieu

Motives and purposes are in the brain and heart of man. Consequences are in the world of fact. ~~ Henry Geaye

Just pray for a tough hide and a tender heart. ~~ Ruth Graham

If you haven't at least a slight poetic crack in the heart, you have been cheated by nature. ~~ Phyllis Battelle

Where your treasure is there will your heart be also. ~~ Matthew 6:21

Our sense of power is more vivid when we break a man's spirit than when we win his heart. ~~ Eric Hoffer [The Passionate State of Mind]

Honest Winter, snow-clad, and with the frosted beard, I can welcome not uncordially: But that long deferment of the calendar's promise, that weeping gloom of March and April, that bitter blast outraging the honor of May how often has it robbed me of heart and hope? ~~ George Gissing

Come, lovely cat, and rest upon my heart,

And let my gaze dive in the cold

Live pools of those enchanted eyes that dart

Metallic rays of green and gold. ~~ Charles Baudelaire

Despite the culture, an artist must live without fear of emotion, of other types of consciousness, of suprarational experiences… Let others live in black and white; you must live in Technicolor. And without a subjunctive tense you must still make your reader see the blood at the heart of the ruby. ~~ Rita Mae Brown

I wish to become rich, so that I can instruct the people and glorify honest poverty a little, like those kind-hearted, fat, benevolent people do. ~~ Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens)

All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own. ~~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

My heart is a lonely hunter that hunts on a lonely hill. ~~ William Sharp [The Lonely Hunter]

We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures. ~~ Thornton Wilder

Perverseness is one of the primitive impulses of the human heart. ~~ Edgar Allan Poe (see Said Who?)

She had no more heart than there was an anatomical necessity for. ~~ Thomas Bailey Aldrich

We have to build our churches in our hearts. ~~ Stevie Wonder

Actually, this seems to be the basic need of the human heart in nearly every great crisis -- a good hot cup of coffee. ~~ Alexander King

To be capable of steady friendship or lasting love, are the two greatest proofs, not only of goodness of heart, but of strength of mind. ~~ William Hazlitt

The beauty of the world has two edges, one of laughter, one of anguish, cutting the heart asunder. ~~ Virginia Woolf

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

Reasons are the invention of the mind, to justify the wishes of the heart. ~~ Richard North Patterson

Be still, sad heart, and cease repining,

Behind the clouds the sun is shining;

Thy fate is the common fate of all;

Into each life some rain must fall,

Some days must be dark and dreary. ~~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Tragedy is in the eye of the observer, and not in the heart of the sufferer. ~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

In each human heart are a tiger, a pig, an ass, and a nightingale; diversity of character is due to their unequal activity. ~~ Ambrose Bierce

Before we set our hearts too much upon anything, let us examine how happy they are who already possess it. ~~ Francois de La Rochefoucauld

The old Lakota was wise. He knew that man's heart away from nature becomes hard; he knew that lack of respect for growing, living things soon led to lack of respect for humans, too. ~~ Chief Luther Standing Bear

If there be a hell upon earth, it is to be found in the melancholy man's heart. ~~ Robert Burton

But what do we mean by the American Revolution? Do we mean the American War? The revolution was effected before the war commenced. The revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people. ~~ John Adams

We shall never learn to feel and respect our real calling and destiny, unless we have taught ourselves to consider everything as moonshine, compared with the education of the heart. ~~ Sir Walter Scott