Quotes about heart
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“A kind heart is a fountain of gladness, making everything in its vicinity freshen into smiles.”

Washington Irving (1783–1859) writer, historian and diplomat from the United States

Smile

“Everybody has a heart. Except some people.”

Bette Davis (1908–1989) film and television actress from the United States

People

“Perhaps the things that break our hearts are the very things that serve to open them.”

Robin S. Sharma (1965) Canadian self help writer

Source: The Greatness Guide Book 2: 101 More Insights to Get You to World Class

“Thy friendship oft has made my heart to ache: do be my enemy for friendship's sake.”

William Blake (1757–1827) English Romantic poet and artist

Friendship

“I'll tell you what love is" I said, "It is blind devotion, unquestioning self humiliation, utter submission, trust and belief against yourself and against the whole world, giving up your heart and soul to the smiter.”

Jasper Fforde book Lost in a Good Book

Source: Lost in a Good Book

Love, World, Soul

“… a fixation is very stubborn: it burrows into the brain and breaks the heart. There are many fixations, but love is the worst.”

Isabel Allende (1942) Chilean writer

Love

“There is no instinct like that of the heart.”

George Gordon Byron (1788–1824) English poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement

Cute, Romantic, Valentine's Day, For Mother

“I will greet this day with love in my heart.”

Og Mandino book The Greatest Salesman in the World

Source: The Greatest Salesman in the World (1968), Ch. 9 : The Scroll Marked II, p. 59.
Context: Henceforth I will look upon all things with love and I will be born again. I will love the sun for it warms my bones; yet I will love the rain for it cleanses my spirit. I will love the light for it shows me the way; yet I will love the darkness for it shows me the stars. I will welcome happiness because it enlarges my heart; yet I will endure sadness because it opens my soul. I will acknowledge rewards because they are my due; yet I will welcome obstacles because they are my challenge.
I will greet this day with love in my heart.

Love

“We can do anything. It’s not because
our hearts are large, they’re not, it’s what we
struggle with. The attempt to say Come over. Bring
your friends. It’s a potluck, I’m making pork chops, I’m making
those long noodles you love so much.”

Richard Siken (1967) American poet

Source: Crush

Love

“Every heart has its own skeletons.”

Leo Tolstoy book Anna Karenina

Source: Anna Karenina

“Sickness and healing are in every heart; death and deliverance in every hand.”

Orson Scott Card book Speaker for the Dead

Source: Speaker for the Dead

Death

“Why are you so sad, akri? (Simi)
I’m not sad, Simi. (Acheron)
Yes you are. I know you, akri, you gots that pain in your heart like the Simi gets whenever she cries. (Simi)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon book Dance with the Devil

Source: Dance with the Devil

Pain, Sadness

“Cause hearts are amazing things. They get lots bigger to make room for new people to love alongside the old people you love. -Simi”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Styxx

Love, People

“He does not see as i have that you have given him your heart, but he is male. We will cut him some slack for that handicap, yes?”

Katie MacAlister (1964) Author

“Then he made one last effort to search in his heart for the place where his affection had rotted away, and he could not find it.”

Gabriel García Márquez book One Hundred Years of Solitude

Source: One Hundred Years of Solitude

Search, Effort

“Writing, at its heart, is a solitary pursuit, designed to make people depressoids, drug addicts, misanthropes, and antisocial weirdos.”

Mindy Kaling book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

Source: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

People

“It will take all your heart, it will take all your breath
It will be short, it will not be simple”

Adrienne Rich (1929–2012) American poet, essayist and feminist

“It's nonverbal: I need love. I need the thing that happens when your brain shuts off and your heart turns on. And I know it's around me somewhere, but I just can't feel it.”

Elizabeth Wurtzel book Prozac Nation

Source: Prozac Nation

Love, Feeling

“Whitney: You black-hearted, treacherous, conniving scoundrel.
Clayton: Your flattery warms my heart”

Judith McNaught book Whitney, My Love

Source: Whitney, My Love

“An envious heart makes a treacherous ear.”

Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960) American folklorist, novelist, short story writer

“You cannot be a Big person with a Small heart”

T.D. Jakes (1957) American bishop

Personality

“Teach your heart that this is destiny”

Elizabeth Gilbert (1969) American writer

“It doesn't matter what people thinks of you as long as you know that your heart and head are in the right place.”

Steve Kluger book Almost Like Being in Love

Source: Almost Like Being in Love

People, Thinking

“Things that break - be they bones, hearts, or promises - can be put back together but will never really be whole.”

Jodi Picoult book Handle With Care

Source: Handle with Care

Hurtful

“I feel as though I have lived many lives, experienced the heights and depths of each and like the waves of the ocean, never known rest. Throughout the years, I looked always for the unusual, for the wonderful, for the mysteries at the heart of life.”

Leni Riefenstahl (1902–2003) German film director, photographer, actress and dancer

Life, Feeling

“Oh, Peeta, Don't make me sorry I restarted your heart.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Source: Mockingjay

“When a great moment knocks on the door of your life, it is often no louder than the beating of your heart, and it is very easy to miss it.”

Borís Pasternak (1890–1960) Russian writer

Life

“Up in this air you breathed easily, drawing in a vital assurance and lightness of heart. In the highlands you woke up in the morning and thought: Here I am, where I ought to be.”

Karen Blixen book Out of Africa

Source: Out of Africa

Light, Drawing

“Our hearts are not stones. A stone may disintegrate in time and lose its outward form. But hearts never disintegrate. They have no outward form, and whether good or evil, we can always communicate them to one another.”

Haruki Murakami (1949) Japanese author, novelist

Source: After the Quake

Communication, Evil, Time

“… if I have ever met someone without a single shadow on their heart, it was surely a child too young for speaking.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Wise Man's Fear

Source: The Wise Man's Fear

“Empathy lies at the heart of Gatsby, like so many other great novels — the biggest sin is to be blind to others' problems and pains. Not seeing them means denying their existence.”

Azar Nafisi book Reading Lolita in Tehran

Source: Reading Lolita in Tehran (2003)

Pain, Problem

“My fate is my own; my heart remains free
Not magic but wisdum reveals destiny.”

James Moloney book The Book of Lies

Source: The Book of Lies

Fate

“trust your heart but use your head”

Julie Garwood (1946) American writer

Source: Gentle Warrior

“My heart is too thoroughly dried to be broken in a hurry, and I mean to live as long as I can.”

Anne Brontë book The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Source: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

“Have you ever felt that your heart contained so much that it must surely break apart”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Source: City of Heavenly Fire

“When things were very bad his soul just crawled behind his heart and curled up and went to sleep”

Maya Angelou book I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Source: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Soul, Sleep

“While her lips talked culture, her heart was planning to invite him to tea”

E.M. Forster book Howards End

Source: Howards End

Tea

“You have a great heart, but will only find it to be so through great pain. This is the wisdom of love, and its doubtful gift…. I have endured much suffering and still remain unbitter and unclosed.”

Alison Croggon (1962) contemporary Australian poet, playwright and fantasy novelist

Source: The Naming

Love, Wisdom, Pain, Suffering

“The wicked at heart probably know something.”

Woody Allen Without Feathers

Source: Without Feathers

“Women do not think with logic and discretion but with emotions of the heart”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince

Source: Clockwork Prince

Women, Thinking

“I am the inferior of any man whose rights I trample under foot. Men are not superior by reason of the accidents of race or color. They are superior who have the best heart — the best brain.”

Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) Union United States Army officer

Liberty.
Source: The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. IX

Men, Color

“Pity me that the heart is slow to learn
What the swift mind beholds at every turn.”

Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892–1950) American poet

Source: The Harp-Weaver and Other Poems

Learning

“Oh well, perhaps when you're my age you'll know the heart is an untrustworthy beast. The mind too, but it doesn't talk about love.”

Graham Greene book The Power and the Glory

Source: The Power and the Glory

Love, Age

“Sometimes the same emotion that breaks your heart is the very one that will heal it…”

Nicholas Sparks book At First Sight

Front jacket flap
Source: 2000s, At First Sight (2005)

“I clung to that spark of hope,
nurturing it into a small flame that
chased some of the shadows in my heart
away.”

Richelle Mead book The Fiery Heart

Source: The Fiery Heart

Hope

“The people do not complain because they have no voice; do not move because they are lethargic, and you say that they do not suffer because you have not seen their hearts bleed.”

José Rizal book Noli Me Tángere

Source: Noli Me Tángere

People, Suffering

“She confused wit with intelligence, and made people laugh rather than lightening their hearts or making them think.”

E. Lockhart book We Were Liars

Source: We Were Liars

People, Intelligence, Thinking

“You seek a false comfort when you demand that I define myself for you with words. Words do not contain or define any person. A heart can, if it is willing.”

Robin Hobb (1952) American fiction writer (pseudonym)

Source: Golden Fool

Personality, Falseness

“I felt a splinter of guilt wedge into my heart. Charlotte had hurt me; in return, I'd hurt Rob. Maybe that's what we do to the people we love: take shots in the dark and realize too late we've wounded the people we're trying to protect.”

Jodi Picoult book Handle With Care

Source: Handle with Care

Love, People, Hurt

“My bursting heart must find vent at my pen.”

Abigail Adams (1744–1818) 2nd First Lady of the United States (1797–1801)

“I’m wearying to escape into that glorious world, and to be always there: not seeing it dimly through tears, and yearning for it through the walls of an aching heart: but really with it, and in it.”

Emily Brontë book Wuthering Heights

Catherine Earnshaw (Ch. XV).
Source: Wuthering Heights (1847)
Context: The thing that irks me most is this shattered prison, after all. I’m tired, tired of being enclosed here. I’m wearying to escape into that glorious world, and to be always there; not seeing it dimly through tears, and yearning for it through the walls of an aching heart; but really with it, and in it.

World, Tear

“Once freedom lights its beacon in man's heart, the gods are powerless against him.”

Jean Paul Sartre (1905–1980) French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and …

God, Freedom, Light

“It's like picking up an unfamiliar piece of sheet music & starting to stumble through it, only to realize it is a melody you'd once learned by heart, one you can play without even trying.”

Jodi Picoult My Sister's Keeper

Source: My Sister's Keeper

Music, Learning

“Having eyes, but not seeing beauty; having ears, but not hearing music; having minds, but not perceiving truth; having hearts that are never moved and therefore never set on fire. These are the things to fear, said the headmaster.”

Tetsuko Kuroyanagi (1933) Japanese actress

Source: Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window

Truth, Fear, Beauty, Music

“To live and let live, without clamor for distinction or recognition; to wait on divine love; to write truth first on the tablet of one's own heart - this is the sanity and perfection of living, and my human ideal.”

Mary Baker Eddy (1821–1910) religious leader

Love, Truth, Waiting, Perfection

“There is sorrow enough in the natural way
From men and woman to fill our day;
But when we are certain of sorrow in store,
Why do we always arrange for more?
Brothers & Sisters, I bid you beware
Of giving your heart to a dog to tear.”

Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) English short-story writer, poet, and novelist

Men, Dogs, Way, Nature

“So live as brave men; and if fortune is adverse, front its blows with brave hearts”

Marcus Tullius Cicero (-106–-43 BC) Roman philosopher and statesman

The origin of this quote is often misattributed to Cicero; however, it is from Line 135-136 of Book 2, Satire 2 by Horace, "Quocirca vivite fortes, fortiaque adversis opponite pectora rebus." The English translation that most closely matches the one misrepresented as Cicero's is from a collection of Horace's prose written by E. C. Wickham, "So live, my boys, as brave men; and if fortune is adverse, front its blows with brave hearts."
Misattributed

Men

“What a large volume of adventures may be grasped within the span of his little life by him who interests his heart in everything.”

Laurence Sterne (1713–1768) Irish/English writer

Variant: What a large volume of adventures may be grasped within this little span of life by him who interests himself in everything.

Life

“He was gone, and she was broken hearted, that was all that mattered.”

Danielle Steel (1947) American author of romance novels

“Love is taking chances when every rational part of you screams, ‘Don’t risk it.’ Because it’s only when your heart has been ripped open that you get a chance to find the one person capable of making it whole.”

Sabrina Jeffries (1960) American writer

Source: A Lady Never Surrenders

Love, Chance, Parting, Personality

“It was heavy, and I staggered when I lifted it; but it was strangely satifying to have a real burden upon my shoulders – a kind of counterweight to my terrible heaviness of heart.”

Sarah Waters book Tipping the Velvet

Source: Tipping the Velvet

“Mystery is at the heart of creativity. That, and surprise.”

Julia Cameron book The Artist's Way

The Artist's Way (1992)
Context: All too often too often we try to push, pull, outline and control our ideas instead of letting them grow organically. The creative process is a process of surrender, not control.
Mystery is at the heart of creativity. That, and surprise. <!-- p. 195

“I can give you my loneliness, my darkness, the hunger of my heart, I am trying to bribe you with uncertainty, with danger, with defeat.”

Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, and a key figure in Spanish language literature

Hunger, Loneliness

“Without trust, there can be no genuine peace. Neither in politics, nor in the quiet individuality of the heart and spirit.”

Timothy Zahn book Vision of the Future

Source: Vision of the Future

Peace

“Restlessness and impatience change nothing except our peace and joy. Peace does not dwell in outward things, but in the heart prepared to wait trustfully and quietly on Him who has all things safely in His hands.”

Elisabeth Elliot (1926–2015) American missionary

Peace, Change, Waiting, Joy

“But then every man is ludicrous if you look at him from outside, without taking into account what’s going on in his heart and mind.”

Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English writer

Source: After Many a Summer Dies the Swan

“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 (1915–1994) Apostle of the LDS Church

People, Forgiveness, Understanding

“She hasn't your strength. She's never had any strength. She's never had anything but heart.”

Margaret Mitchell book Vom Winde verweht (1937 German edition)

Source: Gone with the Wind

“Until this moment, I had not realized that someone could break your heart twice, along the very same fault lines.”

Jodi Picoult My Sister's Keeper

Source: My Sister's Keeper

Heartbreaking

“The stems stood tall and straight, one series arranged in a single line, the other in a crudely shaped heart, the final one in the shape of the letter U. I love you.”

Lurlene McDaniel (1944) American writer

Source: Don't Die, My Love

Love

“Your hair is winter fire
January embers
My heart burns there, too.”

Stephen King book It

Source: It

Winter

“Maybe she'd always been there. Maybe strangers enter your heart first and then you spent the rest of your life searching for them.”

Melina Marchetta (1965) Australian teen writer

Source: The Piper's Son

Life, Search

“You will hear thunder and remember me,
And think: she wanted storms. The rim
Of the sky will be the colour of hard crimson,
And your heart, as it was then, will be on fire.”

Anna Akhmatova (1889–1966) Russian modernist poet

"You will hear thunder and remember me...", translated by D. M. Thomas
There will be thunder then. Remember me.
Say 'She asked for storms.' The entire
world will turn the colour of crimson stone,
and your heart, as then, will turn to fire.
"Thunder," translated by A.S.Kline
Source: The Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova

Thinking

“Some feelings sink so deep into the heart that only loneliness can help you find them again. Some truths are so painful that only shame can help you live with them. Some things are so sad that only your soul can do the crying for them.”

Gregory David Roberts book Shantaram

Source: Shantaram

Pain, Truth, Sadness, Feeling

“I want to say yes, but I don't want to be with a boy whose heart belongs to somebody else. Just once, I want to be somebody else's first choice”

Jenny Han book To All the Boys I've Loved Before

Source: To All the Boys I've Loved Before

Boy

“Some men break your heart in two,
Some men fawn and flatter,
Some men never look at you;
And that cleans up the matter.”

Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist

Source: Enough Rope

Men

“And taking her friend’s hand, she put it on her breast, on that firm round covering of a woman’s heart which the male often finds so satisfying that he makes no attempt to find what lies beneath it.”

Guy De Maupassant (1850–1893) French writer

“Then love knew it was called love.
And when I lifted my eyes to your name,
suddenly your heart showed me my way”

Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) Chilean poet

Source: Veinte poemas de amor y una canción desesperada; Cien sonetos de amor

Love, Way

“Beware what you set your heart upon. For it surely shall be yours.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

“He was Will, in all his perfect imperfection; Will, whose heart was as easy to break as it was carefully guarded; Will, who loved not wisely but entirely and with everything he had.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Princess

Source: Clockwork Princess

Love, Perfection

“My heart belongs to you,' He promised.
'Would you have loved me when I was a girl?'
'I have always loved you. Even before I met you I loved the idea of you.”

Isobelle Carmody book Greylands

Source: Greylands

Love, Girl, Idea

“… there is a wish in the heart of mankind to be distracted and confused. Truth is but one attraction, and not always the most powerful.”

Joyce Carol Oates (1938) American author

Truth

“If a man is to live, he must be all alive, body, soul, mind, heart, spirit.”

Thomas Merton (1915–1968) Priest and author

Source: Thoughts in Solitude

Soul

“What shall we do, all of us? All of us oassionate girls who fear crushing the boys we love with our mouths like caverns of teeth, our mushrooming brains, our watermelon hearts?”

Francesca Lia Block (1962) American children's writer

Variant: What shall we do? All of us passionate girls who fear crushing the boys we love with our mouths like caverns of teeth, our mushrooming brains, and watermelon hearts?
Source: Blood Roses

Love, Fear, Girl, Boy

“What is this "heart"? If I tear open that chest of yours, will I see it there? If I smash open that skull of yours, will I see it there?
~ulquiorra”

Tite Kubo (1977) Japanese manga artist

Tear