Quotes about heart page 2
“A conflict begins and ends in the hearts and minds of people, not in the hilltops.”
Amos Oz (1939–2018) Israeli writer, novelist, journalist and intellectual
“The future doesn't belong to the faint-hearted. It belongs to the brave.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)
As quoted in Who was Ronald Reagan? (2004), by Joyce Milton, p. 85
Post-presidency (1989–2004)
Context: I know it's hard to understand, but sometimes painful things like this happen. It's all of the process of exploration and discovery. It's all part of taking a chance and expanding man's horizons. The future doesn't belong to the faint-hearted. It belongs to the brave.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) Austrian Romantic composer
Letter to Leopold Mozart (Mannheim, 2 February 1778), from The letters of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 1769-1791, translated, from the collection of Ludwig Nohl, by Lady [Grace] Wallace (Oxford University Press, 1865, digitized 2006) vol. I, # 91 (p. 164) http://books.google.com/books?vid=0SGwLiCNxu7qZ5ch&id=KEgBAAAAQAAJ&printsec=titlepage&dq=%22The+letters+of+Wolfgang+Amadeus+Mozart,+1769-1791%22&hl=en#PRA1-PA164,M1
Sia (musician) (1975) Australian singer
Big Girls Cry, 1000 Forms of Fear (2014). Cowritten with Christopher Braide
Songs
Scott Cawthon (1971) American independent video game designer
“When I hear Kannada, my heart leaps up and I am all ears.”
Kuvempu (1904–1994) Kannada novelist, poet, playwright, critic, and thinker
Quoted in A Few inches of Ivory, 24 November 2013, Jstor Organization http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/23001425?uid=3738256&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&sid=21102981873241,
Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) Bengali polymath
59 <br class="br"> The Gardener http://www.spiritualbee.com/love-poems-by-tagore/ (1915)
“I wanted to paint a picture,
in indelible print, across
the canvass of my heart.”
Suman Pokhrel (1967) Nepali poet, lyricist, playwright, translator and artist
<span class="plainlinks"> The Tajmahal and my Love http://www.best-poems.net/love_poems/the_taj_mahal_amp_my_love.html/</span> <br class="br">From Poetry
Jean Vanier (1928–2019) Canadian humanitarian
The Gift of Living With the Not Gifted http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-gift-of-living-with-the-not-gifted-1428103079 Wall Street Journal, April 3, 2015 <br class="br">From interviews and talks
Aung San Suu Kyi (1945) State Counsellor of Myanmar and Leader of the National League for Democracy
Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech (2012)
Context: Of the sweets of adversity, and let me say that these are not numerous, I have found the sweetest, the most precious of all, is the lesson I learnt on the value of kindness. Every kindness I received, small or big, convinced me that there could never be enough of it in our world. To be kind is to respond with sensitivity and human warmth to the hopes and needs of others. Even the briefest touch of kindness can lighten a heavy heart. Kindness can change the lives of people.
Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German poet, philosopher, historian, and playwright
Hope, Faith, and Love (c. 1786); also known as "The Words of Strength", as translated in The Common School Journal Vol. IX (1847) edited by Horace Mann, p. 386
Context: There are three lessons I would write, —
Three words — as with a burning pen,
In tracings of eternal light
Upon the hearts of men. Have Hope. Though clouds environ now,
And gladness hides her face in scorn,
Put thou the shadow from thy brow, —
No night but hath its morn. Have Faith. Where'er thy bark is driven, —
The calm's disport, the tempest's mirth, —
Know this: God rules the hosts of heaven,
The habitants of earth. Have Love. Not love alone for one,
But men, as man, thy brothers call;
And scatter, like the circling sun,
Thy charities on all. Thus grave these lessons on thy soul, —
Hope, Faith, and Love, — and thou shalt find
Strength when life's surges rudest roll,
Light when thou else wert blind.
“The only remedy for a barren heart is prayer, however poor and inadequate.”
Sophie Scholl (1921–1943) White Rose member
Letter to her boyfriend, Fritz Hartnagel, as translated in At the Heart of the White Rose: Letters and Diaries of Hans and Sophie Scholl (1987), p. 256; edited by Inge Jens, translated by J. Maxwell Brownjohn; also in Voices of the Holocaust : Resistors, Liberation, Understanding (1997) by Lorie Jenkins McElroy
Context: The only remedy for a barren heart is prayer, however poor and inadequate. As I did that night at Blumberg, I'll keep on repeating it for us both: We must pray, and pray for each other, and if you were here, I'd fold hands with you, because we're poor, weak, sinful children. Oh, Fritz, if I can't write anything else just now, it's only because there's a terrible absurdity about a drowning man who, instead of calling for help, launches into a scientific, philosophical, or theological dissertation while the sinister tentacles of the creatures on the seabed are encircling his arms and legs, and the waves are breaking over him. It's only because I'm filled with fear, that and nothing else, and feel an undivided yearning for him who can relieve me of it.
“When mind and heart come together, mind serves consciousness instead of serving itself.”
David Icke (1952) English writer and public speaker
“I'm so glad that you're in my life, you fill my heart, you fill my sky.”
Marco Mengoni (1988) Italian singer-songwriter
Solo 2.0
Source: da Tonight
“Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.”
Albert Einstein book The World as I See It
Variant: Small is the number of them that see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts
Source: "Einstein's Reply to Criticisms" (1949), The World As I See It (1949), p. 66 of the edition at http://books.google.com/books?id=aNKOo94tO6cC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA66#v=onepage&q&f=false
Khaled Hosseini book A Thousand Splendid Suns
Source: A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007)
Context: Nana (to Mariam) : A man's heart isn't like a woman's womb, Mariam! It won't bleed, it won't make room for you. A man's heart is a wretched, wretched thing. I'm all you have in this world, Mariam and when I'm gone, you'll have nothing. You are nothing!
“Wherever your heart is, that is where you'll find your treasure.”
Paulo Coelho book The Alchemist
Compare to the Bible, Luke 12:34 (For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.)(NIV translation).
Variant: Remember that wherever your heart is, there you will find your treasure.
Source: The Alchemist (1988), p. 128
Mary Oliver (1935–2019) American writer
Source: New and Selected Poems, Vol. 2
Haruki Murakami book Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman
The Kidney-shaped Stone that Moves Every Day (translated by Jay Rubin)
Source: Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman
“When you fish for love, bait with your heart, not your brain.”
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
Source: Notebook
Martin Luther (1483–1546) seminal figure in Protestant Reformation
To the Christian Nobility of the German States (1520), translated by Charles M. Jacobs, reported in rev. James Atkinson, The Christian in Society, I (Luther’s Works, ed. James Atkinson, vol. 44), p. 207 (1966).
Context: I would advise no one to send his child where the Holy Scriptures are not supreme. Every institution that does not unceasingly pursue the study of God's word becomes corrupt. Because of this we can see what kind of people they become in the universities and what they are like now. Nobody is to blame for this except the pope, the bishops, and the prelates, who are all charged with training young people. The universities only ought to turn out men who are experts in the Holy Scriptures, men who can become bishops and priests, and stand in the front line against heretics, the devil, and all the world. But where do you find that? I greatly fear that the universities, unless they teach the Holy Scriptures diligently and impress them on the young students, are wide gates to hell.
Simone Weil book Waiting for God
Waiting on God (1950), Reflections on the Right Use of School Studies with a View to the Love of God
Source: Waiting for God
Diana Gabaldon book Dragonfly in Amber
Variant: I talk to you as I talk to my own soul," he said, turning me to face him. He reached up and cupped my cheek, fingers light on my temple. "And Sassenach," he whispered, "Your face is my heart.
Source: Dragonfly in Amber
Anne Frank (1929–1945) victim of the Holocaust and author of a diary
15 July 1944; Variant translations:
It's really a wonder that I haven't dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart.
I keep my ideals, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart.
I simply can't build my hopes on a foundation of confusion, misery, and death...and yet...I think...this cruelty will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again.
Source: The Diary of a Young Girl (1942 - 1944)
Context: It's difficult in times like these: ideals, dreams and cherished hopes rise within us, only to be crushed by grim reality. It's a wonder I haven't abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical. Yet I cling to them because I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart. It's utterly impossible for me to build my life on a foundation of chaos, suffering and death. I see the world being slowly transformed into a wilderness, I hear the approaching thunder that, one day, will destroy us too, I feel the suffering of millions. And yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that everything will change for the better, that this cruelty too shall end, that peace and tranquility will return once more. In the meantime, I must hold on to my ideals. Perhaps the day will come when I'll be able to realize them!
“Take your broken heart, make it into art.”
Carrie Fisher (1956–2016) American actress, screenwriter and novelist
“When the bird of the heart begins to sing, too often will reason stop up her ears.”
Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875) Danish author, fairy tale writer, and poet
Paramahansa Yogananda (1893–1952) Yogi, a guru of Kriya Yoga and founder of Self-Realization Fellowship
“You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love. And you can be that servant.”
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
1960s, The Drum Major Instinct (1968)
Context: And so Jesus gave us a new norm of greatness. If you want to be important—wonderful. If you want to be recognized—wonderful. If you want to be great—wonderful. But recognize that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. That's a new definition of greatness. And this morning, the thing that I like about it: by giving that definition of greatness, it means that everybody can be great, (Everybody) because everybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don't have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don't have to know Einstein's theory of relativity to serve. You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love. And you can be that servant.
“How else but through a broken heart
May Lord Christ enter in?”
Oscar Wilde book The Ballad of Reading Gaol
Pt. V, st. 14
The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898)
“My heart was now a secret garden and the walls were very high.”
William Goldman book The Princess Bride
Variant: Her heart was a secret garden and the walls were very high.
Source: The Princess Bride
Hunter S. Thompson (1937–2005) American journalist and author
Source: The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967
“Maybe that was how it was with all first loves. They own a little piece of your heart, always.”
Jenny Han (1980) American writer
Source: We'll Always Have Summer
“I believe tears are holy, because they show us that the ice of our heart is melting.”
Barbara De Angelis (1951) American psychologist
Rainer Maria Rilke book Letters to a Young Poet
Letter One (17 February 1903)
Letters to a Young Poet (1934)
Context: No one can advise or help you — no one. There is only one thing you should do. Go into yourself. Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depths of your heart; confess to yourself whether you would have to die if you were forbidden to write.
“Sometimes the heart sees what is invisible to the eyes”
H. Jackson Brown, Jr. (1940) American writer
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady of the United States
“If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain.”
Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) American poet
“I wanted my heart to bloom
and shelter a shadow of love”
Suman Pokhrel (1967) Nepali poet, lyricist, playwright, translator and artist
<span class="plainlinks"> The Tajmahal and my Love http://www.best-poems.net/love_poems/the_taj_mahal_amp_my_love.html/</span> <br class="br">From Poetry
Corneliu Zelea Codreanu (1899–1938) Romanian politician
For My Legionaries: The Iron Guard (1936), Nation and Culture
Francisco Palau (1811–1872) Beatified Spanish Discalced Carmelite friar and priest
Letter to Juana Gratia (1857)
Shams-i Tabrizi (1185–1248) 1185-1248, spiritual instructor of Mewlānā Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhi.
Me & Rumi (2004)
Marilyn vos Savant (1946) US American magazine columnist, author and lecturer
As quoted in Loose Cannons: Devastating Dish from the World's Wildest Women (1998) by Autumn Stephens, p. 270
“Wisdom doesn't affect corrupt hearts.”
Ali al-Hadi (829–868) imam
Misnad al-Imām al-Hādī, p. 304.
Regarding Knowledge & Wisdom, General
“Through years of my prime
I walked with a heart
crazy about love.”
Suman Pokhrel (1967) Nepali poet, lyricist, playwright, translator and artist
<span class="plainlinks"> The Tajmahal and my Love http://www.best-poems.net/love_poems/the_taj_mahal_amp_my_love.html/</span> <br class="br">From Poetry
“The heart that is empty of doubt is the cleanest of hearts.”
Hasan ibn Ali (624–669) Shia Imam
Majlisi, Bihārul Anwār, vol.78, p. 109
General Quotes
Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849) Polish composer
As quoted in Chopin's Letter.
Source: Chopin's Letter (1988) by Henryk Opieński,E. L. Voynich, p. 4
Suleiman (1494–1566) Sultan of the Ottoman Empire
Mansel, Philip, Constantinople: city of the world's desire 1453-1924 (1995), p. 84
Written to his wife - see the article Hurrem for another translation of this verse.
Poetry
E.M.S (1995) Nigerian rapper, singer and record producer
"iRONiC"
Sitting Bull (1831–1890) Hunkpapa Lakota medicine man and holy man
Quoted in Vine Deloria, God Is Red: A Native View of Religion. Golden, Colo: Fulcrum Pub, 2003, cited to Virginia Armstrong, I have spoken; American history through the voices of the Indians. Chicago, Sage Books, 1971.
“They shift the moving toyshop of their heart.”
Alexander Pope The Rape of the Lock
Canto I, line 100.
The Rape of the Lock (1712, revised 1714 and 1717)
Patañjali (-200–-150 BC) ancient Indian scholar(s) of grammar and linguistics, of yoga, of medical treatises
Translation by: Charles Johnston
Yoga Sutras of Patañjali
“When Life does not find a singer to sing her heart she produces a philosopher to speak her mind.”
Khalil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese artist, poet, and writer
Sand and Foam (1926)
Ghani Khan (1914–1996) Pakistani poet
na may sta da nari shundi dy pakar
na da zulfi wal pa wal laka khamar
na da bati pashan danga ghari ghwaram
nargasay stargy na daki da khumar
na ghakhuna dy laluna da adan
na nangy dak sara sara laka anar
na pasti da sarindy pa shan khabari
na wajood laka da saar way mazadar
khu bas yow shai rata ra ukhaya dilbara
da lala pashan zargy ghawaram daghdar
yow dawa ukhaqi chi da ghum ao muhabat way
lakuno laluna dy karam zaar
Entreaty (1929)
Babur (1483–1530) 1st Mughal Emperor
Babur writing about the battle against the Rajput Confederacy led by Maharana Sangram Singh of Mewar. In Babur-Nama, translated into English by A.S. Beveridge, New Delhi reprint, 1979, pp. 547-572.