We begin these quotes with the source of all wisdom,
God's Word. Out of nearly a thousand references to the heart in the Bible, these are some
of our favorites:
Where your treasure is there will your heart be also.
- New Testament, Luke 12.34
Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
- New Testament, Matthew 12.34
If you confess with your mouth "Jesus is Lord", and believe in your heart
that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you
believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.
- New Testament, Romans 10.9-10
In her heart she boasts "I sit as queen; I am not a widow, and I will never
mourn."
- New Testament, Revelation 18.8 (last appearance in the Bible of the word 'heart')
The Lord saw how great man's wickedness had become, and that every inclination of the
thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord grieved that he had made man on
the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.
- Old Testament, Genesis 6.5-6 (First appearance in the Bible of the word 'heart')
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy
mind, and with all thy strength.
- Old Testament, Deuteronomy 6.4
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me
- Old Testament, Psalm 51.10
God knows the secrets of the heart
- Old Testament, Psalm 44.21
Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.
- Old Testament, Proverbs 4.23
He that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast.
- Old Testament, Proverbs 15.15
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.
- Old Testament, Jeremiah 17.9
Quotes from others:
The heart of the fool is in his mouth, but the mouth of the wise is in his heart.
- Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanac
When I was one and twenty
I heard a wise man say
Give pounds and crowns and guineas
But not your heart away
- A. E. Housman, A Shropshire Lad
The heart has its reasons which reason does not know.
- Pascal, Pensees IV
What stronger breastplate than a heart untainted!
- Shakespeare, Henry VI
I prithee send me back my heart,
Since I cannot have thine
For if from thine thou wilt not part
Why then shoulds't thou have mine?
- Sir John Suckling, Song
Kind hearts are more than coronets
And simple faith than Norman blood.
- Tennyson, Lady Clara Vere de Vere |
In the western culture, the heart
is pictured as the center of our emotions, our beliefs, our very being. Love is said to
reside in the heart. Fear and courage are said to come from the character of the heart.
The mind is said to be the center of the active thoughts, while the heart is the center of
our motives, our spirit. We memorize by heart, cross our heart, believe in our heart, join
hearts, break hearts and in turn have ours broken. 
