HEART, THE
True religion is heart-work. We may wash the outside of the cup and the platter as
long as we please, but if the inward parts be filthy, we are filthy altogether in the
sight of God, for our hearts are more truly ourselves than our hands are; the very life
of our being lies in the inner nature, and hence the imperative need of purity within. ME373
An ounce of heart knowledge is worth a ton of head learning. ME576
It is a sad thing when the heart is cold with a good matter, and worse when it is
warm with a bad matter, but incomparably well when a warm heart and a good
matter meet together. TD45:1
Surely the heart is a chameleon. TD78:37
The heart is the mainspring of the man, and if it be not in order, the entire nature is
thrown out of gear. TD95:10
You have seen the great reservoirs provided by our water companies, from which the
water which is to supply hundreds of streets and thousands of houses is kept. Now,
the heart is just the reservoir of man, and our life is allowed to flow in its proper
season. That life may flow through different pipes—the mouth, the hand, the eye; but
still all the issues of hand, of eye, of lip, derive their source from the great fountain
and central reservoir, the heart; and hence there is no difficulty in showing the great
necessity that exists for keeping this reservoir, the heart, in a proper state and
condition, since otherwise that which flows through the pipes must be tainted and
corrupt. 179.114
Æsop, when his master ordered him to provide nothing for a feast but the best things
in the market, brought him nothing but tongues, and when the next day he ordered
him to buy nothing but the worst things in the market, still brought nothing but
tongues; and I would venture to correct or spiritualise the story, by exchanging
hearts for tongues, for there is nothing better in the world than hearts renewed, and
nothing worse than hearts unregenerate. 1129.482
He who can feel his insensibility is not insensible. Those who mourn that their heart
is a heart of stone, if they were to look calmly at the matter might perceive that it is
not all stone, or else there would not be a mourning because of hardness. 1983.518
Rest assured, dear friends, that where your pleasure is, there your heart is. 2710.29
Your heart is breaking, you say, with your troubles. It needs more breaking; for, if it
was broken, the trouble would not break it. Where our selfishness and our self-will
come in, there our sorrows begin. What is wanted is not the removal of trouble, but
the conquest of self. 2739.378
I know not what there may be in our heart—a very pandemonium, a little hell—a
great hell in a little heart. 3486.546