What does "It is always the heart that sees, before the head can see."- Thomas Carlyle mean?

Question

I get too confused with this quote and what does it trying to convey, I somehow find it very similar to H. Jackson Brown's "Sometimes the heart sees what is invisible to the eye", but I am not confident if I am thinking the right answer to this.

I am working on John Adair's Art of Creative Thinking, and this scrumptiously hit my attention.

What are your thoughts on this? please help, will mean a lot to me..

Answer 1

Hello! I can only offer my own interpretation of this quote and also share that I do feel there are great similarities between Carlyle's quote and Brown's as well. Mainly, I infer that this quote is suggesting that we often "know" something about a person, place, idea, and so on instinctually before we are able to reason out in our minds why that is or why we feel such a way. For example, one may feel great care and affection for a person that they have only known briefly without being able to rationalize it in their minds. Later on, they come to learn all the details and qualities of that person that make them an exceptional human being and deserving of that affection.

Hopefully it helps to gain another perspective!

Answer 2

I believe you are correct that it is the same thing since eyes are able to see the facial expressions but are not able to feel the emotions behind that face.