LOVE QUOTES XLV

quotations about love

I loved a being, an idea of my own mind, which had no real existence. I concreted this abstract of perfection, I annexed this fictitious quality to the idea presented by a name; the being, whom that name signified, was by no means worthy of this. This is the truth: Unless I am determinedly blind -- unless I am resolved causelessly and selfishly to seek destruction, I must see it. Plain! is it not plain? I loved a being; the being, whom I loved, is not what she was; consequently, as love appertains to mind, and not body, she exists no longer. I regret when I find that she never existed, but in my mind; yet does it not border on willful deception, deliberate, intentional self-deceit, to continue to love the body, when the soul is no more?

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

letter to Thomas Jefferson Hogg, Jun. 2, 1811


The Maker has linked together the whole race of man with this chain of love. I like to think that there is no man but has had kindly feelings for some other, and he for his neighbour, untiwl we bind together the whole family of Adam. Nor does it end here. It joins heaven and earth together. For my friend or my child of past days is still my friend or my child to me here, or in the home prepared for us by the Father of all. If identity survives the grave, as our faith tells us, is it not a consolation to think that there may be one or two souls among the purified and just, whose affection watches us invisible, and follows the poor sinner on earth?

WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY

Cornhill to Cairo


Love is ownership. We own whom we love. The universe is God's because he loves.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Life Thoughts


When there is love in the heart, there are rainbows in the eyes, which cover every black cloud with gorgeous hues.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Life Thoughts


All human actions are motivated at their deepest level by two emotions--fear or love. In truth there are only two emotions--only two words in the language of the soul.... Fear wraps our bodies in clothing, love allows us to stand naked. Fear clings to and clutches all that we have, love gives all that we have away. Fear holds close, love holds dear. Fear grasps, love lets go. Fear rankles, love soothes. Fear attacks, love amends.

NEALE DONALD WALSCH

Conversations with God

Tags: Neale Donald Walsch


Love must be the same in all worlds.

HORACE MANN

Thoughts

Tags: Horace Mann


Love endeth like the chianti flask, its drops are bitter.

GELETT BURGESS

The Maxims of Methuselah


Love is a volcano, the crater of which no wise man will approach too nearly, lest ... he should be swallowed up.

CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Lacon

Charles Caleb Colton (1777 - 1832) was an English cleric and writer. His books, including collections of epigrammatic aphorisms and short essays on conduct, though now almost forgotten, had a phenomenal popularity in their day.


Young love-making--that gossamer web! Even the points it clings to--the things whence its subtle interlacings are swung--are scarcely perceptible: momentary touches of finger-tips, meetings of rays from blue and dark orbs, unfinished phrases, lightest changes of cheek and lip, faintest tremors. The web itself is made of spontaneous beliefs and indefinable joys, yearnings of one life towards another, visions of completeness, indefinite trust.

GEORGE ELIOT

Middlemarch


Ah! let us love, my Love, for Time is heartless,
Be happy while you may!

ALPHONSE DE LAMARTINE

"The Lake"

Tags: Alphonse de Lamartine


Love is what you've been through with somebody.

JAMES THURBER

Life Magazine, Mar. 14, 1960

Tags: James Thurber


The ideal of romantic love stands in opposition to much of our history, as we shall see. First of all, it is individualistic. It rejects the view of human beings as interchangeable units, and it attaches the highest importance to individual differences as well as to individual choice. Romantic love is egoistic, in the philosophical, not in the petty, sense. Egoism as a philosophical doctrine holds that self-realization and personal happiness are the moral goals of life, and romantic love is motivated by the desire for personal happiness. Romantic love is secular. In its union of physical with spiritual pleasure in sex and love, as well as in its union of romance and daily life, romantic love is a passionate commitment to this earth and to the exalted happiness that life on earth can offer.

NATHANIEL BRANDEN

The Psychology of Romantic Love


It has been hard, I know, my daughters, but one word alone wipes out all of the hardships: love.

SOPHOCLES

Oedipus at Colonus

Tags: Sophocles


I loved long and long,
And grew to be out of fashion
Like an old song.

WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS

"O Do Not Love Too Long", In the Seven Woods

Tags: William Butler Yeats


I used to think romantic love was a neurosis shared by two, a supreme foolishness. I no longer think that. There's nothing foolish in loving anyone. Thinking you'll be loved in return is what's foolish.

RITA MAE BROWN

Bingo

Tags: Rita Mae Brown


As your lover describes you, so you are.

JEANETTE WINTERSON

Sexing the Cherry

Tags: Jeanette Winterson


If you do not give right attention to the one you love, it is a kind of killing. When you are in the car together, if you are lost in your thoughts, assuming you already know everything about her, she will slowly die.

THICH NHAT HANH

O Magazine, Feb. 2007


I think love adds to everything. I'm an old softie about that. I think love is the most important thing in life. If you don't have [a relationship], you're always looking for one. It's the motivator, the driver.

SHERYL CROW

Dr. Drew interview, 2001

Tags: Sheryl Crow


Nuptial love maketh mankind; friendly love perfecteth it; but wanton love corrupteth, and embaseth it.

SIR FRANCIS BACON

"Of Love", Essays, or Counsels Civil and Moral


When does love cease? When one begins to love anew.

LAURA ESQUIVEL

The Law of Love

Tags: Laura Esquivel