LOVE QUOTES XLVIII

quotations about love

'Tis a secret: none knows how it comes, how it goes:
But the name of the secret is Love!

LEWIS CARROLL

Sylvie and Bruno Concluded

Tags: Lewis Carroll


There is no disguise which can hide love for long where it exists, or simulate it where it does not.

LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Maxims

Tags: La Rochefoucauld


I shall be loved as quiet things
Are loved--white pigeons in the sun,
Curled yellow leaves that whisper down
One after one;

The silver reticence of smoke
That tells no secret of its birth
Among the fiery agonies
That turn the earth.

KARLE WILSON BAKER

"I Shall Be Loved as Quiet Things"

Karle Wilson Baker (1878-1960) was an American poet and author. She was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for her last collection of poetry, Dreamers on Horseback, in 1931.

Tags: Karle Wilson Baker


Any love is enveloping and potentially dangerous; after all, you are putting your heart into someone else's hands and with that an incredible power to cause pain of various kinds (and vice versa). That's a given. But there is an additional absolutism about first love, when you have nothing to compare it with. You don't know anything, yet you feel you know everything -- this can be calamitous.

JULIAN BARNES

interview, The Guardian, January 29, 2018

Tags: Julian Barnes


Love is my religion--I could die for that.

JOHN KEATS

letter to Fanny Brawne, Oct. 13, 1819

Tags: John Keats


For me, however, if I understand the concept, to love properly and in earnest one would have to do it anonymously, or at least in an undeclared fashion, so as not to seem to ask anything in return, since asking and getting are the antithesis of love--if, as I say, I have the concept aright, which from all I have said and all that has been said to me so far it appears I do not. It is very puzzling. Love, the kind that I mean, would require a superhuman capacity for sacrifice and self-denial, such as a saint possesses, or a god, and saints are monsters, as we know, and as for the gods--well.

JOHN BANVILLE

The Infinities

Tags: John Banville


For a long time visits among lovers and professions of love are kept up through habit, after their behavior has plainly proved that love no longer exists.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of the Affections", Les Caractères

Jean de La Bruyère (16 August 1645 - 11 May 1696) was a French philosopher and moralist noted for his satire. His Caractères, which appeared in 1688, captures the psychological, social, and moral profile of French society of his time.


We had known each other for many years; starved together, worked together, loved each other, suffered each other, made love; and yet the most tremendous consummation of our love was occurring now, as she patiently, in love and terror, held my hand.

JAMES BALDWIN

Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone

Tags: James Baldwin


Love is not like the echo, which returneth only what is given; but, rather, like the pump, which returneth by the pail what it received by the pint.

IVAN PANIN

Thoughts


Love is not wanting the other to become a clone of ourselves. 'Other' offers resistance, pushing us to find what is self. Love is actively embracing our equality and pushing each other to realise our full potential and make our full contribution to the world.

HOWARD JONES

"What is love -- can it really be defined and explained?", The Guardian, February 12, 2016


Love not only occupies the higher lobes of the brain, but crowds out the lower to make room for its expansion.

HORACE MANN

Thoughts


Love, in this world, is like a seed taken from the tropics, and planted where the winter comes too soon; and it cannot spread itself in flower-clusters and wide-twining vines, so that the whole air is filled with the perfume thereof. But there is to be another summer for it yet. Care for the root now, and God will care for the top by and by.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Life Thoughts


Loving is like music. Some instruments can go up two octaves, some four, and some all the way from black thunder to sharp lightning. As some of them are susceptible only of melody, so some hearts can sing but one song of love, while others will fun in a full choral harmony.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Life Thoughts


Love rays us round as glory swathes a star,
And, from the mystic touch of lips and palms,
Streams rosy warmth!

GERALD MASSEY

"To My Wife"

Tags: Gerald Massey


Among all the many kinds of first love, that which begins in childish companionship is the strongest and most enduring: when passion comes to unite its force to long affection, love is at its spring-tide.

GEORGE ELIOT

Mr. Gilfil's Love Story


Love isn't a state of perfect caring. It is an active noun like struggle. To love someone is to strive to accept that person exactly the way he or she is, right here and now.

FRED ROGERS

The World According to Mister Rogers


Love is a very ancient force, which served its purpose in its day but no longer is essential for the survival of the species.

FRANK HERBERT

Heretics of Dune

Tags: Frank Herbert


He who knows Love becomes Love, and he knows
All beings are himself, twin-born of Love.

ELSA BARKER

He Who Knows Love

Tags: Elsa Barker


All the world loves a lover, but how it does laugh at his love letters.

EDGAR GUEST

Home Rhymes

Tags: Edgar Guest


The world gets grimy and the love object is in stark relief from it's surroundings. This is love, a pretty thing on an ugly street.

DANIEL HANDLER

Adverbs