LOVE

Related Subjects: Affection, Beauty, Courtship, Cupid, Desire, Devotion, Friendship, Heart, Jealousy, Kissing, Loyalty, Lust, Marriage, Mistress, Passion, Romance, Sexes, Tenderness, Valentine

1. Above all, true love lives by the memory. The woman whose soul is not engraved upon, either by an excess of pleasure or a strength of feeling, can she ever be said to be in love?—BALZAC, The Girl With the Golden Eyes
   

2. Let no one who loves be called altogether unhappy. Even love unreturned has its rainbow.—J. M. BARRIE, The Little Minister
   

3. Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith.—Bible, Proverbs 15:17
   

4. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it.—Bible, The Song of Solomon 8:7
   

5. Love is the fulfilling of the law.—Bible, Romans 13:10
   

6. He that loveth not abideth in fear.—Bible, 1 John 3:14
   

7. Love iz like the meazles; we kant have it bad but onst, and the later in life we have it the tuffer it goes with us.—JOSH BILLINGS, Affurisms
   

8. Never seek to tell thy love.—BLAKE, Love's Secret
   

9. Love seeketh not itself to please,
   Nor for itself hath any care,
   But for another gives its ease,
   And builds a heaven in hell's despair.—BLAKE, The Clod and the Pebble
   

10. The mind has a thousand eyes,
    And the heart but one;
    Yet the light of a whole life dies,
    When love is done.—F. W. BOURDILLON, Light
    

11. I thought when love for you died, I should die.
    It's dead. Alone, most strangely, I live on.—RUPERT BROOKE, The Life Beyond

12. The ability to make love frivolously is the chief characteristic which distinguishes human beings from the beasts.—HEYWOOD BROUN, It Seems to Me

13. If thou must love me, let it be for nought
    Except for love's sake only.—ELIZABETH B. BROWNING, Sonnets from the Portuguese

14. Love, like Death,
    Levels all ranks, and lays the shepherd's crook
    Beside the sceptre.—BULWER-LYTTON, The Lady of Lyons

15. Oh, my luve is like a red, red rose,
    That's newly sprung in June;
    Oh, my luve is like the melodie,
    T hat's sweetly played in tune.—BURNS, A Red, Red Rose
    

16. But to see her was to love her,
    Love but her, and love forever.—BURNS, Ae Fond Kiss

17. Had we never loved sae kindly,
    Had we never loved sae blindly,
    Never met—or never parted—
    We had ne'er been broken-hearted!—BURNS, Ae Fond Kiss

18. To enlarge or illustrate this power and effect of love is to set a candle in the sun.—ROBERT BURTON, Anatomy of Melancholy

19. The cold in clime are cold in blood,
    Their love can scarce deserve the name.—BYRON, The Giaour
    

20. Man's love is of man's life a thing apart;
    'Tis woman's whole existence.—BYRON, Don Juan
    

21. Then fly betimes, for only they
    Conquer Love that run away.—THOMAS CAREW, Conquest by Flight
    

22. Love is ever the beginning of Knowledge, as fire is of light.—CARLYLE, Essays
    

23. Love is an Art, and the great­est of the Arts.—EDWARD CARPENTER, The Drama of Love and Death
    

24. My love and hers have always been purely Platonick.—CERVANTES, Don Quixote
    

25. Love and War are the same thing, and stratagems and policy are as allowable in the one as in the other.—CERVANTES, Don Quixote
    

26. I tell thee Love is Nature's second sun,
    Causing a spring of virtues where he shines.—GEORGE CHAPMAN, All Fools
    

27. None ever loved but at first sight they loved.—GEORGE CHAPMAN, The Blind Beggar of Alexandria
    

28. Love is blind.—CHAUCER, Canterbury Tales
    

29. Servant in love, and lord in marriage.—CHAUCER, Canterbury Tales

30. All thoughts, all passions, all delights,
    Whatever stirs this mortal frame,
    All are but ministers of Love,
    And feed his sacred flame.—COLERIDGE, Love
    

31. If there's delight in love, 'tis when I see
    That heart which others bleed for, bleed for me.—CONGREVE, The Way of the World
    

32. A mighty pain to love it is,
    And 'tis a pain that pain to miss;
    But of all pains, the greatest pain
    It is to love, but love in vain.—ABRAHAM COWLEY, Anacreon
    

33. Love is a sickness full of woes,
    All remedies refusing.—SAMUEL DANIEL, Hymen's Triumph
    

34. Love comes unseen; we only see it go.—AUSTIN DOBSON
    

35. Fool, not to know that love endures no tie,
    And Jove but laughs at lovers' perjury.—DRYDEN, Palamon and Arcite
    

36. Pains of love be sweeter far
    Than all other pleasures are.—DRYDEN, Tyrannic Love
    

37. No man ever forgot the visitations of that power to his heart and brain, which created all things new; which was the dawn in him of music, poetry, and art.—EMERSON, Love
    

38. "Perhaps they were right in putting love into books," he thought quietly. "Perhaps it could not live anywhere else."—WILLIAM FAULKNER, Light in August
    

39. The days of romantic love are gone by. The scientific spirit has put an end to that kind of self-deception. What we think of now is moral and intellectual and physical compatibility.—GEORGE GISSING, New Grub Street
    

40. It is to the credit of human nature, that, except where its selfishnes is brought into play, it loves more readily than it hates.—HAWTHORNE, The Scarlet Letter
    

41. You say to me-wards your affection's strong;
    Pray love me little, so you love me long.—ROBERT HERRICK, Love me Little, Love me Long
    

42. Love is like a dizziness,
    It winna let a poor body
    Gang about his bizziness.—JAMES HOGG, Love is Like a Dizziness
    

43. Love is a proud and gentle thing, a better thing to own
    Than all of the wide impossible stars over the heavens blown.—ROBINSON JEFFERS, The Door
    

44. 'Tis the pest
    Of love, that fairest joys give most unrest.—KEATS, Endyntion
    

45. Lovers are never tired of each other, though they always speak o f themselves.—LA ROCHEFOUCAULD, Maxims
    

46. In their first passion women love their lovers, in all the others they love love.—LA ROCHEFOUCAULD, Maxims

47. There are few people who would not be ashamed of being loved when they love no longer.—LA ROCHEFOUCAULD, Maxims

48. The pleasure of love is in loving. We are happier in the passion we feel than in that we inspire.—LA ROCHEFOUCAULD, Maxims

49. Love is the selfishness of two persons.—LA SALLE

50. Love in my bosom like a bee
    Doth suck his sweet.—THOMAS LODGE, Rosalind

51. There was never any yet that wholly could escape love, and never shall there be any, never so long as beauty shall be, never so long as eyes can see.—LONGUS, Daphnis and Chloe

52. I could not love thee, dear, so much,
    Lov'd I not honour more.—RICHARD LOVELACE, To Lucasta, on Going to the Wars 

53. He reckoneth without his Hostesse.
    Love knoweth no laws.—JOHN LYLY, Euphues

54. Come live with me, and be my love;
    And we will all the pleasures prove
    That hills and valleys, dales and fields,
    Wods or steepy mountain yields.—CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE, The Passionate Shepherd to His Love

55. Love is flame to burn out human wills
    Love is a flame to set the will on fire,
    Love is a flame to cheat men into mire.
    One of the three, we make Love what we choose.—JOHN MASEFIELD, The Widow in the Bye Street
    

56. He who loves well is consumed in the flames of his love.—MICHELANGELO
    

57. Whether or not we find what we are seeking
    Is idle, biologically speaking.—EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY, I Shall Forget You Presently
    

58. Love-quarrels oft in pleasing concord end;
    Not wedlock-treachery.—MILTON, Samson Agonistes
    

59. So dear I love him that with him all deaths
    I could endure, without him live no life.—MILTON, Paradise Lost
    

60. It is a wonderful seasoning of all enjoyments to think of those we love.—MOLIERE, Le Misanthrope
    

61. I know not, I ask not, if guilt's in that heart,
    I but know that I love thee, whatever thou art.—THOMAS MOORE, Come, Rest in This Bosom
    

62. But there's nothing half so sweet in life
    As love's young dream.—THOMAS MOORE, Love's Young Dream

63. Young Love may go,
    For aught I care,
    To Jericho!—THOMAS MOORE, When Love is Kind
    

64. Love is enough, though the world be a-waning.—WILLIAM MORRIS, Love is Enough
    

65. Youth's for an hour,
    Beauty's a flower,
    But love is the jewel that wins the world.—MOIRA O'NEILL, Beauty's a Flower
    

66. Scratch a lover, and find a foe.—DOROTHY PARKER, Ballade of a Great Weariness
    

67. It is not true that Love will do no wrong.—COVENTRY PATMORE, If I Were Dead
    

68. Thou wast all that to me, love,
    For which my soul did pine—
    A green isle in the sea, love,
    A fountain and a shrine,
    All wreathed with fairy fruits and flowers,
    And all the flowers were mine.—POE, To One in Paradise
    

69. O, human love! thou spirit given,
    On Earth, of all we hope in Heaven!—POE, Tamerlane
    

70. How vast a memory has Love!—POPE, The Dunciad
    

71. Curse on all laws but those which love has made!
    Love, free as air at sight of human ties,
    Spreads his light wings, and in a moment flies.—POPE, Eloisa to Abelard
    

72. Ye Gods! annihilate but space and time,
    And make two lovers happy.—POPE
    

73. Love is something so divine,
    Description would but make it less;
    'Tis what I feel, but can't define,
    'Tis what I know, but can't express.—B. PORTEUS, On Love
    

74. In love is no lack.—Proverb
    

75. In Love's wars, he who flieth is conqueror.—Proverb
    

76. Love can neither be bought nor sold; its only price being love.—Proverb
    

77. Love comes in at the windows, and goes out at the doors.—Proverb
    

78. Love is as warm among cottagers as courtiers.—Proverb
    

79. Love is a sweet tyranny, because the lover endureth his torments
    willingly.—Proverb
    

80. Love is blind.—Proverb
    

81. Love is the touchstone of virtue.—Proverb
    

82. Love laughs at locksmiths.—Proverb
    

83. Love me little, and love me long.—Proverb
    

84. He that hath love in his breast hath spurs at his heels.—Proverb
    

85. Love, and a cough, cannot be hid.—Proverb
    

86. Love is incompatible with fear.—PUBLILIUS SYRUS, Sententiae
    

87. The approaches of love must be resisted at the first assault, lest they undermine at the second.—PYTHAGORAS

88. Love that's wise
    Will not say all it means.—E. A. ROBINSON, Tristram
    

89. True love's the gift which God has given,
    To man alone beneath the heaven:
    It is not fantasy's hot fire,
    Whose wishes, soon as granted, fly;
    It liveth not in fierce desire,
    With dead desire it doth not die;
    It is the secret sympathy,
    The silver link, the silken tie,
    Which heart to heart and mind to mind
    In body and in soul can bind.—SCOTT, The Lay of the Last Minstrel
    

90. The hind that would he mated by the lion
    Must die for love.—SHAKESPEARE, All's Well that Ends Well
    

91. It were all one
    That I should love a bright particular star
    And think to wed it.—SHAKESPEARE, All's Well that Ends Well
    

92. There's beggary in the love that can be reckon'd.—SHAKESPEARE, Antony and Cleopatra
    

93. Down on your knees,
    And thank Heaven fasting, for a good man's love.—SHAKESPEARE, As You Like It
    

94. If thou remember'st not the slightest folly
    That ever love did make thee run into,
    Thou hast not lov'd.—SHAKESPEARE, As You Like It
    

95. Men have died from time to time, and worms have eaten them, but not for love.—SHAKESPEARE, As You Like It
    

96. Under the greenwood tree
    Who loves to lie with me.—SHAKESPEARE, As You Like It
    

97. No sooner met but they looked; no sooner looked but they loved; no sooner loved but they sighed; no sooner sighed but they asked one another the reason; no sooner knew the reason but they sought the remedy.—SHAKESPEARE, As You Like It
    

98. Forty thousand brothers
    Could not, with all their quantity of love,
    Make up my sum.—SHAKESPEARE, Hamlet
    

99. When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul
    Lends the tongue vows.—SHAKESPEARE, Hamlet
    

100. If the rascal have not given me medicines to make me love him, I'll be hanged.—SHAKESPEARE, Henry IV
     

101. A man that I love and Honour with my soul, and my heart, and my duty, and my life, and my living, and my uttermost power.—SHAKESPEARE, Henry V
     

102. This word "love", which greybeards call divine.—SHAKESPEARE, Henry VI

103. Though last, not least in love.—SHAKESPEARE, Julius Caesar
     

104. My love's More richer than my tongue.—SHAKESPEARE, King Lear
     

105. But love is blind, and lovers cannot see
     The pretty follies that themselves commit.—SHAKESPEARE, The Merchant of Venice
     

106. Friendship is constant in all other things
     Save in the office and affairs of love;
     Therefore, all hearts in love use their own tongues;
     Let every eye negotiate for itself,
     And trust no agent.—SHAKESPEARE, Much Ado About Nothing
     

107. Speak low, if you speak love.—SHAKESPEARE, Much Ado About Nothing
     

108. Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,
     And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.—SHAKESPEARE, A Midsummer-Night's Dream
     

109. For Aught that I could ever read,
     Could ever hear by tale or history,
     The course of true love never did run smooth.—SHAKESPEARE, A Midsummer-Night's Dream
     

110. She loved me for the dangers I had passed,
     And I loved her that she did pity them.
     This only is the witchcraft I have used.—SHAKESPEARE, Othello
     

111. Excellent wretch! Perdition catch my soul,
     But I do love thee! and when I love thee not,
     Chaos is come again.—SHAKESPEARE, Othello
     

112. Base men being in love have then a nobility in their natures more than is native to them.—SHAKESPEARE, Othello
     

113. How silver-sweet sound lovers' tongues by night,
     Like softest music to attending ears!—SHAKESPEARE, Romeo and Juliet
     

114. At lovers' perjuries,
     They say, Jove laughs.—SHAKESPEARE, Romeo and Juliet
     

115. For stony limits cannot hold love out.—SHAKESPEARE, Romeo and Juliet
     

116. This bud of love, by summer's ripening breath,
     May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet.—SHAKESPEARE,
     Romeo and Juliet
     

117. Do not give dalliance
     Too much rein.—SHAKESPEARE, The Tempest
     

118. All lovers swear more performance than they are able, and yet reserve an ability that they never perform; vowing more than the perfection of ten, and discharging less than the tenth part of one.—SHAKESPEARE, Troilus and Cressida
     

119. Duke: And what's her history?
     
     Viola: A blank, my lord. She never told her love,
     But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud,
     Feed on her damask cheek: she pined in thought,
     And with a green and yellow melancholy
     She sat like patience on a monument,
     Smiling at grief.—SHAKESPEARE, Twelfth Night

120. Journeys end in lovers meeting,
     Every wise man's son doth know.—SHAKESPEARE, Twelfth Night
     

121. Love sought is good, but given unsought, is better.—SHAKESPEARE, Twelfth Night
     

122. Then let thy love be younger than thyself,
     Or thy affection cannot hold the bent.—SHAKESPEARE, Twelfth Night
     

123. O! they love least that let men know their love.—SHAKESPEARE, Two Gentlemen of Verona
     

124. They do not love that do not show their love.—SHAKESPEARE, Two Gentlemen of Verona
     

125. Love's best habit is a soothing tongue.—SHAKESPEARE, The Passionate Pilgrim
     

126. When my love swears that she is made of truth,
     I do believe her, though I know she lies.—SHAKESPEARE, The Passionate Pilgrim
     

127. That love is merchandiz'd whose rich esteeming
     The owner's tongue doth publish every where.—SHAKESPEARE, Sonnet CII
     

128. For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings
     That then I scorn to change my state with kings.—SHAKESPEARE, Sonnet XXIX
     

129. Love is my sin, and thy dear virtue hate,
     Hate of my sin, grounded on sinful loving.—SHAKESPEARE, Sonnet CXLII
     

130. Love is a spirit all compact of fire.—SHAKESPEARE, Venus and Adonis
     

131. Love comf orteth like sun­shine after rain.—SHAKESPEARE, Venus and Adonis
     

132. Love gilds the scene, and women guide the plot.—SHERIDAN, The Rivals
     

133. I loved him for himself alone.—SHERIDAN, The Duenna

134. They sin who tell us love can die;
     With life all other passions fly,
     All others are but vanity.—SOUTHEY, The Curse of Kehama
     

135. All for love, and nothing for reward.—EDMUND SPENSER, The Faerie Queene
     

136. So long as we love we serve; so long as we are loved by others, I would almost say that we are indispensable; and no man is useless while he has a friend.—STEVENSON, Lay Morals
     

137. To love is the great Amulet that makes this world a garden.—STEVENSON, Travels With a Donkey
     

138. Out upon it, I have loved
     Three whole days together;
     And am like to love three more,
     If it prove fair weather.—SIR JOHN SUCKLING, A Poem With the Answer
     

139. Why so pale and wan, fond lover?
     Prithee, why so pale?
     Will, when looking well can't move her,
     Looking ill prevail?—SIR JOHN SUCKLING, Song
     

140. To have known love, how bitter a thing it is.—SWINBURNE, Laus Veneris
     

141. And I would have, now love is over,
     An end to all, an end:
     I cannot, having been your lover,
     Stoop to become your friend!—ARTHUR SYMONS, After Love
     

142. God gives us love. Something to love
     He lends us; but when love is grown
     To ripeness, that on which it throve
     Falls off, and love is left alone.—TENNYSON, To J. S.
     

143. 'Tis better to have loved and lost
     Than never to have loved at all.—TENNYSON, In Memoriam
     

144. Sweet is true love tho' given in vain, in vain;
     And sweet is death who puts an end to pain.—TENNYSON, Idylls of the King
     

145. The love of my life came not
     As love unto others is cast;
     For mine was a secret wound—
     But the wound grew a pearl, at last.—EDITH M. THOMAS, The Deep-Sea Pearl

146. There is no remedy for love but to love more.—THOREAU
     

147. Make channels for the stream of love
     Where they may broadly run,
     And love has overflowing streams
     To fill them every one.—R. C. TRENCH, The Law of Love
     

148. Love conquers all.—VERGIL, Eclogues
     

149. O, rank is good, and gold is fair,
     And high and low mate ill;
     But love has never known a law
     Beyond its own sweet will!—WHITTIER, Amy Wentworth
     

150. Yet each man kills the thing he loves,
     By each let this be heard,
     Some do it with a bitter look,
     Some with a flattering word,
     The coward does it with a kiss,
     The brave man with a sword!—OSCAR WILDE, The Ballad of Reading Gaol
     

151. Mightier far
     Than strength of nerve and sinew, or the sway
     Of magic potent over sun and star,
     Is Love, though oft to agony distrest,
     And though his favorite seat be feeble woman's breast.—WORDSWORTH, Laodamia
     

152. And you must love him, ere to you
     He will seem worthy of your love.—WORDSWORTH, A Poet's Epitaph
     

153. Love lodged in a woman's breast Is but a guest.—SIR HENRY WOTTON, A Woman's Heart

154. How many loved your moments of glad grace,
     And loved your beauty, with love false or true;
     But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
     And loved the sorrows of your changing face.—W. B. YEATS, When You Are Old
     

155. In how many lives does Love really play a dominant part? The average taxpayer is no more capable of a "grand passion" than of a grand opera.—ISRAEL ZANGWILL, Romeo and Juliet and Other Love Stories
     

156. There are certain kinds of love that few but the very wise fully understand until they have become memories.—HANS ZINSSER, As I Remember Him