Quotes about love

It's afterwards you realize that the feeling of happiness you had with a man didn't necessarily prove that you loved him.

— Marguerite Duras

But that intimacy of mutual embarrassment, in which each feels that the other is feeling something, having once existed, its effect is not to be done away with.

— George Eliot

Two separate, distinct personalities, not separate at all, but inextricably bound, soul and body and mind, to each other, how did we get so far apart so fast?

— Judith Guest

There are few people who are not ashamed of their love affairs when the infatuation is over.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

I was never one to patiently pick up broken fragments and glue them together again and tell myself that the mended whole was as good as new. What is broken is broken -- and I'd rather remember it as it was at its best than mend it and see the broken places as long as I lived.

— Margaret Mitchell

Falling out of love is chiefly a matter of forgetting how charming someone is.

— Iris Murdoch

In every question and every remark tossed back and forth between lovers who have not played out the last fugue, there is one question and it is this: Is there someone new?

— Edna O'Brien

In a separation it is the one who is not really in loved who says the more tender things.

— Marcel Proust

She's gone. I am abused, and my relief must be to loathe her.

— William Shakespeare

In love, unlike most other passions, the recollection of what you have had and lost is always better than what you can hope for in the future.

— Henri B. Stendhal

I hated her now with a hatred more fatal than indifference because it was the other side of love.

— J. August Strindberg

When a man has once loved a woman, he will do anything for her, except continue to love her.

— Oscar Wilde

There is always something ridiculous about the emotions of people whom one has ceased to love.

— Oscar Wilde

In every loving woman there is a priestess of the past -- a pious guardian of some affection, of which the object has disappeared.

— Henri Frederic Amiel

One can be a soldier without dying, and a lover without sighing.

— Sir Edwin Arnold

Lovers should also have their days off.

— Natalie Clifford Barney

The lover of life makes the whole world into his family, just as the lover of the fair sex creates his from all the lovely women he has found, from those that could be found, and those who are impossible to find.

— Charles Baudelaire

There exists, between people in love, a kind of capital held by each. This is not just a stock of affects or pleasure, but also the possibility of playing double or quits with the share you hold in the other's heart.

— Jean Baudrillard

Pity the selfishness of lovers: it is brief, a forlorn hope; it is impossible.

— Elizabeth Bowen

When Death to either shall come -- I pray it be first to me.

— Robert Bridges

A man can go from being a lover to being a stranger in three moves flat but a woman under the guise of friendship will engage in acts of duplicity which come to light very much later. There are different species of self-justification.

— Anita Brookner

Never the time and the place and the loved one all together!

— Robert Browning

One seeks to make the loved one entirely happy, or, if that cannot be, entirely wretched.

— Jean De La Bruyere

Lovers may be -- and indeed generally are -- enemies, but they never can be friends, because there must always be a spice of jealousy and a something of Self in all their speculations.

— Lord Byron

One who has not only the four S's, which are required in every good lover, but even the whole alphabet; as for example... Agreeable, Bountiful, Constant, Dutiful, Easy, Faithful, Gallant, Honorable, Ingenious, Kind, Loyal, Mild, Noble, Officious, Prudent, Quiet, Rich, Secret, True, Valiant, Wise; the X indeed, is too harsh a letter to agree with him, but he is Young and Zealous.

— Miguel De Cervantes

When a man and a woman have an overwhelming passion for each other, it seems to me, in spite of such obstacles dividing them as parents or husband, that they belong to each other in the name of Nature, and are lovers by Divine right, in spite of human convention or the laws.

— Sebastien-Roch Nicolas De Chamfort

There is no pain equal to that which two lovers can inflict on one another. This should be made clear to all who contemplate such a union. The avoidance of this pain is the beginning of wisdom, for it is strong enough to contaminate the rest of our lives.

— Cyril Connolly

Busy old fool, unruly Sun, why dost thou thus through windows and through curtains call on us? Must to thy motions lovers seasons run?

— John Donne

A lover, when he is admitted to cards, ought to be solemnly silent, and observe the motions of his mistress. He must laugh when she laughs, sigh when she sighs. In short, he should be the shadow of her mind. A lady, in the presence of her lover, should never want a looking-glass; as a beau, in the presence of his looking-glass, never wants a mistress.

— Henry Fielding

Lovers who love truly do not write down their happiness.

— Anatole France

A lover without indiscretion is no lover at all. Circumspection and devotion are a contradiction in terms.

— Thomas Hardy

The more one loves a mistress, the more one is ready to hate her.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

My God, these folks don't know how to love -- that's why they love so easily.

— D. H. Lawrence

Queen Guenever, for whom I make here a little mention, that while she lived she was a true lover, and therefore she had a good end.

— Sir Thomas Malory

I would not miss your face, your neck, your hands, your limbs, your bosom and certain other of your charms. Indeed, not to become boring by naming them all, I could do without you, Chloe, altogether.

— Marcus Valerius Martial

These two imparadised in one another's arms, the happier Eden, shall enjoy their fill of bliss on bliss.

— John Milton

Every man needs two women, a quiet home-maker, and a thrilling nymph.

— Iris Murdoch

Scratch a lover, and find a foe.

— Dorothy Parker

An orange on the table, your dress on the rug, and you in my bed, sweet present of the present, cool of night, warmth of my life.

— Jacques Prevert

It is easier to keep half a dozen lovers guessing than to keep one lover after he has stopped guessing.

— Helen Rowland

Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety. Other women cloy the appetites they feed, but she makes hungry where most she satisfies.

— William Shakespeare

We that are true lovers run into strange capers.

— William Shakespeare

No one worth possessing can be quite possessed.

— Sara Teasdale

You are my lover and I am your mistress and kingdoms and empires and governments have tottered and succumbed before now to that mighty combination.

— Violet Trefusis

The one who loves least controls the relationship.

— Source Unknown

There's nothing in the world like the devotion of a married woman. It's a thing no married man knows anything about.

— Oscar Wilde

Mistresses are like books; if you pore upon them too much, they doze you and make you unfit for company; but if used discreetly, you are the fitter for conversation by em.

— William Wycherley

If you aren't good at loving yourself, you will have a difficult time loving anyone, since you'll resent the time and energy you give another person that you aren't even giving to yourself.

— Barbara De Angelis

Resolve to be thyself: and know, that he who finds himself, loses his misery.

— Matthew Arnold

The best way to forget ones self is to look at the world with attention and love.

— Red Auerbach

When you recover or discover something that nourishes your soul and bring joy, care enough about yourself to make room for it in your life.

— Jean Shinoda Bolen

Our first and last love is... self-love.

— Christian Nevell Bovee

Don't worry about growing older or pleasing others. Please yourself.

— David Brown

Love yourself unconditionally, just as you love those closest to you despite their faults.

— Les Brown

Self-love for ever creeps out, like a snake, to sting anything which happens to stumble upon it.

— Lord Byron

How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something, but to be someone.

— Coco Chanel

Monkeys are superior to men in this: when a monkey looks into a mirror, he sees a monkey.

— Malcolm De Chazal

I'd rather be able to face myself in the bathroom mirror than be rich and famous.

— Ani DiFranco

The more you like yourself, the less you are like anyone else, which makes you unique.

— Walt Disney

A low self-love in the parent desires that his child should repeat his character and fortune.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Do not wish to be anything except what you are.

— St. Francis De Sales

He who falls in love with himself will have no rivals.

— Benjamin Franklin

Self-love exaggerates our faults as well as our virtues.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

If we really love ourselves, everything in our life works.

— Louise L. Hay

The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved, loved for ourselves, or rather loved in spite of ourselves.

— Victor Hugo

There is a voice inside which speaks and says: This is the real me!

— William James

Self-love is often rather arrogant than blind; it does not hide our faults from ourselves, but persuades us that they escape the notice of others.

— Samuel Johnson

Self-love depressed becomes self-loathing.

— Sally Kempton

Be that self which one truly is.

— Søren Kierkegaard

The snow goose need not bathe to make itself white. Neither need you do anything but be yourself.

— Lao-Tzu

Accept yourself as you are. Otherwise you will never see opportunity. You will not feel free to move toward it; you will feel you are not deserving.

— Maxwell Maltz

You will always have to live with yourself, and it is to your best interest to see that you have good company -- a clean, pure, straight, honest, upright, generous, magnanimous companion.

— Orison Swett Marden

People who do not love themselves can adore others, because adoration is making someone else big and ourselves small. They can desire others, because desire comes out of a sense of inner incompleteness, which demands to be filled. But they can not love others, because love is an affirmation of the living growing being in all of us. If you don't have it, you can't give it.

— Andrew Matthews

A healthy self-love means we have no compulsion to justify to ourselves or others why we take vacations, why we sleep late, why we buy new shoes, why we spoil ourselves from time to time. We feel comfortable doing things which add quality and beauty to life.

— Andrew Matthews

I am a big believer in the mirror test. All that matters is if you can look in the mirror and honestly tell the person you see there, that you've done your best.

— John McKay

It is of practical value to learn to like yourself. Since you must spend so much time with yourself you might as well get some satisfaction out of the relationship.

— Norman Vincent Peale

Learn what you are and be such.

— Pindar

Self-love seems so often unrequited.

— Anthony Powell

Above the cloud with its shadow is the star with its light. Above all things reverence thyself.

— Pythagoras

Self-love, is not so vile a sin as self-neglecting.

— William Shakespeare

Whatever you are from nature, keep to it; never desert your own line of talent. Be what nature intended you for, and you will succeed; be anything else, and you will be ten thousand times worse than nothing.

— Sydney Smith

When you feel good about yourself, others will feel good about you, too.

— Jake Steinfeld

Know that you are your greatest enemy, but also your greatest friend.

— Jeremy Taylor

If only I had a little humility, I'd be perfect.

— Ted Turner

To dream of the person you would like to be is to waste the person you are.

— Source Unknown

Know the self to be sitting in the chariot, the body to be the chariot, the intellect the charioteer, and the mind the reins.

— Veda Upanishads

Self-love is the instrument of our preservation.

— Voltaire

It is not love that should be depicted as blind, but self-love.

— Voltaire

There's only one me, and I'm stuck with him.

— Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

I dote on myself, there is that lot of me and all so luscious.

— Walt Whitman

Practice being at home with yourself, as you step out to be with others.

— Marcia Wieder

The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then do what you need to do, in order to have what you want.

— Margaret Young

I do not love you I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz, or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off. I love you as certain dark things are to be loved, in secret, between the shadow and the soul. I love you as the plant that never blooms but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers; thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance, risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body. I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride; so I love you because I know no other way that this: where I does not exist, nor you, so close that your hand on my chest is my hand, so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

— Pablo Neruda

Saddest Poem I can write the saddest poem of all tonight. Write, for instance: "The night is full of stars, and the stars, blue, shiver in the distance." The night wind whirls in the sky and sings. I can write the saddest poem of all tonight. I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too. On nights like this, I held her in my arms. I kissed her so many times under the infinite sky. She loved me, sometimes I loved her. How could I not have loved her large, still eyes? I can write the saddest poem of all tonight. To think I don't have her. To feel that I've lost her. To hear the immense night, more immense without her. And the poem falls to the soul as dew to grass. What does it matter that my love couldn't keep her. The night is full of stars and she is not with me. That's all. Far away, someone sings. Far away. My soul is lost without her. As if to bring her near, my eyes search for her. My heart searches for her and she is not with me. The same night that whitens the same trees. We, we who were, we are the same no longer. I no longer love her, true, but how much I loved her. My voice searched the wind to touch her ear. Someone else's. She will be someone else's. As she once belonged to my kisses. Her voice, her light body. Her infinite eyes. I no longer love her, true, but perhaps I love her. Love is so short and oblivion so long. Because on nights like this I held her in my arms, my soul is lost without her. Although this may be the last pain she causes me, and this may be the last poem I write for her.

— Pablo Neruda

Clenched Soul We have lost even this twilight. No one saw us this evening hand in hand while the blue night dropped on the world. I have seen from my window the fiesta of sunset in the distant mountain tops. Sometimes a piece of sun burned like a coin in my hand. I remembered you with my soul clenched in that sadness of mine that you know. Where were you then? Who else was there? Saying what? Why will the whole of love come on me suddenly when I am sad and feel you are far away? The book fell that always closed at twilight and my blue sweater rolled like a hurt dog at my feet. Always, always you recede through the evenings toward the twilight erasing statues.

— Pablo Neruda

Any woman who thinks the way to a man's heart is through his stomach is aiming about 10 inches too high.

— Adrienne Gusoff

The only thing bigger than God`s great universe is man`s ego.

— Gary Sevakis

It does say if you don’t love your fellow Christians you're not one in the big book.

— James Dye

Love to me is a feeling, to have universal love you have to always feel love no matter what.

— James Dye

Love poems are always cliche to me but not to the person it’s for.

— James Dye