“Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.”
Rumi (1207–1273) Iranian poet
As quoted in Path for Greatness : Spiritualty at Work (2000) by Linda J. Ferguson, p. 51
Love quotes
A collection of quotes on the topic of love, valentine's day, partnership, making love.
Best love quotes
“There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved.”
George Sand (1804–1876) French novelist and memoirist; pseudonym of Lucile Aurore Dupin
“Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.”
William Shakespeare All's Well That Ends Well
Variant: Love all, trust a few.
Source: All's Well That Ends Well
“If I know what love is, it is because of you.”
Hermann Hesse book Narcissus and Goldmund
Narcissus and Goldmund (1930)
“Love is like war: easy to begin but very hard to stop.”
H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer
Source: Heliogabalus
“Love is so short and forgetting is so long.”
Pablo Neruda book Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair
Es tan corto el amor y tan largo el olvido.
"Tonight I Can Write" (Puedo Escribir), XX, p. 51.
Variant: Love is so short, forgetting is so long.
Source: Veinte Poemas de Amor y una Canción Desesperada (Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair) (1924)
“You will always love, and you will always be loved.”
Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray
“When I fall in love, it will be forever.”
Jane Austen (1775–1817) English novelist
Source: Sense and Sensibility: The Screenplay
“We accept the love we think we deserve.”
Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Love quotes
Bob Marley (1945–1981) Jamaican singer, songwriter, musician
Variant: You may not be her first, her last, or her only. She loved before she may love again. But if she loves you now, what else matters? She's not perfect — you aren't either, and the two of you may never be perfect together but if she can make you laugh, cause you to think twice, and admit to being human and making mistakes, hold onto her and give her the most you can. She may not be thinking about you every second of the day, but she will give you a part of her that she knows you can break — her heart. So don't hurt her, don't change her, don't analyze and don't expect more than she can give. Smile when she makes you happy, let her know when she makes you mad, and miss her when she's not there.
“Laugh as much as you breathe and love as long as you live.”
Johnny Depp (1963) American actor, film producer, and musician
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
'Where Do We Go From Here?" as published in Where Do We Go from Here : Chaos or Community? (1967), p. 62; many statements in this book, or slight variants of them, were also part of his address Where Do We Go From Here?" which has a section below. A common variant appearing at least as early as 1968 has "Returning violence for violence multiplies violence..." An early version of the speech as published in A Martin Luther King Treasury (1964), p. 173, has : "Returning hate for hate multiplies hate..."
1960s
Source: A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches
Context: The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. … Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.
“He's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.”
Emily Brontë book Wuthering Heights
Variant: Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same
Source: Wuthering Heights
“Keep smiling, because life is a beautiful thing and there's so much to smile about.”
Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) American actress, model, and singer
James Baldwin book Nobody Knows My Name
"In Search of a Majority: An Address" (Feb 1960); reprinted in Baldwin, "Nobody Knows My Name: More Notes of a Native Son" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobody_Knows_My_Name (1961)
Dr. Seuss (1904–1991) American children's writer and illustrator, co-founder of Beginner Books
Variant: You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.
“I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.”
Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) Chilean poet
Variant: I love you as one loves certain dark things, secretly, between the shadow and the soul.
Source: 100 Love Sonnets
“If I had a flower for every time I thought of you, I could walk through my garden forever.”
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) British poet laureate
Oprah Winfrey (1954) American businesswoman, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist
Variant: Everyone wants to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.
“Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs.”
William Shakespeare book Romeo and Juliet
Source: Romeo and Juliet
“So, I love you because the entire universe conspired to help me find you.”
Paulo Coelho book The Alchemist
Source: The Alchemist
“There is no remedy for love but to love more.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist
Variant: The only remedy for love is to love more.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) Austrian Romantic composer
True genius without heart is a thing of nought - for not great understanding alone, not intelligence alone, nor both together, make genius. Love! Love! Love! that is the soul of genius. - Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin, entry in Mozart's souvenir album (1787-04-11) from Mozart: A Life by Maynard Solomon [Harper-Collins, 1966, ISBN 0-060-92692-9], p. 312.
Misattributed
“It's better to be hated for what you are, than to be loved for what you're not…”
Kurt Cobain (1967–1994) American musician and artist
“Love is not what you do. Love is what you are.”
Sadhguru (1957) Yogi, mystic, visionary and humanitarian
“I want to do with you what spring does with cherry trees.”
Pablo Neruda book Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair
Quiero hacer contigo lo que la primavera hace con los cerezos.
"Every Day You Play" (Juegas Todos las Días), XIV, p. 35.
Variant: I want
To do with you what spring does with the cherry trees.
Source: Veinte Poemas de Amor y una Canción Desesperada (Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair) (1924)
“Whenever you get there, there is no there there.”
Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) American art collector and experimental writer of novels, poetry and plays
“When the power of love overcomes love of power the world will know peace.”
Jimi Hendrix (1942–1970) American musician, singer and songwriter
This quote has been attributed to Hendrix on the internet, and is flatly denied to have ever been said by him, without presenting any evidence as to why, beyond such unsupported, derisive and denigrative statements such as the author rants about others making in "WHAT HENDRIX NEVER SAID : They Don't Want to Know What He Really Said and Demand a Slacker Fantasy Instead" (22 March 2010) by Michael Fairchild, at rockprophecy.com http://www.rockprophecy.com/hendrix_quotes_hoax.html. Whether or not he ever spoke them, they are very similar to those reportedly of British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone, quoted in The Forbes Book of Business Quotations (1997) edited by Edward C. Goodman and Ted Goodman, p. 639: "We look forward to the time when the Power of Love will replace the Love of Power. Then will our world know the blessings of peace." A similar quotation he provides of Sri Chinmoy predates any currently located source of either the Hendrix or Gladstone attributions, yet he accuses Chinmoy of simple plagiarism of Gladstone (or "Gladwell" at one point). From Chinmoy's book My Heart Shall Give A Oneness-Feast (1993) he quotes: "My books, they all have only one message: the heart's Power Of Love must replace the mind's Love Of Power. If I have the Power Of Love, then I shall claim the whole World as my own … World Peace can be achieved when the Power Of Love replaces the Love Of Power." An even earlier statement of Chinmoy is found in Meditations: Food For The Soul (1970): "When the power of love replaces the love of power, man will have a new name: God." <br class="br">Disputed <br class="br">Variant: When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.
“A girl should be two things: classy and fabulous.”
Coco Chanel (1883–1971) French fashion designer
As quoted in The Gospel According to Coco Chanel : Life Lessons from the World's Most Elegant Woman (2009) by Karen Karbo
“Grow old with me! The best is yet to be.”
Robert Browning (1812–1889) English poet and playwright of the Victorian Era
“I am catastrophically in love with you.”
Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Princess
Source: Clockwork Princess
“I have learned not to worry about love; but to honor its coming with all my heart.”
Alice Walker (1944) American author and activist
Source: Revolutionary Petunias
“It is sad not to be loved, but it is much sadder not to be able to love.”
Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936) 19th-20th century Spanish writer and philosopher
To a Young Writer
Thomas Merton (1915–1968) Priest and author
Variant: Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone we find it with another.
Source: Love and Living
“It's easy to fall in love. The hard part is finding someone to catch you.”
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist
“A life without love is like a tree without fruit.”
Stephen King book Doctor Sleep
Source: Doctor Sleep
Helen Keller (1880–1968) American author and political activist
Variant: The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.
Variant: The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen, nor touched... but are felt in the heart.
“One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving.”
Paulo Coelho book The Alchemist
Source: The Alchemist (1988), p. 128
“Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable.”
Neil Gaiman (1960) English fantasy writer
The character "Rose Walker" in The Sandman #65
Context: Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up all these defenses. You build up a whole armor, for years, so nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life... You give them a piece of you. They didn't ask for it. They did something dumb one day, like kiss you or smile at you, and then your life isn't your own anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness, so simple a phrase like 'maybe we should be just friends' or 'how very perceptive' turns into a glass splinter working its way into your heart. It hurts. Not just in the imagination. Not just in the mind. It's a soul-hurt, a body-hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain. Nothing should be able to do that. Especially not love. I hate love.
Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) American actress, model, and singer
Attributed to Monroe in self-help books and on social media, this quotation is of unknown origin and date.
Misattributed
Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet
This is a very close paraphrase of a quotation attributed to Carl Buehner in a book published many years earlier - “They may forget what you said — but they will never forget how you made them feel.” quoted in Richard Evans' Quote Book, 1971, Publisher's Press, ASIN: B000TV5WBW, although it is widely (mis)attributed to Angelou in her book Worth Repeating: More Than 5,000 Classic and Contemporary Quotes (2003) by Bob Kelly, p. 263,
Misattributed
Variant: People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel.
“To love another person is to see the face of God.”
Victor Hugo book Les Misérables
Variant: And remember, the truth that once was spoken: To love another person is to see the face of God.
Source: Les Misérables
“Life is not breaths you take, but the moments that take your breath away.”
George Strait (1952) American country music singer, actor and music producer
Variant: Life is not the breaths you take but the moments that take your breath away.
“The things that we love tell us what we are.”
Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican scholastic philosopher of the Roman Catholic Church
“To lose balance sometimes for love is part of living a balanced
life.”
Elizabeth Gilbert (1969) American writer
Source: Eat, pray, love: one woman's search for everything
“It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.”
André Gide (1869–1951) French novelist and essayist
Frequently misattributed to Marilyn Monroe or Kurt Cobain.
Source: https://books.google.com/books?id=xUtdDnEhkMMC&pg=PT12&lpg=PT12#v=onepage&q&f=false
Source: Autumn Leaves, Philosophical eLibrary, 2012, (Feuillets d'automne, 1941, trans. Jeanine Parisier Plottel)
“We can only learn to love by loving.”
Iris Murdoch book The Bell
The Bell (1958), ch. 19; 2001, p. 219.
“Sometimes things fall apart so that better things can fall together.”
Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) American actress, model, and singer
Variant: Sometimes good things fall apart so that better things can fall together.
“Life is the flower for which love is the honey.”
Victor Hugo (1802–1885) French poet, novelist, and dramatist
“It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.”
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist
“There is another world, but it is in this one.”
Paul Éluard (1895–1952) French poet
Il y a assurément un autre monde, mais il est dans celui-ci...
Œuvres complètes, vol. 1, Gallimard, 1968.
“To love is to will the good of the other.”
Thomas Aquinas book Summa Theologica
II-II, q. 26, art. 6
Summa Theologica (1265–1274)
“It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.”
Paulo Coelho book Manuscript Found in Accra
Manuscript Found in Accra (2012), Love has always passed me by
“I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you”
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) English poet, author
“Love is a promise, love is a souvenir, once given never forgotten, never let it disappear.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) English singer and songwriter
frequently attributed to Lennon, but entirely unsourced
Disputed
“Love means never having to say you're sorry.”
Erich Segal book Love Story
Source: Love Story (also used in the film)
“I love you, and I will love you until I die, and if there’s a life after that, I’ll love you then.”
Cassandra Clare book City of Glass
Jace to Clary, pg. 331
Variant: There is no pretending, I love you, and I will love you until I die, and if there is life after that, I'll love you then.
Source: The Mortal Instruments, City of Glass (2009)
“I will always carry you, inside, outside, on my fingertips, and at brain edges.”
Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer
“No matter where you go, there you are”
Yogi Berra (1925–2015) American baseball player, manager, coach
Source: When You Come to a Fork in the Road, Take It!: Inspiration and Wisdom from One of Baseball's Greatest Heroes
“Sometimes the heart sees what is invisible to the eyes”
H. Jackson Brown, Jr. (1940) American writer
Robert Fulghum (1937) American writer
Variant: You want my opinion? We're all a little weird. And life is a little weird. And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness — and call it love — true love.
Source: True Love (1998)
“We were together. I forget the rest.”
Walt Whitman (1819–1892) American poet, essayist and journalist
“Without love, there's nothing without love.”
Jon Bon Jovi (1962) American singer and musician
Without Love
Music, Slippery When Wet (1986)
“Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. ”
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) British poet laureate
“All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.”
Charles M. Schulz (1922–2000) American cartoonist
“The heart has its reasons which reason knows not of.”
Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer, and Christian philosopher
“There is, in the end, the letting go.”
Marya Hornbacher book Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia
Source: Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia
Variant: Doubt thou the stars are fire
Doubt thou the sun doth move
Doubt truth to be a liar
But never doubt I love
Source: Hamlet
“Women are meant to be loved, not to be understood.”
Oscar Wilde book Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories
Source: Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories
“Never love anyone who treats you like you're ordinary.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet
“I love her and that's the beginning of everything…”
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) American novelist and screenwriter
Variant: I love her, and that's the beginning and end of everything.
Source: Dear Scott, Dearest Zelda: The Love Letters of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald
“If you can make a woman laugh, you can make her do anything.”
Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) American actress, model, and singer
“Love is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.”
Robert A. Heinlein book Stranger in a Strange Land
"Jubal Harshaw" in the first edition (1961); the later 1991 "Uncut" edition didn't have this line, because it was one Heinlein had added when he went through and trimmed the originally submitted manuscript on which the "Uncut" edition is based. Heinlein also later used a variant of this in The Cat Who Walks Through Walls where he has Xia quote Harshaw: "Dr. Harshaw says that 'the word "love" designates a subjective condition in which the welfare and happiness of another person are essential to one's own happiness.'"
Source: Stranger in a Strange Land (1961; 1991)
“There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.”
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist
“To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.”
Lord Goring, Act III
Source: An Ideal Husband (1895)
“I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;”
Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) Chilean poet
Source: 100 Love Sonnets
“We love the things we love for what they are.”
Robert Frost (1874–1963) American poet
"Hyla Brook" (1920)
1920s