“You are like a person who consumes herself in love and giving and does not know the miracles that are born of this.”

“All my life, I thought of love as some kind of voluntary enslavement. Well, that's a lie: freedom only exists when love is present. The person who gives him or herself wholly, the person who feels freest, is the person who loves most wholeheartedly.”

Paulo Coelho book Eleven Minutes

“She would defend herself, saying that love, no matter what else it might be, was a natural talent. She would say: You are either born knowing how, or you never know.”

Gabriel García Márquez book Love in the Time of Cholera

“There is not a woman born who desires to eat the bread of dependence, no matter whether it be from the hand of father, husband, or brother; for anyone who does so eat her bread places herself in the power of the person from whom she takes it.”

Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906) American women's rights activist

“Who is the loving person? The loving person is the person who loves him or herself. I say this so often, and people say, "Oh yes, you're so right," but they don't do it! You will never be able to love anyone else until you love yourself. Even With your Fat Thighs!”

Leo Buscaglia (1924–1998) Motivational speaker, writer

“Believing in accidents is like believing in miracles--both presuppose that God does not know the future.”

José Rizal (1861–1896) Filipino writer, ophthalmologist, polyglot and nationalist

“Alas, woman is faithful as long as she loves, but you demand that she be faithful without love and give herself without enjoyment. Who is cruel then, woman or man?”

Leopold von Sacher-Masoch book Venus in Furs

“This is the miracle that happens every time to those who really love: the more they give, the more they possess.”

Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) Austrian poet and writer

“I wondered if the person who really loves you is the person who knows all your stories, the person who WANTS to know all your stories.”

Gabrielle Zevin book Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac

“I am like a person who has placed poison in one of two glasses before a person he loves—and looks back upon his act with horror and incredulity—but still does not know from which glass the person will drink.”

George F. Kennan (1904–2005) American advisor, diplomat, political scientist and historian