Quotes about love
page 25

Ovid photo

“Young love is errant, but it needs to get around;
The time and practice make it strong and sound.
That bull you fear, you petted when it wasn't big;
What now you sleep beneath was once a twig.
That little stream, in gaining waters as it goes,
Grows stronger, till at last a river flows.”

Dum novus errat amor, vires sibi colligat usu: Si bene nutrieris, tempore firmus erit. Quem taurum metuis, vitulum mulcere solebas: Sub qua nunc recubas arbore, virga fuit: Nascitur exiguus, sed opes adquirit eundo, Quaque venit, multas accipit amnis aquas.

Book II, lines 339–344 (tr. Len Krisak)
Ars Amatoria (The Art of Love)

Henri Barbusse photo

“I take her hand, as I did before. I speak to her, rather timidly and at random: "Carnal love isn't the whole of love."”

Henri Barbusse (1873–1935) French novelist

"It's love!" Marie answers.
Light (1919), Ch. XXIII - Face To Face

Sarada Devi photo
Thomas Mann photo
Anthony de Mello photo
Frank Gehry photo
Chrissie Hynde photo
Stefan Zweig photo

“He who is himself crossed in love is able from time to time to master his passion, for he is not the creature but the creator of his own misery; and if a lover is unable to control his passion, he at least knows that he is himself to blame for his sufferings. But he who is loved without reciprocating that love is lost beyond redemption, for it is not in his power to set a limit to that other's passion, to keep it within bounds, and the strongest will is reduced to impotence in the face of another's desire. Perhaps only a man can realize to the full the tragedy of such an undesired relationships; for him alone the necessity to resist t is at once martyrdom and guilt. For when a woman resists an unwelcome passion, she is obeying to the full the law of her sex; the initial gesture of refusal is, so to speak, a primordial instinct in every female, and even if she rejects the most ardent passion she cannot be called inhuman. But how disastrous it is when fate upsets the balance, when a woman so far overcomes her natural modesty as to disclose her passion to a man, when, without the certainty of its being reciprocated, she offers her love, and he, the wooed, remains cold and on the defensive! An insoluble tangle this, always; for not to return a woman's love is to shatter her pride, to violate her modesty. The man who rejects a woman's advances is bound to wound her in her noblest feelings. In vain, then, all the tenderness with which he extricates himself, useless all his polite, evasive phrases, insulting all his offers of mere friendship, once she has revealed her weakness! His resistance inevitably becomes cruelty, and in rejecting a woman's love he takes a load of guild upon his conscience, guiltless though he may be. Abominable fetters that can never be cast off! Only a moment ago you felt free, you belonged to yourself and were in debt to no one, and now suddenly you find yourself pursued, hemmed in, prey and object of the unwelcome desires of another. Shaken to the depths of your soul, you know that day and night someone is waiting for you, thinking of you, longing and sighing for you - a woman, a stranger. She wants, she demands, she desires you with every fibre of her being, with her body, with her blood. She wants your hands, your hair, your lips, your manhood, your night and your day, your emotions, your senses, and all your thought and dreams. She wants to share everything with you, to take everything from you, and to draw it in with her breath. Henceforth, day and night, whether you are awake or asleep, there is somewhere in the world a being who is feverish and wakeful and who waits for you, and you are the centre of her waking and her dreaming. It is in vain that you try not to think of her, of her who thinks always of you, in vain that you seek to escape, for you no longer dwell in yourself, but in her. Of a sudden a stranger bears your image within her as though she were a moving mirror - no, not a mirror, for that merely drinks in your image when you offer yourself willingly to it, whereas she, the woman, this stranger who loves you, she has absorbed you into her very blood. She carries you always within her, carries you about with her, no mater whither you may flee. Always you are imprisoned, held prisoner, somewhere else, in some other person, no longer yourself, no longer free and lighthearted and guiltless, but always hunted, always under an obligation, always conscious of this "thinking-of-you" as if it were a steady devouring flame. Full of hate, full of fear, you have to endure this yearning on the part of another, who suffers on your account; and I now know that it is the most senseless, the most inescapable, affliction that can befall a man to be loved against his will - torment of torments, and a burden of guilt where there is no guilt.”

Beware of Pity (1939)

Virginia Woolf photo
Thomas Paine photo
Jiddu Krishnamurti photo

“Without love the acquisition of knowledge only increases confusion and leads to self-destruction.”

Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895–1986) Indian spiritual philosopher

1950s, Education and the Significance of Life (1953)

Fernando Pessoa photo

“And the supreme glory of all this, my love, is to think that maybe this isn't true, neither may I believe it true.

And when lying starts giving us pleasure, let's speak the truth so that we lie to it.”

<p>Original: E a suprema glória disto tudo, meu amor, é pensar que talvez isto não seja verdade, nem eu o creia verdadeiro.</p><p>E quando a mentira comece a dar-nos prazer, falemos a verdade para lhe mentirmos.</p>
Ibid., p. 280
The Book of Disquiet

Pietro Aretino photo

“Yes, let us love winter, for it is the spring of genius.”

Pietro Aretino (1492–1556) Italian author, playwright, poet, satirist, and blackmailer

Source: The Works of Aretino: Biography: de Sanctis. The letters, 1926, p. 143

Victoria Woodhull photo

“The love that is not all pain is not all love.”

Antonio Porchia (1885–1968) Italian Argentinian poet

El amor que no es todo dolor, no es todo amor.
Voces (1943)

Hassan Banna photo
Lady Gaga photo
Paulo Coelho photo

“Loving one another is half of wisdom.”

Nahj al-Balagha

Bartolomé de las Casas photo

“Christ wanted love to be called his single commandment. This we owe to all men. Nobody is excepted.”

Bartolomé de las Casas (1474–1566) Spanish Dominican friar, historian, and social reformer

Source: In Defense of the Indians (1548), p. 39

Pope Francis photo

“Every form of catechesis would do well to attend to the “way of beauty” (via pulchritudinis). Proclaiming Christ means showing that to believe in and to follow him is not only something right and true, but also something beautiful, capable of filling life with new splendour and profound joy, even in the midst of difficulties. Every expression of true beauty can thus be acknowledged as a path leading to an encounter with the Lord Jesus. This has nothing to do with fostering an aesthetic relativism which would downplay the inseparable bond between truth, goodness and beauty, but rather a renewed esteem for beauty as a means of touching the human heart and enabling the truth and goodness of the Risen Christ to radiate within it. If, as Saint Augustine says, we love only that which is beautiful, the incarnate Son, as the revelation of infinite beauty, is supremely lovable and draws us to himself with bonds of love. So a formation in the via pulchritudinis ought to be part of our effort to pass on the faith. Each particular Church should encourage the use of the arts in evangelization, building on the treasures of the past but also drawing upon the wide variety of contemporary expressions so as to transmit the faith in a new “language of parables”. We must be bold enough to discover new signs and new symbols, new flesh to embody and communicate the word, and different forms of beauty which are valued in different cultural settings, including those unconventional modes of beauty which may mean little to the evangelizers, yet prove particularly attractive for others.”

Pope Francis (1936) 266th Pope of the Catholic Church

Section 167
2010s, 2013, Evangelii Gaudium · The Joy of the Gospel

Sun Myung Moon photo
Stig Dagerman photo
Ovid photo

“Love yields to business. If you seek a way out of love, be busy; you'll be safe then.”
Qui finem quaeris amoris, Cedit amor rebus; res age, tutus eris.

Source: Remedia Amoris (The Cure for Love), Lines 143–144

Virginia Woolf photo
Bruce Springsteen photo

“I'm working on a dream,
Though trouble can feel like it's here to stay.
I'm working on a dream;
Our love will chase the trouble away.”

Bruce Springsteen (1949) American singer and songwriter

"Working on a Dream"
Song lyrics, Working on a Dream (2009)

Rabindranath Tagore photo
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada photo

“We are not teaching some ritualistic process, that "You become Hindu. You become Christian. You become Muhammadan." We are simply teaching, "You try to love God. You have forgotten God. You have declared, 'God is dead.' These are all nonsense. God is there. You are here. You are suffering because you have forgotten God. You try to love God. Your normal life will come back. You will be happy."”

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896–1977) Indian guru

This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.
Lecture on Bhagavad-gītā 4.7-10 - Los Angeles, (6 January 1969) Vanipedia http://vaniquotes.org/wiki/You_have_forgotten_God._You_have_declared,_%27God_is_dead.%27_These_are_all_nonsense._God_is_there._You_are_here._You_are_suffering_because_you_have_forgotten_God._You_try_to_love_God._Your_normal_life_will_come_back._You_will_be_happy._This_is_KC_movement
Quotes from other Sources

Bertrand Russell photo
Aurelius Augustinus photo
Paul Gerhardt photo

“Oh! make me Thine forever;
And should I fainting be,
Lord! let me never, never,
Outlive my love to Thee!”

Paul Gerhardt (1607–1676) German hymn writer

Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 400.

James Montgomery photo

“Beyond this vale of tears
There is a life above,
Unmeasured by the flight of years;
And all that life is love.”

James Montgomery (1771–1854) British editor, hymn writer, and poet

The Issues of Life and Death.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius photo

“If you would give every man as he deserves, then love the good and pity those who are evil.”
Vis aptam meritis uicem referre: Dilige iure bonos et miseresce malis.

Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (480) philosopher of the early 6th century

Poem IV, lines 11-12; translation by Richard H. Green
The Consolation of Philosophy · De Consolatione Philosophiae, Book IV

Leonardo Da Vinci photo

“The lover is moved by the beloved object as the senses are by sensual objects; and they unite and become one and the same thing. The work is the first thing born of this union; if the thing loved is base the lover becomes base.”

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath

The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), XIX Philosophical Maxims. Morals. Polemics and Speculations.

Billy Joel photo
Michael Jackson photo
Henri Barbusse photo
Rainer Maria Rilke photo

“First a childhood, limitless and without
renunciation or goals. O unselfconscious joy.
Then suddenly terror, barriers, schools, drudgery,
and collapse into temptation and loss.Defiance. The one bent becomes the bender,
and thrusts upon others that which it suffered.
Loved, feared, rescuer, fighter, winner
and conqueror, blow by blow.And then alone in cold, light, open space,
yet still deep within the mature erected form,
a gasping for the clear air of the first one, the old one…Then God leaps out from behind his hiding place.”

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

Erst eine Kindheit, grenzenlos und ohne
Verzicht und Ziel. O unbewußte Lust.
Auf einmal Schrecken, Schranke, Schule, Frohne
und Absturtz in Versuchung und Verlust.</p><p>Trotz. Der Gebogene wird selber Bieger
und rächt an anderen, daß er erlag.
Geliebt, gefürchtet, Retter, Ringer, Sieger
und Überwinder, Schlag auf Schlag.<p>Und dann allein im Weiten, Leichten, Kalten.
Doch tief in der errichteten Gestalt
ein Atemholen nach dem Ersten, Alten...</p><p>Da stürzte Gott aus seinem Hinterhalt.</p>
As translated by Cliff Crego
Imaginärer Lebenslauf (Imaginary Life Journey) (September 13, 1923)

Grace Slick photo

“I was appalled that the San Francisco ethic didn't mushroom and envelope the whole world into this loving community of acid freaks. I was very naive.”

Grace Slick (1939) American musician, writer and painter

As quoted in The Routledge Dictionary of Quotations (1987) edited by Robert Andrews

Karl Jaspers photo

“The teacher of love teaches struggle. The teacher of lifeless isolation from the world teaches peace.”

Karl Jaspers (1883–1969) German psychiatrist and philosopher

Der Lehrer der Liebe lehrt den Kampf, der Lehrer der lieblosen Isolierung von aller Welt aber die Ruhe.
Psychology of World Views (1919)

Lewis Carroll photo

“I NEVER loved a dear Gazelle –
Nor anything that cost me much:
High prices profit those who sell,
but why should I be fond of such?”

Lewis Carroll (1832–1898) English writer, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer

Tèma con Variazióne, st. 1
Rhyme? and Reason? (1883)

Barack Obama photo
Leonardo Da Vinci photo

“To enjoy—to love a thing for its own sake and for no other reason.”

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath

The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci (1938), I Philosophy

Ada Leverson photo
Voltaire photo

“Love truth, but pardon error.”

Voltaire (1694–1778) French writer, historian, and philosopher

Aime la vérité, mais pardonne à l'erreur.
"Deuxième discours: de la liberté," Sept Discours en Vers sur l'Homme (1738)
Citas

James Woods photo
Anne Bradstreet photo
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada photo

“Those who are yogis, bhakta-yogis, because they are in love with God, Kṛṣṇa, they are seeing every moment within their heart the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Anyone you love, you see always within your heart. Similarly, if you have love for God, Kṛṣṇa, then you can see Kṛṣṇa always. That is called yoga system.”

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896–1977) Indian guru

Lecture on The Nectar of Devotion - Bombay, December 27, 1972. Vanipedia http://vaniquotes.org/wiki/Anyone_you_love,_you_see_always_within_your_heart._Similarly,_if_you_have_love_for_God,_Krsna,_then_you_can_see_Krsna_always._That_is_called_yoga_system
Quotes from other Sources, Quotes from other Sources: Loving God

Aurelius Augustinus photo
Nanak photo

“those who have loved are those that have found God.”

Nanak (1469–1539) Founder of Sikhism

Guru Nanak quotes

Friedrich Nietzsche photo

“We simply do not consider it desirable that a realm of justice and concord should be established on earth (because it would certainly be the realm of the deepest leveling and chinoiserie); we are delighted with all who love, as we do, danger, war, and adventures, who refuse to compromise, to be captured, reconciled, and castrated; we count ourselves among conquerors; we think about the necessity for new orders, also for a new slavery — for every strengthening and enhancement of the human type also involves a new kind of enslavement.”

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist

The term chinoiserie indicates "unnecessary complication" and some translations point out that this passage invokes ideas in the concluding poem of Beyond Good and Evil: "nur wer sich wandelt bleibt mit mir verwandt" : Only those who keep changing remain akin to me.
The Gay Science (1882)

William Byrd photo
Jung Myung Seok photo
Walter Savage Landor photo
Ozzy Osbourne photo

“We're the Osbournes, and I love it.”

Ozzy Osbourne (1948) English heavy metal vocalist and songwriter

The Osbournes television show

Paul Gauguin photo

“In Europe men and women have intercourse because they love each other. In the South Seas they love each other because they have had intercourse. Who is right?”

Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) French Post-Impressionist artist

Quoted by Bengt Danielsson in Gauguin in the South Seas http://books.google.com/books?id=u41CAAAAIAAJ&q=%22In+Europe+men+and+women+have+intercourse+because+they+love+each+other+In+the+South+Seas+they+love+each+other+because+they+have+had+intercourse+Who+is+right%22&pg=PA137#v=onepage (1966)
undated

William Moulton Marston photo
Pearl Bailey photo

“What the world really needs is more love and less paper work.”

Pearl Bailey (1918–1990) American singer

Weekly World News, 25 Apr 2005 http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=3PMDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA51&dq=%22What+the+world+really+needs+is+more+love+and+less+paper+work.%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=-2H5TsbNEcWj8QO14oC5AQ&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22What%20the%20world%20really%20needs%20is%20more%20love%20and%20less%20paper%20work.%22&f=false

Don Henley photo

“I've been tryin' to get down to the Heart of the Matter
Because the flesh will get weak
And the ashes will scatter
So I'm thinkin' about forgiveness
Forgiveness
Even if you don't love me anymore.”

Don Henley (1947) American singer, lyricist, producer and drummer

"The Heart of the Matter"
Song lyrics, The End of the Innocence (1989)

Maya Angelou photo
W.B. Yeats photo

“Only God, my dear,
Could love you for yourself alone
And not your yellow hair.”

For Anne Gregory http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1483/, st. 3
The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1933)

Neil Young photo

“But only love can break your heart
Try to be sure right from the start
Yes only love can break your heart
What if your world should fall apart?”

Neil Young (1945) Canadian singer-songwriter

Only Love Can Break Your Heart
Song lyrics, After the Gold Rush (1970)

John of the Cross photo

“He who loves is not ashamed before men of what he does for God, neither does he hide it through shame though the whole world should condemn it.”

John of the Cross (1542–1591) Spanish mystic and Roman Catholic saint

Note to Stanza 29 part 4
Spiritual Canticle of The Soul and The Bridegroom, Notes to the Stanzas

Eugene O'Neill photo
Henri Barbusse photo
Margaret Thatcher photo
Ruskin Bond photo

“The India I Love, does not make the headlines, but I find it wherever I go – in field or forest, town or village, mountain or desert – and in the hearts and minds of people who have given me love and affection for the better part of my lifetime.”

Ruskin Bond (1934) British Indian writer

Attributed in [ You cannot die of boredom in India http://newindianexpress.com/cities/bangalore/article537655.ece, June 07, 2012, June 23, 2012, Bond, Ruskin, Prajwala Hegde, The New Indian Express, Bangalore]

Gordon Lightfoot photo
Mukta Barve photo

“I love theatre and films. And when you love something so passionately, don't you find time to indulge in those passions. There are many people who say that theatre has no money, the audience is dwindling etc., but I don't like to give excuses for not doing theatre. I decide on my schedule beforehand, and till date I've never had problems.”

Mukta Barve (1979) Indian actress

I don't like to give excuses for not doing Marathi theatre:Mukta Barve http://m.timesofindia.com/entertainment/marathi/movies/news/I-dont-like-to-give-excuses-for-not-doing-Marathi-theatre-Mukta-Barve/articleshow/18970947.cms

Emil M. Cioran photo

“For a writer, to change languages is to write a love letter with a dictionary.”

Emil M. Cioran (1911–1995) Romanian philosopher and essayist

Anathemas and Admirations (1987)

Thomas Dekker photo

“Honest labour bears a lovely face.”

Thomas Dekker (1572–1632) English dramatist and pamphleteer

Patient Grissell (1599), Act i. Sc. 1.

Bertrand Russell photo
Pope Benedict XVI photo
Slavoj Žižek photo
Pink (singer) photo

“True love, true love.
It must be true love.
Nothing else can break my heart like
True love, true love.
It must be true love.
No one else can break my heart like you.”

Pink (singer) (1979) American singer-songwriter

True Love, featuring Lily Allen, written by Pink, Greg Kurstin and Lily Allen
Song lyrics, The Truth About Love (2012)

Amy Carmichael photo
Jani Allan photo

“The happy-go-lucky barefoot kid who loved rugby, ice-cream-and-hot-chocolate sauce, staying at home for a braai and the flieks grew up into an international rubgy player, idol of millions and South African cult figure…”

Jani Allan (1952) South African columnist and broadcaster

Description of Naas Botha from her interview with Botha published in the Just Jani column of the Sunday Times, republished in Face Value by Jani Allan.
Sunday Times

Claude Monet photo
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada photo
Fernando Pessoa photo

“Let's be simple and calm,
Like the trees and streams,
And God will love us, making us
Us, even as the trees are trees
And the streams are streams,
And will give us greenness in the spring, which is its season,
And a river to go to when we end…
And he'll give us nothing more, since to give us more would make us less us.”

Fernando Pessoa (1888–1935) Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, publisher and philosopher

Sejamos simples e calmos,
Como os regatos e as árvores,
E Deus amar-nos-á fazendo de nós
Belos como as árvores e os regatos,
E dar-nos-á verdor na sua primavera,
E um rio aonde ir ter quando acabemos...
E não nos dará mais nada, porque dar-nos mais seria tirar-nos mais.
Alberto Caeiro (heteronym), O Guardador de Rebanhos ("The Keeper of Sheep"), VI — in A Little Larger Than the Entire Universe, trans. Richard Zenith (Penguin, 2006)

Heath Ledger photo

“Matilda is adorable, and beautifully observant and wise. Michelle and I love her so much. Becoming a father exceeds all my expectations. It's the most remarkable experience I've ever had — it's marvelous.”

Heath Ledger (1979–2008) Australian actor

On becoming a father to his daughter Matilda, (June 2005), as quoted in "Obituary: Heath Ledger" http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/01/23/2144459.htm, ABC News, January 23, 2008.

Aleksandr Pushkin photo
James Spader photo

“Love is the one emotion actors allow themselves to believe.”

James Spader (1960) American actor

Playboy (May 2005)

Jung Myung Seok photo

“God’s purpose of creating human beings is so that we can live loving God as our bridegroom, our lover.”

Jung Myung Seok (1945) South Korean Leader of New Religious Movement, Poet, Author, Founder of Wolmyeongdong Center

Extracted from the Official English Website on Jung Myung Seok http://jungmyungseok.net/

Catherine of Genoa photo
William Shakespeare photo

“I was in love with my bed.”

Speed, Act II, scene i.
The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1590–1)

Jürgen Habermas photo
Judy Garland photo

“Wouldn`t it be wonderful if we could all be a little more gentle with each other, and a little more loving, have a little more empathy, and maybe we'd like each other a little bit more.”

Judy Garland (1922–1969) actress, singer and vaudevillian from the United States

As quoted in Little Girl Lost (1974) by Al DiOrio, p. 9

Bertrand Russell photo

“We have taller buildings but shorter tempers; wider freeways but narrower viewpoints; we spend more but have less; we buy more but enjoy it less; we have bigger houses and smaller families; more conveniences, yet less time; we have more degrees but less sense; more knowledge but less judgment; more experts, yet more problems; we have more gadgets but less satisfaction; more medicine, yet less wellness; we take more vitamins but see fewer results. We drink too much; smoke too much; spend too recklessly; laugh too little; drive too fast; get too angry; stay up too late; get up too tired; read too seldom; watch TV too much and pray too seldom.
We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values; we fly in faster planes to arrive there quicker, to do less and return sooner; we sign more contracts only to realize fewer profits; we talk too much; love too seldom and lie too often. We've learned how to make a living, but not a life; we've added years to life, not life to years. We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbor. We've conquered outer space, but not inner space; we've done larger things, but not better things; we've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul; we've split the atom, but not our prejudice; we write more, but learn less; plan more, but accomplish less; we make faster planes, but longer lines; we learned to rush, but not to wait; we have more weapons, but less peace; higher incomes, but lower morals; more parties, but less fun; more food, but less appeasement; more acquaintances, but fewer friends; more effort, but less success. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but have less communication; drive smaller cars that have bigger problems; build larger factories that produce less. We've become long on quantity, but short on quality.
These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion; tall men, but short character; steep in profits, but shallow relationships. These are the times of world peace, but domestic warfare; more leisure and less fun; higher postage, but slower mail; more kinds of food, but less nutrition. These are the days of two incomes, but more divorces; these quick trips, disposable diapers, cartridge living, throw-away morality, one-night stands, overweight bodies and pills that do everything from cheer, to prevent, quiet or kill. It is a time when there is much in the show window and nothing in the stock room.”

"The Paradox of Our Age"; these statements were used in World Wide Web hoaxes which attributed them to various authors including George Carlin, a teen who had witnessed the Columbine High School massacre, the Dalai Lama and Anonymous; they are quoted in "The Paradox of Our Time" at Snopes.com http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/paradox.asp
Words Aptly Spoken (1995)

Kazuo Ishiguro photo
Jordan Peterson photo

“Love is something like the notion that, despite its suffering, Being is good and you should serve Being.”

Jordan Peterson (1962) Canadian clinical psychologist, cultural critic, and professor of psychology

Other

Edith Stein photo
Siegbert Tarrasch photo
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada photo

“When a husbandless woman is attacked by an aggressive man, she takes his action to be mercy. A woman is generally very much attracted by a man’s long arms. A serpent’s body is round, and it becomes narrower and thinner at the end. The beautiful arms of a man appear to a woman just like serpents, and she very much desires to be embraced by such arms. The word anatha-varga is very significant in this verse. Natha means “husband,” and a means “without.” A young woman who has no husband is called anatha, meaning “one who is not protected.” As soon as a woman attains the age of puberty, she immediately becomes very much agitated by sexual desire. It is therefore the duty of the father to get his daughter married before she attains puberty. Otherwise she will be very much mortified by not having a husband. Anyone who satisfies her desire for sex at that age becomes a great object of satisfaction. It is a psychological fact that when a woman at the age of puberty meets a man and the man satisfies her sexually, she will love that man for the rest of her life, regardless who he is. Thus so-called love within this material world is nothing but sexual satisfaction.”

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896–1977) Indian guru

Srimad Bhagavatam, Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, 1999. Canto 4, Chapter 25, verse 42, purport. Vedabase http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/4/25/42
Quotes from Books: Loving God, Quotes from Books: Regression of Women's Rights

Fernando Pessoa photo

“That's not my love; that's just your life.”

Ibid.
The Book of Disquiet
Original: Isso não é o meu amor; é apenas a sua vida.