“The first duty of love is to listen.”
Paul Tillich (1886–1965) German-American theologian and philosopher
Quotes about love page 51
“To live is like to love — all reason is against it, and all healthy instinct for it.”
Samuel Butler (1835–1902) novelist
Life and Love
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part XIV - Higgledy-Piggledy
Woody Allen (1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician
Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, and a key figure in Spanish language literature
Sydney J. Harris (1917–1986) American journalist
Pieces of Eight (1982)
Source: Pieces Of Eight
“I didn’t mean to fall in love with you, but I did.
- Chelsea”
Rachel Gibson (1961) American writer
Source: Nothing But Trouble
Azar Nafisi book Reading Lolita in Tehran
Source: Reading Lolita in Tehran (2003)
Context: As I trace the route to his apartment, the twists and turns, and pass once more the old tree opposite his house, I am struck by a sudden thought: memories have ways of becoming independent of the reality they evoke. They can soften us against those we were deeply hurt by or they can make us resent those we once accepted and loved unconditionally.
“We must all make do with the rags of love we find flapping on the scarecrow of humanity.”
Angela Carter book Nights at the Circus
Source: Nights at the Circus
“I love you, Michael Wagner.”
“Forever?” he asked.
“Forever,” I said.”
Judy Blume (1938) American children's writer
Source: Forever . . .
“Was it wrong to take a job just because you'd fallen in love with a bed?”
Jill Mansell book Rumour Has It
Source: Rumour Has It
“APOLLO'S DAILY MOTIVATIONAL SPEECH
"You are gorgeous and people love you!”
Rick Riordan book The Hidden Oracle
Source: The Hidden Oracle
Anna Akhmatova (1889–1966) Russian modernist poet
Source: The Akhmatova Journals, Volume I: 1938-1941
Brené Brown (1965) US writer and professor
Source: The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are
“Look to the living, love them, and hold on.”
Kay Redfield Jamison (1946) American bipolar disorder researcher
Source: Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide
“The right mixture of caring and not caring - I suppose that's what love is.”
James Hilton (1900–1954) British writer
Source: Nothing So Strange
“can run, you can hide, but you can’t escape my love”
Chetan Bhagat (1974) Indian author, born 1974
Making India Awesome
Charles Bukowski book Women
Variant: Love is all right for those who can handle the psychic overload. It’s like trying to carry a full garbage can on your back over a rushing river of piss.
Source: Women
“She loved him not only in spite of but because he himself was incapable of love.”
William Faulkner book The Sound and the Fury
Source: The Sound and the Fury
Brennan Manning (1934–2013) writer, American Roman Catholic priest and United States Marine
Source: The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-Up, and Burnt Out
Brian Andreas (1956) American artist
Variant: Mr Right:
He loved her for almost everything she was & she decided that was enough to let him stay for a very long time.
Paulo Coelho book By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept
Variant: I think that if we look for love courageously, it reveals itself, and we wind up attracting even more love. If one person really wants us, everyone does. But if we’re alone, we become even more alone. Life is strange.
Source: By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept
Myles Munroe (1954–2014) Bahamian Evangelical Christian minister
Source: The Purpose and Power of Love & Marriage
“There are 6 reasons that a person does anything: Love, faith, greed, boredom, fear… revenge.”
Ally Carter book Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover
Source: Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover
Walt Whitman (1819–1892) American poet, essayist and journalist
From the Preface to the 1855 edition of <i>Leaves of Grass</i>
Context: This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body. . . .
Context: This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.... The poet shall not spend his time in unneeded work. He shall know that the ground is always ready ploughed and manured.... others may not know it but he shall. He shall go directly to the creation. His trust shall master the trust of everything he touches.... and shall master all attachment.
Brennan Manning (1934–2013) writer, American Roman Catholic priest and United States Marine
Source: Abba's Child: The Cry of the Heart for Intimate Belonging
“If you meet someone whose soul is not aligned with yours, send them love and move along.”
Wayne W. Dyer (1940–2015) American writer
“She might be a great person, but life's so much bigger than just loving someone.”
Kazuo Ishiguro (1954) Japanese-born British author
Source: Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall
“I was always sweet, at first. Oh, it's so easy to be sweet to people before you love them.”
Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist
Source: Collected Stories
“Keep your love, I have no use for it anymore.”
Richelle Mead (1976) American writer
Source: Storm Born
Francine Rivers (1947) American writer
Source: Redeeming Love
Ram Dass (1931–2019) American contemporary spiritual teacher and the author of the 1971 book Be Here Now
“If I love you it means we share the same fantasies, the same madnesses”
Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica
Source: The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 1: 1931-1934
Mary Oliver (1935–2019) American writer
Source: Dog Songs
“Underneath my lashes I watched him, and I thought, Come back. Be the you I love and remember”
Jenny Han (1980) American writer
Source: It's Not Summer Without You
“In true love, you attain freedom.”
Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist
Source: True Love: A Practice for Awakening the Heart
John Dufresne (1948) Novelist, short story writer, screenwriter, playwright
Source: Love Warps the Mind a Little
Patricia Briggs (1965) American writer
Source: Dragon Blood
Danielle Steel (1947) American author of romance novels
“The scholar who cherishes the love of comfort is not fit to be deemed a scholar.”
Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher
The Analects, Chapter I, Other chapters
Variant: A scholar who loves comfort is not worthy of the name.
Source: The Analects of Confucius
“Lord, ye gave me a rare woman, and God! I loved her well.”
Diana Gabaldon book Dragonfly in Amber
Source: Dragonfly in Amber
“If I knew words enough, I could write the longest love letter in the world and never get tired”
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) American novelist and screenwriter
Source: The Best Early Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald
“True love comes when it will, not when it's called.”
Cameron Dokey (1956) American writer
Erich Segal (1937–2010) American writer
Variant: What can you say about a twenty-five year old girl who died? That she was beautiful and brilliant. That she loved Mozart and Bach. The Beatles. And me.
“I'm becoming
the street.
Who are you in love with?
me?
Straight against the light I cross.”
Frank O'Hara (1926–1966) American poet, art critic and writer
“Well, the first thing is that I love monsters, I identify with monsters.”
Guillermo del Toro (1964) Mexican film director
Source: The Monsters Of Hellboy II
“What is love? No one knows what love is, exactly. No one can define it. No one can prove it.”
Sophie Kinsella book I've Got Your Number
Source: I've Got Your Number
Dietrich Bonhoeffer book The Cost of Discipleship
Source: Discipleship (1937), The Enemy, the "Extraordinary", p. 147.
Source: The Cost of Discipleship