Quotes about love
page 80

“Love was above everything else, and there was no hatred in love, only the occasional mistake.”

Source: Brida

“But see that you get on. That's your job in this hard world, to keep your love alive and see that you get on, no matter what. Pull your act together and just go on.”

Stephen King book The Shining

Source: The Shining (1977)
Context: Danny? You listen to me. I’m going to talk to you about it this once and never again this same way. There’s some things no six-year-old boy in the world should have to be told, but the way things should be and the way things are hardly ever get together. The world’s a hard place, Danny. It don’t care. It don’t hate you and me, but it don’t love us, either. Terrible things happen in the world, and they’re things no one can explain. Good people die in bad, painful ways and leave the folks that love them all alone. Sometimes it seems like it’s only the bad people who stay healthy and prosper. The world don’t love you, but your momma does and so do I. You’re a good boy. You grieve for your daddy, and when you feel you have to cry over what happened to him, you go into a closet or under your covers and cry until it’s all out of you again. That’s what a good son has to do. But see that you get on. That’s your job in this hard world, to keep your love alive and see that you get on, no matter what. Pull your act together and just go on.

World

“A man can know his father, or his son, and there might still be nothing between them but loyalty and love and mutual incomprehension.”

Marilynne Robinson Gilead

Source: Gilead

Loyalty

“The heart wants what it wants, Dolp. You don't plan on making your life complicated, it just happens, and you don"t do it on purpose, and you don't do it to hurt people who love you. It just turns out that way sometimes.”

Laurell K. Hamilton book Narcissus in Chains

Source: Narcissus in Chains

Life, People, Way, Heart

“It is not the diamonds or the birds, the people or the potatoes; it is not any of the nouns. The miracle is the adverbs, the way things are done. It is the way love gets done despite every catastrophe.”

Daniel Handler book Adverbs

Source: Adverbs (2006), Truly
Context: If you follow the diamond in my mother's ring from Africa to Germany to California to Arizona to Wisconsin, in the heel of a grandmother, in the beak of a magpie, in the gravel of the path, in someone else's novel, in the center of the earth where the volcanoes are from, you would forget the miracle, the reason diamonds end up in people's fingers in the first place. it is not the diamonds or the birds, the people or the potatoes, it is not any of the nouns. The miracle is the adverbs, the way things are done. It is the way love gets done despite every catastrophe.

People, Way, Bird

“Heroes like you always have a weak spot. We just have to find it, and then we can kill you. Won't that be lovely? Have a cheese 'n' Wiener!”

Rick Riordan book The Son of Neptune

Source: The Son of Neptune

“One's life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, indignation and compassion.”

Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) French writer, intellectual, existentialist philosopher, political activist, feminist, and social theorist

As quoted in Successful Aging : A Conference Report (1974) by Eric Pfeiffer, p. 142
Attributed

Life, Friendship

“We all wind up drawn to what we're afraid of, drawn to try to find a way to make ourselves safe from a thing by crawling inside of it, by loving it, by becoming it.”

Holly Black book The Coldest Girl in Coldtown

Source: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown

Way

“As long as there is love and memory, there is no true loss.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Variant: As long as there is love and memory, there is no true death,” he said. He
Source: City of Heavenly Fire

Memory, Loss, Hope

“Love in your mind produces love in your life. This is the meaning of heaven.
Fear in your mind produces fear in your life. This is the meaning of hell.”

Marianne Williamson (1952) American writer

Source: A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles"

Life, Fear, Hell

“I go wherever you go,' he says, launching us into the water.
This is our start. This is the moment it becomes real. We are married. We are infinite. Me and Conrad. The first boy I ever slow danced with, ever cried over. Ever loved.”

Jenny Han (1980) American writer

Source: We'll Always Have Summer

Boy, Water, Dance

“He laughs. And in his laugh I hear bliss. I hear feet dancing, the rush of skirts twirling. The sound of children.
Is that the first sign of love?
You hear in the person you're destined to love the sound of those yet to be born.”

Alyson Richman (1972) American writer

Source: The Lost Wife

Children, Dance, Personality

“Loving a man shouldn't have to be this rough”

Tim McGraw (1967) American country singer

“You think that's the solution to everything, don't you, Bane? Drinking and dancing and making love… but I tell you this, something is coming, and we'd be fools to ignore it."
"When have I ever claimed not to be a fool?”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: The Rise of the Hotel Dumort

Making love, Fools, Drink, Thinking

“Don’t you see?” I said. “He could change every detail, but he couldn’t change her.” “But why?” His obtuseness frustrated me. “Because he was in love with her!” I said. “Because, to him, she was the only thing that was real.”

Nicole Krauss The History of Love

Source: The History of Love

Change

“Ha," I said. "Oh, ha-ha. Yeah, ’cause they love me. You see how many vampires are up here? Zero, right?"
One," said Eric, stepping out of the stairwell.”

Charlaine Harris book All Together Dead

Source: All Together Dead

“I fell in love with you again; While you were away - Jack Salmon”

Alice Sebold book The Lovely Bones

Source: The Lovely Bones

“We meet wonderful people, but lose them
in our busyness.
We’re, as the saying goes, all over the place.
Steadfastness, it seems,
is more about dogs than about us.
One of the reasons we love them so much.”

Mary Oliver (1935–2019) American writer

Source: Dog Songs

People, Dogs

“Here was a new generation, shouting the old cries, learning the old creeds, through a revery of long days and nights; destined finally to go out into that dirty gray turmoil to follow love and pride; a new generation dedicated more than the last to the fear of poverty and the worship of success; grown up to find all Gods dead, all wars fought, all faiths in man shaken....”

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) American novelist and screenwriter

Quoted, This Side of Paradise (1920)

God, War, Fear, Faith

“I even love the smell of books.”

Adriana Trigiani (1970) American film director

Books

“I love Twinkies, and the reason I am saying that is because we are all supposed to think of reasons to live.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Thinking

“Jace knew he was being cruel, and he barely cared. Hurting people he loved was almost as good as hurting himself when he was in this kind of mood.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

People, Mood, Hurt

“In my experience, desire is desire, love is love.”

David Levithan book Every Day

Every Day

“If you believe in love, you're setting yourself up to be disappointed.”

Candace Bushnell book Sex and the City

Source: Sex and the City

Disappointment

“Love is an activity, not a passive affect; it is a “standing in,” not a “falling for.” In the most general way, the active character of love can be described by stating that love is primarily giving, not receiving.”

Erich Fromm book The Art of Loving

Source: The Art of Loving

Way

“Why do I fall in love with every woman I see that shows me the least bit of attention?”

Charlie Kaufman (1958) American screenwriter

Source: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: The Shooting Script

“I loved all the boys with soft sad eyes, and lost souls.”

Grace Coddington (1941) former model and the creative director of American Vogue magazine

Source: Grace: A Memoir

Sadness, Soul, Boy

“The thinnest slice would be teeming with memories of a love so strong it turned you inside out and left you gasping, and would be an identical match to a slice stored in the heart of a soul mate.”

Jodi Picoult (1966) Author

Soul, Strong, Memory, Heart

“I’d been raised to be practical and keep my
emotions in check, but I loved cars. That was one of the few
legacies I’d picked up from my mom. She was a mechanic,
and some of my best childhood memories were of working
in the garage with her.”

Richelle Mead Bloodlines

Source: Bloodlines

Cars, Moms, Memory, Childhood

“They can't hurt me. I'm not like the rest of you. There's no one left I love.”

Suzanne Collins book Catching Fire

Source: Catching Fire

Hurt

“You wanted happiness, I can’t blame you for that, and maybe a mouth sounds idiotic when it blathers on about joy but tell me you love this, tell me you’re not miserable.”

Richard Siken (1967) American poet

Source: Crush

Happiness, Joy

“As many have discovered, it is entirely possible (although not particularly desirable) to love two people with all your heart. It is entirely possible to long for two lives, to feel that one life can't come close to containing it all.”

Gabrielle Zevin book Elsewhere

Source: Elsewhere

Life, People, Feeling, Heart

“As Dostoevski said: 'Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared with love in dreams.”

Dorothy Day (1897–1980) Social activist

Dreams

“Love is a joint experience between two persons -- but the fact that it is a joint experience does not mean that it is a similar experience to the two people involved.”

Carson McCullers (1917–1967) American writer

Source: The Ballad of the Sad Café and Other Stories

People, Personality, Wedding

“Love was like an avalanche, with Sephy and I hand-in-hand racing like hell to get out of it's way-only, instead of running away from it, we kept running straight towards it.”

Malorie Blackman Noughts & Crosses

Source: Noughts & Crosses

Way, Hell

“Of all the rash and midnight promises made in the name of love, none, Boone now knew, was more certain to be broken than "I'll never leave you.”

Clive Barker book Cabal

Source: Cabal

“See, records have helped me to fall in love, no question. I hear something new, with a chord change that melts my guts, and before I know it I’m looking for someone, and before I know it I’ve
found her.”

Nick Hornby book High Fidelity

Source: High Fidelity

Question, Change, Help

“There is no better audience for someone in love than someone in love.”

Emily Giffin Something Borrowed

Source: Something Borrowed

“If he waits for the ideal moment, he will never set off; he requires a touch of madness to take the next step. The warrior uses that touch of madness. For - in both love and war - it is impossible to foresee everything.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Source: Warrior of the Light

War, Waiting, Madness

“Think of love as a state of grace not as a means to anything… but an end in itself.”

Gabriel García Márquez book Love in the Time of Cholera

Variant: It had to teach her to think of love as a state of grace: not the means to anything but the alpha and omega, an end it itself.
Source: Love in the Time of Cholera

Thinking

“I don't believe you can ever really cook unless you love eating.”

Nigella Lawson (1960) British food writer, journalist and broadcaster

Cooking

“I forgave you because I love you and I hate being without you. I hate it, my cat hates it. And because Catarina convinced me I was being stupid.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Source: City of Heavenly Fire

Hate, Stupidity, Cats

“To love yourself is a never-ending journey.”

Oprah Winfrey (1954) American businesswoman, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist

“That's another reason I keep putting marriage off. I know I want something like what you two share, and I'm not sure I've found it yet. I'm not sure I ever will. And with love like that… they say anything's possible, right?”

Nicholas Sparks book The Choice

Source: The Choice

Marriage

“In real life, love has to be possible. Even if it is not returned right away, love can only survive when the hope exists that you will be able to win over the person you desire.”

Paulo Coelho book By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

Source: By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

Life, Hope, Personality

“Punch a man on the nose, kick an old man downstairs, shoot somebody or any old thing like that, that’s my job. But argue with women in love—no thank you!”

Mikhail Bulgakov book The Master and Margarita

Source: The Master and Margarita

Women

“But you must give him some sign, some sign that you love him… or he'll never be a man. All his life he'll feel guilty and alone unless you release him.”

John Steinbeck book East of Eden

Source: East of Eden

Life, Feeling

“Being human means losing everything we love best in the world," she murmured as she released me. "But would you ask to be anything else?”

Alice Hoffman book The Dovekeepers

Source: The Dovekeepers

World

“Darkling I listen; and, for many a time
I have been half in love with easeful Death,
Call'd him soft names in many a musèd rhyme,
To take into the air my quiet breath;
Now more than ever seems it rich to die,
To cease upon the midnight with no pain,
While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad
In such an ecstasy!
Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain —
To thy high requiem become a sod.”

John Keats Ode to a Nightingale

Stanza 6
Poems (1820), Ode to a Nightingale
Source: Complete Poems and Selected Letters

Death, Pain, Art, Soul

“What’s a little calming distraction for your girlfriend in the midst of world entertainment domination?”
“I’d stop the world from spinning for you.”
That silly line oddly touched me. “I love you.”
“Liked that one, did you?”

Sylvia Day (1973) American writer

Source: Entwined with You

World

“Indeed, the more we find to love, the more we add to the measure of our hearts.”

Lloyd Alexander book The Black Cauldron

Source: The Black Cauldron

Heart

“A fish may love a bird, but where would they live?
- Then I shall build you wings.”

Drew Barrymore (1975) American actress, director and producer

Bird, Fish

“We cannot go backward. We cannot erase time and events. But we can go forward, hand in hand, hope in our hearts and love lighting our way.”

Sharon Shinn (1957) American science fiction writer

Source: Jenna Starborn

Hope, Way, Light, Time

“Six hundred and forty fish later, the only thing I know is everything you love will die. The first time you meet someone special, you can count on them one day being dead and in the ground.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Survivor

Source: Survivor

Fish, Time, Dead

“When you were the son of evil, there was little you couldn't do, own, or kill, and yet her mortal self was an elusive trophy he could touch, but not put on his shelf.

This made her rare. This made her precious.

This made him… love her.”

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

Source: Lover Mine

Evil

“Success, after all, loves a witness, but failure can't exist without one.”

Junot Díaz book The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Source: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Failure, Success

“I love you every day,
Mom”

Mitch Albom For One More Day

Source: For One More Day

Moms

“Until we learn to love others as ourselves, it's difficult to blame broken people who desperately try to affirm themselves when no one else will.”

Richard Rohr (1943) American spiritual writer, speaker, teacher, Catholic Franciscan priest

Source: Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life

People, Learning

“What a blessing it is to love books.”

Elizabeth von Arnim (1866–1941) Australian writer

Source: The Solitary Summer

Books

“We decided that sooner or later you had to learn to live without almost everybody, at least for a while. Even people you didn't think you could live without." p 167

love always found itself again.”

Melody Beattie (1948) American writer

Source: The Lessons of Love: Rediscovering Our Passion for Life When It All Seems Too Hard to Take

People, Thinking, Learning

“Isn't hate merely the result of wounded love?”

Amy Tan The Joy Luck Club

Source: The Joy Luck Club

Hate

“Our Creator would never have made such lovely days, and have given us the deep hearts to enjoy them, above and beyond all thought, unless we were meant to be immortal.”

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864) American novelist and short story writer (1804 – 1879)

"The Old Manse": The Author Makes the Reader Acquainted with His Abode http://www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/nh/tom.html from Mosses from an Old Manse (1846)

Heart

“But you’re everything I want. Remember that. I love you, Lia. Not a title. And not because a piece of paper says I should. Because I do.”

Mary E. Pearson (1955) young-adult fiction writer

Source: The Heart of Betrayal

“Who are you, anyway?
-Just someone who knows, from personal experience, how attractive it can be to think you can save somebody else by loving them.”

Jeffrey Eugenides book The Marriage Plot

Source: The Marriage Plot

Thinking, Personality

“And I never expected that you could have a broken heart and love with it too, so much that it doesn't seem broken at all.”

Jodi Lynn Anderson American children's writer

Source: Tiger Lily

Heart

“True love comes quietly, without banners or flashing lights. If you hear bells, get your ears checked.”

Erich Segal (1937–2010) American writer

Light, Wise, Cute, Romantic

“No power from above can make one human love another. Love comes from within the heart. (Julian)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon Fantasy Lover

Source: Fantasy Lover

Heart

“I love you, I said, but not out loud.”

Craig Clevenger The Contortionist's Handbook

The Contortionist's Handbook

“The Apache don't have a word for love," he said.
"Know what they both say at the marriage? The squaw-taking ceremony?"
"Tell me."
"Varlebena. It means forever. That's all they say.”

Louis L'Amour (1908–1988) Novelist, short story writer

Source: Hondo

Marriage

“-"He loved her… It was noble of him. It was beautiful."

-"It was stupid.”

Lloyd Alexander book Westmark

Source: Westmark

Stupidity, Beauty

“Love cannot thrive simply by being offered. Sooner or later it must be accepted and reciprocated. It must be seen for what it is and nourished according to its needs, or it will die.”

Cameron Dokey (1956) American writer

Source: Winter's Child: A Retelling of The Snow Queen

“To forgive is the highest, most beautiful form of love. In return, you will receive untold peace and happiness”

Robert Muller (1923–2010) Civil servant with the United Nations

Happiness, Peace, Beauty, Forgiveness

“Love is not about what you want. It's about finding happiness for the one you love.”

Terry Goodkind book Wizard's First Rule

Source: Wizard's First Rule

Happiness

“A genuine revolution of values means in the final analysis that our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies. This call for a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one's tribe, race, class, and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing and unconditional love for all mankind.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

1960s, Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence (1967)
Context: A genuine revolution of values means in the final analysis that our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies. This call for a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one's tribe, race, class, and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing and unconditional love for all mankind. This oft misunderstood, this oft misinterpreted concept, so readily dismissed by the Nietzsches of the world as a weak and cowardly force, has now become an absolute necessity for the survival of man. When I speak of love I am not speaking of some sentimental and weak response. I am not speaking of that force which is just emotional bosh. I am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality.

Reality, Loyalty

“I love everything about Tyler Durden, his courage and his smarts. His nerve. Tyler is funny and charming and forceful and independent, and men look up to him and expect him to change their world. Tyler is capable and free, and I am not.”

Chuck Palahniuk Fight Club

Source: Fight Club

Men, World, Courage, Change