Never close your lips to those to whom you have opened your heart.
—Charles Dickens (1812–70) English Novelist
Sometimes I wonder if men and women really suit each other. Perhaps they should live next door and just visit now and then.
—Katharine Hepburn (1907–2003) American Actor, TV Personality
Lessons of wisdom have never such power over us as when they are wrought into the heart through the groundwork of a story which engages the passions. Is it that we are like iron, and must first be heated before we can be wrought upon? Or is the heart so in love with deceit, that where a true report will not reach it, we must cheat it with a fable in order to come at the truth?
—Laurence Sterne (1713–68) Irish Anglican Novelist, Clergyman
One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life; that word is love.
—Sophocles (495–405 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
You were made perfectly to be loved – and surely I have loved you, in the idea of you, my whole life long.
—Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–61) English Poet
To love is to take delight in the happiness of another, or, what amounts to the same thing, it is to account another’s happiness one’s own
—Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716) German Rationalist Philosopher, Mathematician
There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
The course of true love never did run smooth.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
I have learned not to worry about love; but to honor its coming with all my heart.
—Alice Walker (b.1944) American Novelist, Activist
Nobody has ever measured, not even poets, how much the heart can hold.
—Zelda Fitzgerald (1899–1948) American Writer, Artist
You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments when you have truly lived are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love.
—Henry Drummond
Love is an attempt to change a piece of a dream-world into reality.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired.
—Robert Frost (1874–1963) American Poet
But true love is a durable fire,
In the mind ever burning,
Never sick, never old, never dead,
From itself never turning.
—Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) English Courtier, Navigator, Poet
This was love at first sight, love everlasting: a feeling unknown, unhoped for, unexpected—in so far as it could be a matter of conscious awareness; it took entire possession of him, and he understood, with joyous amazement, that this was for life.
—Thomas Mann (1875–1955) German Novelist, Short Story Writer, Social Critic, Philanthropist, Essayist
No matter where you go, however far away, a part of me will be with you and a part of you, with me, will stay
But to see her was to love her, love but her, and love her forever
As for me, to love you alone, to make you happy, to do nothing which would contradict your wishes, this is my destiny and the meaning of my life.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
Detection is, or ought to be, an exact science, and should be treated in the same cold and unemotional manner. You have attempted to tinge it with romanticism, which produces much the same effect as if you worked a love-story or an elopement into the fifth proposition of Euclid
—Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) Scottish Writer
Love is like a friendship caught on fire. In the beginning a flame, very pretty,
Often hot and fierce, But still only light and flickering. As love grows older, Our hearts mature And our love becomes as coals, Deep-burning and unquenchable.
—Bruce Lee (1940–73) American Martial Artist, Actor, Philosopher
Youth cannot imagine romance apart from youth.
—Booth Tarkington (1869–1946) American Novelist, Dramatist
Love asks me no questions, And gives me endless support..
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Romance has been elegantly defined as the offspring of fiction and love.
—Isaac D’Israeli (1766–1848) English Writer, Scholar
The world is no longer a romantic place. Some of its people still are however, and therein lies the promise. Don’t let the world win.
—John Cage (1912–92) American Composer
It is love alone that gives worth to all things.
—Teresa of Avila (1515–82) Spanish Carmelite Nun, Mystic
Presence is more than just being there.
—Malcolm S. Forbes (1919–1990) American Publisher, Businessperson
I tell you I love you every day for fear that tomorrow isn’t another.
—Anonymous
There is no remedy for love but to love more.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
More than kisses, letters mingle souls.
—John Donne (1572–1631) English Poet, Cleric
In this commonplace world every one is said to be romantic who either admires a fine thing or does one.
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744) English Poet
Nothing spoils a romance so much as a sense of humor in the woman.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Men always want to be a woman’s first love. That is their clumsy vanity. We women have a more subtle instinct about things. What we like is to be a man’s last romance.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright