Virtues

"That's love too. It ain't sex, and maybe that's too bad, but you know, Cindy, when a man and a woman care for each other, that doesn't always mean they have to sleep together or live together."

"The biblical assertion, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord, is often quoted to portray justice as punishment, as retribution. This is a far cry from the concept of the justice of love... This quandary arises not only through a misconception of justice, but of love as well. For love is often thought to be sentimental weakness. Surely the more we study and meditate on the gospel ---- the good news ---- of Christ, both in Palestine long ago and in His Messages today, the more truly we will come to understand that love means justice, and justice is the way of love. In the Sermon on the Mount, as reported by Matthew, Christ says (speaking through Jesus): You have heard that it was said, 'an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.' But I say to you...if any one strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also... Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father... for he makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. (from Matt. chapter 5)"

"I have often had occasion to observe, that a warm blundering man does more for the world than a frigid wise man."

"World-peace can be achieved when the power of love replaces the love of power."

"There can be no true goodness, nor true love, without the utmost clear-sightedness."

"Regretter ce que l'on aime est un bien, en comparaison de vivre avec ce que l'on hait."

"Loveliest of lovely things are they, On earth, that soonest pass away. The rose that lives its little hour Is prized beyond the sculptured flower."

"L'on veut faire tout le bonheur, ou si cela ne se peut ainsi, tout le malheur de ce qu'on aime."

"Every morning I shall concern myself anew about the boundary Between the love-deed-Yes and the power-deed-No And pressing forward honor reality.We cannot avoid Using power, Cannot escape the compulsion To afflict the world, So let us, cautious in diction And mighty in contradiction, Love powerfully."

"Le temps, qui fortifie les amitiés, affaiblit l'amour."

"L'amour qui naît subitement est le plus long à guérir."

"Hatred has never stopped hatred. Only love stops hate. This is the eternal law."

"Le commencement et le déclin de l'amour se font sentir par l'embarras où l'on est de se trouver seuls."

"I would not be a rose upon the wall A queen might stop at, near the palace-door, To say to a courtier, "Pluck that rose for me, It's prettier than the rest." O Romney Leigh! I'd rather far be trodden by his foot, Than lie in a great queen's bosom."

"But I love you, sir: And when a woman says she loves a man, The man must hear her, though he love her not."

"Whoever lives true life, will love true love."

"The game of love is whatever you make it to be."

"If thou must love me, let it be for nought Except for love's sake only. Do not say "I love her for her smile — her look — her way Of speaking gently, — for a trick of thought That falls in well with mine, and certes brought A sense of pleasant ease on such a day" — For these things in themselves, Beloved, may Be changed, or change for thee, — and love, so wrought, May be unwrought so. Neither love me for Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheeks dry, — A creature might forget to weep, who fbore Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby! But love me for love's sake, that evermore Thou may'st love on, through love's eternity."

"For life, with all it yields of joy and woe, And hope and fear (believe the aged friend), Is just our chance o' the prize of learning love,— How love might be, hath been indeed, and is."

"Just as a mother with her own life Protects her child, her only child, from harm, So within yourself let grow A boundless love for all creatures.Let your love flow outward through the universe, To its height, its depth, its broad extent, A limitless love, without hatred or enmity.Then as you stand or walk, Sit or lie down, As long as you are awake, Strive for this with a one-pointed mind; Your life will bring heaven to earth."

"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of Being and ideal Grace. I love thee to the level of everyday's Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight. I love thee freely, as men strive for Right; I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise. I love thee with the passion put to use In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith. I love thee with a love I seemed to lose With my lost saints,—I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life! —and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death."

"If you want to know what love is, have a child. If you want to know what pain is, bury him."

"I love hiccups and I love sneezes and I love blinks and I love belches and I love gluttons. I love hair. I love bears. For me, the round. For me, the world."

"Love can be a source of great grief and immense pain. Of tremendous guilt. A reason to run from ourselves or away from each other. Love can be a curse. But always and completely it's a gift."

"Love is what is new—so old and necessary—the old god that interchanges values, meaning, sentimentality, food, and languages—the missing link in this culture of destruction and death."

"We have common cause against the night. ... Why love the woman who is your wife? Her nose breathes the air of a world that I know; therefore I love that nose. Her ears hear the music I might sing half the night through; therefore I love her ears. Her eyes delight in seasons of the land; and so I love those eyes. Her tongue knows quince, peach, chokecherry, mint and lime; I love to hear it speaking. Because her flesh knows heat, cold, affliction, I know fire, snow, and pain. ... We love what we know, we love what we are. Common cause, common cause, common cause of mouth, eye, ear, tongue, hand, nose, flesh, heart, and soul."

"At the center of religion is love. I love you and I forgive you. I am like you and you are like me. I love all people. I love the world. I love creating. Everything in our life should be based on love."

"Duty makes us do things well, but love makes us do them beautifully."

"In that film Love Story, there’s a line, “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” That’s the dumbest thing I ever heard. Love means saying you’re sorry every day for some little thing or other."

"Being with you and not being with you is the only way I have to measure time."

"There is only one thing infamous in love, and that is a falsehood."

"The mightiest love was granted him Love that does not expect to be loved."

"There is no such thing as an age for love … because the man capable of loving — in the complex and modern sense of love as a sort of ideal exaltation — never ceases to love."

"Do not judge but love and be loved, if you want to be really happy."

"I have been thinking about our conversation and about your book, and I am afraid that I expressed myself badly yesterday. When I said that one may love and be loved at any age I ought to have added that sometimes this love comes too late. It comes when one no longer has the right to prove to the loved one how much she is loved, except by love's sacrifice."

"There is musick, even in the beauty and the silent note which Cupid strikes, far sweeter than the sound of an instrument."

"There is not love of life without despair about life."

"Love seeketh not itself to please, Nor for itself hath any care, But for another gives its ease, And builds a heaven in hell’s despair."

"Man, you got to have love just to set it straight Take control of your mind and meditate Let your soul gravitate to the love y'all."

"Love: A temporary insanity curable by marriage or by the removal of the patient from the influences under which he incurred the disorder. This disease, like caries and many other ailments, is prevalent only among civilized races living under artificial conditions; barbarous nations breathing pure air and eating simple food enjoy immunity from its ravages. It is sometimes fatal, but more frequently to the physician than to the patient."

"If you never know truth then you never know love."

"I believe that the world was created and approved by love, that it subsists, coheres, and endures by love, and that, insofar as it is redeemable, it can be redeemed only by love."

"We know enough of our own history by now to be aware that people exploit what they have merely concluded to be of value, but they defend what they love. To defend what we love we need a particularizing language, for we love what we particularly know."

"Pure divine love is not merely the blossom of a human heart, but has its roots in eternity. Spiritual holy love is immortal, and Karma brings sooner or later all those who loved each other with such a spiritual affection to incarnate once more in the same family group. Again we say that love beyond the grave, illusion though you may call it, has a magic and divine potency which reacts on the living."

"Racism, antisemitism, homophobia, transphobia—they're all connected. But the antidote to hate is love."

"Love has a particular trait: it has a task or purpose to fulfill - to abide. By its nature, love is enduring. The Holy Spirit offers our world love that dispels uncertainty; love that overcomes the fear of betrayal; love that carries eternity within; the true love that draws us into a unity that abides!"

"Dear young people, we have seen that it is the Holy Spirit who brings about the wonderful communion of believers in Jesus Christ. True to his nature as giver and gift alike, he is even now working through you. Let unifying love be your measure; abiding love your challenge; self-giving love your mission!"

"Authentic love is obviously something good. When we love we become most fully human. But people often consider themselves loving when actually they are possessive or manipulative. People sometimes treat others as objects to satisfy their own needs. How easy it is to be deceived by the many voices in our society that advocate a permissive approach to sexuality, without regard for modesty, self-respect or the moral values that bring quality into human relationships! This is worship of a false god; instead of bringing life, it brings death."

"A new generation of Christians is being called to help build a world in which God's gift of life is welcomed, respected and cherished-not rejected, feared as a threat and destroyed. A new age in which love is not greedy or self-seeking, but pure, faithful and genuinely free, open to others, respectful of their dignity, seeking their good, radiating joy and beauty - a new age in which hope liberates us from the shallowness, apathy and self-absorption that deaden our souls and poison our relationships."

"Only in truth does charity shine forth, only in truth can charity be authentically lived. Truth is the light that gives meaning and value to charity. That light is both the light of reason and the light of faith, through which the intellect attains to the natural and supernatural truth of charity: it grasps its meaning as gift, acceptance, and communion. Without truth, charity degenerates into sentimentality. Love becomes an empty shell, to be filled in an arbitrary way. In a culture without truth, this is the fatal risk facing love. It falls prey to contingent subjective emotions and opinions, the word “love” is abused and distorted, to the point where it comes to mean the opposite. Truth frees charity from the constraints of an emotionalism that deprives it of relational and social content, and of a fideism that deprives it of human and universal breathing-space."