Interpersonal Relationships

"Love is not love if it compelled by reason and driven by logic — love exists in spite of those things, not because of them. It is a emotion which needs no fuel to fire it or oxygen to feed it; if you have to look for the why, then stop looking; it was never there at all."

"Amor é um fogo que arde sem se ver, É ferida que dói, e não se sente; É um contentamento descontente, É dor que desatina sem doer. É um não querer mais que bem querer; É um andar solitário entre a gente; É nunca contentar-se de contente; É um cuidar que ganha em se perder. É querer estar preso por vontade; É servir a quem vence, o vencedor; É ter com quem nos mata, lealdade. Mas como causar pode seu favor Nos corações humanos amizade, Se tão contrário a si é o mesmo Amor?"

"Nous nous trompons toujours deux fois sur ceux que nous aimons: d`abord à leur avantage, puis à leur désavantage."

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

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

"In Oran, as elsewhere, for want of time and thought, people have to love one another without knowing it."

"The opposite of an idealist is too often a man without love."

"When love hurts, it won't work."

"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)"

"That our love is to be unconditional ---- that is, not demanding anything in return ---- is clearly indicated in the words of Jesus to His chosen 12 disciples just before His crucifixion...A corollary of unconditional love is unlimited forgiveness. This is demonstrated in Jesus' words to Peter when that disciple inquired whether he should forgive as many as seven times"

"For love is ever the beginning of Knowledge, as fire is of light."

"One can give without loving, but one cannot love without giving"

"Give me the love that leads the way, The faith that nothing can dismay, The hope no disappointments tire, The passion that will burn like fire; Let me not sink to be a clod: Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God"

"True love is not the helpless desire to possess the cherished object of one's fervent affection; true love is the disciplined generosity we require of ourselves for the sake of another when we would rather be selfish; that, at least, is how I have taught myself to love my wife."

"The word "love" is used far too frequently and far too imprecisely. It moves heaven and earth, it illuminates the purest of pages, but oh, with what ease it is pressed into service to mask the most infamous of passions, the vilest selfishness, and even crime!"

"Love is the fundamental and innate vocation of every human being."

"Where there is the greatest love, there are always miracles."

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

"Isn't everything we do in life a way to be loved a little more?"

"There's no love lost between us."

"Each one gave the other the only assistance one man can expect from another: that his friend support him and ask only that he remain himself. It is no great accomplishment to take people as they are, and we must always do so eventually, but to wish them to be as they are, that is a genuine love."

"The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people."

"Try not to change the world. You will fail. Try to love the world. Lo, the world is changed. Changed forever."

"What is love? From the spiritual and inner point of view, love is self-expansion. Human love binds and is bound. Divine Love expands, enlarges itself."

"First of all, let us try to know what love is. If love means to possess someone or something, then that is not real love, not pure love. If loves means to give oneself, to become one with everything and everyone, then that is real love. Real love is total oneness with the object loved and with the Possessor of love."

"Where love is thick, faults are thin. If you really love someone, then it is difficult to find fault with him. His faults seem negligible, for love means oneness."

"Love the world. Otherwise, you will be forced to carry the heaviest load: your own bitter self."

"Hatred is a disguised form of love. You can only hate someone whom you really wish to love, because if you were totally indifferent to that person, you could not even get up enough energy to hate him."

"If you really want to love humanity, then you have to love humanity as it is now."

"Life is nothing but the expansion of love. We can cultivate divine love by entering into the Source. The Source is God, who is all Love."

"Man is by nature a lover. Only he has yet to discover the real thing to love. This quest awakens him to the fulfillment of his real Self."

"Is the world so unbearable? No! What we need is only a little more love for the world."

"Love is something that never cared to learn how to judge anybody."

"Instead of creating a reason why you cannot love the world, try to create a reason why you should and must love the world."

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

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

"Love is a special word, and I use it only when I mean it. You say the word too much and it becomes cheap."

"There have been women I have loved … A lot, as discreetly as possible."

"So mourn'd the dame of Ephesus her love."

"What have I done? What horrid crime committed? To me the worst of crimes—outliv'd my liking."

"There are no signs, There are no stars aligned, No amulets no charms, To bring you back to my arms. There's just this human heart. That's built with this human fault. What was your question? Love is the answer."

"Years! Years, ye shall mix with me! Ye shall grow a part Of the laughing Sea; Of the moaning heart Of the glittered wave Of the sun-gleam's dart In the ocean-grave. Fair, cold, and faithless wert thou, my own! For that I love Thy heart of stone! From the heights above To the depths below, Where dread things move, There is naught can show A life so trustless! Proud be thy crown! Ruthless, like none, save the Sea, alone!"

"And sometimes when I am weary, When the path is thorny and Wild, I'll look back to the Eyes in the twilight, Back to the eyes that smiled.And pray that a wreath like a rainbow May slip from the beautiful past, And Crown me again with the sweet, strong love And keep me, and hold me fast."

"The wise are wise only because they love."

"One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving."

"Love is the force that transforms and improves the Soul of the World. … It is we who nourish the Soul of the World, and the world we live in will be either better or worse, depending on whether we become better or worse. And that's where the power of love comes in. Because when we love, we always strive to become better than we are."

"We must never forget that spiritual experience is above all a practical experience of love. And with love, there are no rules."

"The gods throw the dice, and they don't ask whether we want to be in the game or not. They don't care if when you go, you leave behind a lover, a home, a career, or a dream. The gods don't care whether you have it all, whether it seems that your every desire can be met through hard work and persistence. The gods don't want to know about your plans and your hopes. Somewhere they're throwing the dice — and you are chosen. From then on, winning or losing is only a question of luck. The gods throw the dice, freeing love from its cage. And love can create or destroy — depending on the direction of the wind when it is set free."

"Lovers need to know how to lose themselves and then how to find themselves again."