Many years ago, I had a reasonably intelligent friend who told me, "Love is an illusion." I disagreed then, and I disagree now. I never understood why he said that. Love is real, all right. Maybe he felt that there's no one thing that we can call love.
And there's some truth to that. Love is always personal. Each individual experiences it differently. We may love many people, but we never feel the same kind of love for each person. We bring a different mix of needs, feelings, memories, and aspirations to each relationship. So are there different kinds of love? If so, then there are billions of kinds of love, one for each unique relationship.
Maybe that's why love seems so mysterious and perplexing. Here's what some wise people have said about it...
"Everyone admits that love is wonderful and necessary, yet no one agrees on just what it is." - Diane Ackerman, American author (1948- )
"Although all those who fall in love do so in the same way, not all fall in love for the same reason. There is no single quality which is universally loved." - Jose Ortega y Gasset, Spanish philosopher (1883-1955)
"Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own." - Robert Heinlein, American novelist (1907-1988)
"What everyone wants more than anything else is to be loved." - Ella Fitzgerald, American singer (1917-1996)
"The more connections you and your lover make, not just between your bodies, but between your minds, your hearts, and your souls, the more you will strengthen the fabric of your relationship, and the more real moments you will experience together." - Barbara De Angelis, American author (1951- )
"There are never enough 'I love yous'." - Lenny Bruce, American comedian (1926-1966)
"Unless you love someone, nothing else makes any sense." - E. E. Cummings, American poet (1894-1962)
"Love received and love given comprise the best form of therapy." - Gordon Allport, American psychologist (1897-1967)
“Who, being loved, is poor?” - Oscar Wilde, British playwright (1854-1900)
"To love and be loved will be the greatest event in our lives." - Jean-Jacques Rousseau, French philosopher (1712-1778)
"It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages." - Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher (1844-1900)
"Love is elevating. It lifts you up. It makes you look up. It makes you think up. It makes you a better person than you were before." - Ann Landers, American columnist (1918-2002)
“All that we love deeply ... becomes a part of us.” - Helen Keller, American author (1880-1968)
"Immature love says, 'I love you because I need you.' Mature love says, 'I need you because I love you.'" - Erich Fromm, American psychoanalyst (1900-1980)
"A life without love, no matter how many other things we have, is an empty, meaningless one." - Leo Buscaglia, American author (1924-1998)
“Love is when the other person's happiness is more important than your own.” - H. Jackson Brown, American author (1940- )
I will leave you with this thought about love. If you gave your sweetheart a special love-gift, maybe you shouldn't have waited until Valentine's Day...
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2 comments:
Thank you, Honey. Beautiful thoughts. You're my Valentine every day.
Don't forget that Its also Anna Howard Shaw day
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