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Attempting to define love seems impossible... but...

The Oxford Dictionary defines love as "an intense feeling of deep affection." Mankind has been trying to define and understand love for all our existence - thru words and art and every way we can.

We found this definition by Brene Brown to be one of the best. She is not saying this is the end all be all definition, but a great starting place in trying to define healthy love, to provoke thought and discussion:

"We cultivate love when we allow our most vulnerable and powerful selves to be deeply seen and known, and when we honor the spiritual connection that grows from that offering with trust, respect, kindness, and affection. Love is not something we give or get; it's something that we nurture and grow - a connection that can only be cultivated between two people when it exists within each one of them. We can only love others as much as we love ourselves. Shame, blame, disrespect, betrayal, and the withholding of affection damage the roots from which love grows. Love can only survive these injuries if they are acknowledged, healed, and rare." --Brené Brown

They are short -- but still so much truth there!

Below we present a huge collection of the very best - and mostly sweet and romantic -- love quotes we could find for you to reflect upon and share. Enjoy! And please share widely the ones you like best. However you define it, love should be rejoiced, and shared, always. (-: And if these are helpful to you, please show us some love back by linking to this page. Thank YOU!

Don't wait until it's too late to say I love you.

--Stana Katic

The best thing to hold onto in life is each other.

--Audrey Hepburn

At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet.

--Plato

Love! Just love!

--D. Pariz

A rich child often sits in a poor mother's lap.

--Spanish Proverb

Love is like dew that falls on both nettles and lilies.

--Swedish Proverb

Love begets love, love knows no rules, this is same for all.

--Virgil

Of what value is your life, unless you are willing to sacrifice it for those you love?

--Wayne Gerard Trotman

All human love is a holy thing, the holiest thing in our experience.

--William Ralph Inge

Absence is to love what wind is to fire; it extinguishes the small, it enkindles the great.

--Roger de Rabutin

If you love a person, you can forgive anything.

--Herbert Marshall

Nothing is real but dreams and love.

--Anna de Noailles

Love does not care to define and is never in a hurry to do so.

--Charles Du Bos

Love must not suffocate but breathe on its own.

--Soraya Naomi

Love is just a word untill you and that someone who comes along give it meaning.

--Livia

Unconditional love is the greatest gift of all.

--Sylvia Massara

In order to be loved, you must love.

--Albert Leary

Real love is messy, and broken, and hard. Not all fairy tales and Prince Charming.

--Melody Grace

Love means nothing if you can't accept someone for their core values.

--Katie Chapman

Do not demand love. Begin to love. You will be loved.

--C. Rajagopalachari

It is only love which makes us acceptable to God.

--Therese of Lisieux

Love is always a stranger in the house of avarice.

--Andreas Capellanus

Love melts the rigor which the rocks have bred; a flint will break upon a feather bed.

--John Cleveland

People who love each other can no more keep from communicating than from breathing.

--Sylvia Engdahl

Intuition is the gentle hand of divine love.

--Leta B.

Your capacity to love is your capacity to experience the I of another.

--Walter Starcke

Unrequited love is like hitting your head against a wall that isn't there.

--Shannon Wheeler

Love is not lust. The two are poles apart. Love liberates while lust binds.

--Narayanananda Swami

Calmly in the precious present, be a light for love and wisdom in the window on your world.

--Kevin Flynn

People who love do the impossible all the time.

--Germaine Shames

Life is too short to plant anything else but love.

--Abhijit Naskar

Love is the only language known to all humanity.

--Abhijit Naskar

A mother's love for her child is like nothing else in the world.

--Agatha Christie

Longer Version:

A mother's love for her child is like nothing else in the world. It knows no law, no pity, it dares all things and crushes down remorselessly all that stands in its path.


Must being in love always mean being in pain?

--Alain de Botton

It's hard loving those who don't much like themselves.

--Alain de Botton

Longer Version:

It's hard loving those who don't much like themselves: "If you're so great, why would you think I'm so great.


There is only one thing that has power completely, and that is love.

--Alan Paton

The art of love is largely the art of persistence.

--Albert Ellis

Love is but the discovery of ourselves in others and the delight in the recognition.

--Alexander Smith

Choosing to unconditionally love others is a path to deep joy.

--Amy Leigh Mercree

You have the power to choose love.

--Amy Leigh Mercree

Unconditional love is the greatest gift we can ever give.

--Amy Leigh Mercree

You deserve love and you'll get it.

--Amy Poehler

The word love is never mentioned in big business.

--Anita Roddick

Isn't falling in love always the fullest life?

--Ann Voskamp

Dogs are the closest we come to knowing the divine love of God on this side of eternity.

--Anne Lamott

Love can make any place agreeable.

--Arabian Proverb

Being in love is the only transcendent experience.

--Armistead Maupin

Love between a man and woman is war.

--August Strindberg

Love is a boomerang that returns to the thrower's hand.

--Austin O'Malley

Those who love and those who wander are not lost!

--Avijeet Das

Our life changes the moment we choose love over hate!

--Avijeet Das

You are the completeness of my incompleteness.

--Avijeet Das

When you truly love someone, you set them free!

--Avijeet Das

Difficult times always create opportunities for you to experience more love in your life.

--Barbara De Angelis

Love is a choice you make from moment to moment.

--Barbara De Angelis

Love's greatest gift is its ability to make everything it touches sacred.

--Barbara De Angelis

We may give without loving, but we cannot love without giving.

--Bernard Meltzer

To the world, you may be one person, but to one person you are the world.

--Bill Wilson

Love and understanding are one into the same. without love, there is no understanding, and without understanding, there can be no love.

--Bodhi Smith

Sometimes to love is easy, but to accept love is hard.

--Brent Weeks



Love hard. Love not like the world loves. Love hard, go hard, let it kill you.

--C. JoyBell C.

The act of love strongly resembles torture or surgery.

--Charles Baudelaire

What is love? The need of coming out of one's self.

--Charles Baudelaire

Love makes a few weeks so rich that all the rest of our lives seems poor in comparison.

--Christian Nestell Bovee

Our first and last love is self-love.

--Christian Nestell Bovee

Choose love not in the shallows but in the deep.

--Christina Rossetti

Don't love to be loved in return. Love for the sake of loving.

--Connor Chalfant

There is no pain equal to that which two lovers can inflict on one another.

--Cyril Connolly

Longer Version:

There is no pain equal to that which two lovers can inflict on one another. This should be made clear to all who contemplate such a union. The avoidance of this pain is the beginning of wisdom, for it is strong enough to contaminate the rest of our lives.


People always love and respect characters who speak the truth, even if the truth hurts.

--David Duchovny

Love is when each person is more concerned for the other than for one's self.

--David Frost

Love me, do not judge me.
Let me, do not stop me.

--Debasish Mridha, MD

No one is poor who has an abundance of love to share with others.

--Debasish Mridha, MD

All life is emptiness. Fill it with endless love, bliss, and kindness.

--Debasish Mridha, MD

Gaze upon others with eyes of love.

--Debasish Mridha, MD

Love more. Love often. Love endlessly.

--Debasish Mridha, MD

Life is a wave of love in the ocean of humanity.

--Debasish Mridha, MD

The language of love is not words but feelings.

--Debasish Mridha, MD

If you are expecting something in return for your love, you are not loving truly.

--Debasish Mridha, MD

Our emotions dance in the paradox of love and fear.

--Debasish Mridha, MD

Be the light of love to enlighten the whole world.

--Debasish Mridha, MD

Leave footprints of love and kindness on the seashore of humanity.

--Debasish Mridha, MD

The mind is the treasury for knowledge, but the heart is the treasury for love and kindness.

--Debasish Mridha, MD

Let us grow together, not to become older, to love each other better.

--Debasish Mridha, MD

Not your appearance, but your humility and power of love define your beauty.

--Debasish Mridha, MD

Never feel powerless when you have the power of love.

--Debasish Mridha, MD

There are not many things that are more powerful than love.

--Debasish Mridha, MD

Only the great power of love can make you great.

--Debasish Mridha, MD

If you want to do something better, do it with profound love.

--Debasish Mridha, MD

Love, just to love. Don't wait for a reason to love. That is selfishness.

--Debasish Mridha, MD

In life, love is not everything, but without love, life is nothing.

--Debasish Mridha, MD

Love is not an obsession or a delusion. Love exists in longing and appreciation.

--Debasish Mridha, MD

Let yourself be the love that you are seeking.

--Debasish Mridha, MD

Everyone admits that love is wonderful and necessary, yet no one agrees on just what it is.

--Diane Ackerman

Love involves a peculiar unfathomable combination of understanding and misunderstanding.

--Diane Arbus

Life's too short. We have to love each other.

--Drew Barrymore
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