22 English quotes

Quotes about love

Famous lines about love and romance, from Shakespeare to modern writers.

“The course of true love never did run smooth.”
– William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream (c. 1595)
Meaning: Real love always meets problems along the way. Difficulties don't mean the love is not real.
course
– the way something develops over time
“'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.”
– Alfred, Lord Tennyson, In Memoriam A.H.H. (1850)
Meaning: Even if love ends in pain or loss, the experience of loving is still worth more than never loving anyone.
'Tis
– an old short form of "it is"
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.”
– The Bible, 1 Corinthians 13:4
Meaning: True love is shown through gentle, humble behaviour, not through jealousy or showing off. It is often read at weddings.
envy
– want what someone else has
boast
– talk with too much pride about yourself
“Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds.”
– William Shakespeare, Sonnet 116 (1609)
Meaning: Real love does not change just because the other person or the situation changes. It stays constant.
alters
– changes
alteration
– a change
“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.”
– William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream (c. 1595)
Meaning: We fall in love because of what we imagine and feel, not just what we see. That is why Cupid, the god of love, is shown wearing a blindfold.
Cupid
– the Roman god of love, shown as a boy with wings and a bow
“Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.”
– Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights (1847)
Meaning: Catherine feels that she and Heathcliff are made of the same deep inner stuff. They are connected at the level of who they really are.
souls
– the spiritual, inner part of a person
“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.”
– Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sonnets from the Portuguese, 43 (1850)
Meaning: The poet loves someone in so many ways that she starts to list them. People quote it to say their love is huge and many-sided.
thee
– an old word for "you"
“My bounty is as boundless as the sea, my love as deep; the more I give to thee, the more I have, for both are infinite.”
– William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet (c. 1595)
Meaning: Juliet says her love has no limit. The more love she gives Romeo, the more she seems to have.
bounty
– generosity; what someone gives freely
boundless
– without limits
“In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.”
– Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)
Meaning: Mr Darcy tried hard not to fall in love with Elizabeth, but he failed. Now he must tell her how strongly he feels.
In vain
– without success
repressed
– kept hidden or controlled
ardently
– with strong, passionate feeling
“We accept the love we think we deserve.”
– Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower (1999)
Meaning: People who don't value themselves often stay in relationships where they are treated badly. How we see ourselves shapes the love we allow.
“Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction.”
– Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Wind, Sand and Stars (1939)
Meaning: Real love is not only about looking at each other romantically. It is about sharing goals and facing the world as a team.
consist in
– have as its main part
gazing
– looking at something for a long time
“The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of.”
– Blaise Pascal, Pensées (1670)
Meaning: Our feelings follow their own logic, which clear thinking can't always explain. We can't always say why we love someone.
“Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.”
– Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land (1961)
Meaning: When you love someone, you can't be happy unless they are happy too.
essential
– completely necessary
“There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved.”
– George Sand, Letter (1862)
Meaning: For the writer, nothing makes us happier than loving someone and being loved back.
“At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet.”
– Plato, Symposium (c. 385 BC)
Meaning: When people fall in love, they suddenly want to express beautiful feelings, even if they were never creative before.
“The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference.”
– Elie Wiesel, Interview, US News & World Report (1986)
Meaning: Hate still shows that you care in some way. The real opposite of love is not caring at all.
indifference
– lack of interest or care
“Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.”
– Martin Luther King Jr., Strength to Love (1963)
Meaning: Fighting back with anger keeps enemies as enemies. Only love and goodwill can change them into friends.
“I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.”
– Pablo Neruda, One Hundred Love Sonnets, XVII (1959)
Meaning: The poet's love is so natural and deep that he can't explain when it started or where it comes from.
“Love doesn't just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; re-made all the time, made new.”
– Ursula K. Le Guin, The Lathe of Heaven (1971)
Meaning: Love is not something you have once and keep forever. Like fresh bread, it needs work and care again and again.
“Love is or it ain't. Thin love ain't love at all.”
– Toni Morrison, Beloved (1987)
Meaning: Love is either complete or it doesn't exist. A weak, half-hearted love doesn't count as love.
ain't
– informal for "isn't"
Thin
– here, weak or not deep
“Lovers don't finally meet somewhere. They're in each other all along.”
– Rumi
Meaning: True lovers don't feel they met by chance. It seems as if they were always part of each other.
“The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.”
– eden ahbez, "Nature Boy" (1947)
Meaning: Of all life's lessons, the most important is how to love and accept love from others.
in return
– back; as an exchange