quotations and passages on love

Love 3

Once I knew the depth where no hope was and
darkness lay on the face of all things. Then love came
and set my soul free. Once I fretted and beat myself
against the wall that shut me in. My life was without
a past or future, and death a consummation devoutly
to be wished. But a little word from the fingers of
another fell into my hands that clutched at emptiness,
and my heart leaped up with the rapture of living.
I do not know the meaning of the darkness,
but I have learned the overcoming of it.

Helen Keller

To love means being 100 percent responsible for your
experience of living, to not be a victim or a martyr,
and to be 100 percent accountable for the quality
of your life, which includes the amount of love, joy,
and growth you create in your relationships each day.

To love is the ability to remain strong, stable, and
committed through difficult times, changes, and
challenges. It means being gentle, kind, and
supportive of your potential, goals, and aspirations.

Harold Bloomfield

Nothing beats love. Love is the greatest healing power
there is; nothing else comes close. Not ancient cures,
modern medicines and technologies, or all the interesting
books we read or the wise things we say and think.
Love has a transformational power.

Naomi Judd

Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting
to get--only what you are expecting to give--which is
everything. What you will receive in return varies.
But it really has no connection with what you give.
You give because you love and cannot help giving.
If you are very lucky, you may be loved back.
That is delicious, but it does not necessarily happen.

Katharine Hepburn

Effort matters in everything, love included. Learning to love is purposeful work.

Michael Levine

Love doesn't just sit there, like a stone; it has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new.

Ursula K. LeGuin

By loving others, we get to
pass on lessons in this schoolhouse of life.
Loving others is the virtue
that is so hard to embody
yet crucial for advancing in
our spirituality. In loving others, we elevate others
as well as ourselves and
grow closer to our Higher Power. We experience consciously that mysterious, mystical, joyful essence
that is life and God. We rise
and transcend our false
barriers to enjoy the Oneness that, even if long forgotten,
we still crave deep down
in our cores.

Michael Goddart

Many days we may not get up with love in our hearts for our
family, our friends, our co-workers. We may, in fact, want them
to show their love for us first. But if we reach out, give love unconditionally, focus on another's needs, love will return
tenfold. And the act of loving them will lift our own spirits.
We will know love; we will feel love for ourselves and
the many persons close to us.

unattributed

Once you have found yourself
and accepted your aloneness,
then the greatest blessing is to share
the love that arises within you.
Each new moment presents
the richest opportunity to be loving.
And you can share love
in the simplest of ways.
Be soft and gentle.
Be caring and kind.
Be loving in an ordinary way,
without any sense
of wanting anything back,
Life offers you
the most precious gift.
The gift of allowing you
to be present and share love.

Leonard Jacobson

The face of love is variable. I am able to love without demanding
that my relationships assume the structures and forms I might choose
for them. My love is fluid, flexible, committed, creative. My love
allows people and events to unfold as they need. My love is not controlling. It does not dictate or demand. My love allows those
I love the freedom to assume the forms most true to them.
I release all those I love from my preconceptions of their path.
I allow them the dignity of self-definition while I offer them
a constant love that is ever variable in shape.

Julia Cameron

It is especially appropriate to say that the greatest
command, the most condensed philosophy, the wisest
success-achieving advice ever given was given by
a man who was crucified. He summed it all up when
he said, "Love one another." One does not really need
to fight for success. One can love one's way to success.

Thomas Dreier

The love we give away
is the only love we keep.

Elbert Hubbard

Love is never abstract. It does not adhere to the
universe or the planet or the nation or the institution
or the profession, but to the singular sparrows of
the street, the lilies of the field, “to the least of these
my brethren.” Love is not, by its own desire, heroic.
It is heroic only when compelled to be. It exists
by its willingness to be anonymous, humble, and unrewarded.

Wendell Barry

Love sought is good, but given unsought is better.

William Shakespeare

People think love is an emotion. Love is good sense.

Ken Kesey

If religion commands universal charity, to love
our neighbors as ourselves, to forgive and pray
for all our enemies without any reserve; it is because
all degrees of love are degrees of happiness, that
strengthen and support the Divine life of the soul,
and are as necessary to its health and happiness,
as proper food is necessary to the health
and happiness of the body.

William Law

All the old traditions tell us that there is more than one path to the great Goal.. . . The shortest and easiest pathway of all is the pathway of Love. It is the one pathway that is open to all, irrespective of what their personal conditions or circumstances may be. For every person, everywhere, true attainment awaits through the yoga of Love, for yoga means union and it is our union with God that makes the attainment possible.

Emmet Fox

Love is when I am concerned with your relationship
with your own life, rather than with your relationship
to mine. . . . There must be a commitment to each
other’s well-being. Most people who say they have
a commitment don’t; they have an attachment.
Commitment means, “I am going to stick with you
and support your experience of well-being.”
Attachment means, “I am stuck without you.”

Stewart Emery

When we come to the last moment of this lifetime,
and we look back across it, the only thing that's
going to matter is "What was the quality of our love?"

Richard Bach

Instead of allowing yourself to be so unhappy,
just let your life grow as God wants it to grow;
seek goodness in others, love more persons more;
love them more impersonally, more unselfishly,
without thought of return. The return, never fear,
will take care of itself.

Henry Drummond