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In uncertainty I am certain that underneath their topmost layers of frailty men want to be good and want to be loved. Indeed, most of their vices are attempted shortcuts to love. John Steinbeck
I loved thee in thy springtime blush of youth,
Life ripens, glisters autumn shades of gold
Now crumbles dread – too soon turns to grey.
Those happy days. I love thee of a truth,
And keep thee close as when I once did hold
Thee in my arms – so soon have blown away
Those days like leaves.
Yet Life retains thy love for me
To blossom, dear,
As sure my love for thee. esias, Love in Bloom, 2002
If it [God] were to be true, one would be living under a permanent surveillance, a round-the-clock celestial dictatorship that watched you while you slept; and could convict you of thought crime, could indict you for things you thought in the privacy of your own skull, and sentence you to quite a long stretch, namely an eternity of punishment for that. Or dangle not to me very attractive reward of life of eternal praise and grovelling and sprawling and singing the praises of someone who you are ordered to love; someone whom you must both love and fear ... Compulsory love – how fascinating. Christopher Hitchens, interview Divine Impulses
Who needs divine permission for love? To be told to love – isn’t it rather odd to be told to love? It’s always seemed bizarre to me. Ordered to love: something is cranky there. And ordered to love others as much as you love yourself and your loved ones – that’s making an impossible commandment for people. Christopher Hitchens v Mark Roberts, debate 2007
A celestial dictatorship which one must love and simultaneously fear. What is it like ... to lie to children for a living ... Compulsory love – what a grotesque idea! Christopher Hitchens v Alister McGrath, debate Georgetown University Washington 2007
We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another. Jonathan Swift
Only by love can men see me, and know me, and come unto me. He who works for me, who loves me, whose End Supreme I am, free from attachment to all things, and with love for all creation, he in truth comes unto me. Bhagavad Gita, Hindu epic poem incorporated into Mahabharata
I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. Martin Luther King
We must discover the power of love, the power, the redemptive power of love. And when we discover that we will be able to make of this old world a new world. We will be able to make men better. Love is the only way. Martin Luther King
When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it – always. Mahatma Gandhi
Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song,
A medley of extemporanea;
And love is a thing that can never go wrong;
And I am Marie of Roumania. Dorothy Parker, Comment
Four be the things I’d been better without:
Love, curiosity, freckles, and doubt. Dorothy Parker, Inventory, 1937
To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead. Bertrand Russell, Marriage and Morals, 1929
Love is wise; hatred is foolish. Bertrand Russell, Face to Face, BBC 1959
For the crown of our life as it closes
Is darkness, the fruit thereof dust;
No thorns go as deep as the rose’s,
And love is more cruel than lust. Algernon Charles Swinburne, Delores
Love is merely a madness. William Shakespeare, As You Like It III ii 386, Rosalind to Orlando
In thy youth thou wast as true a lover
As ever sighted upon a midnight pillow. ibid. II iv 26
Under the greenwood tree
Who loves to lie with me,
And turn his merry note
Unto the sweet bird’s throat,
Come hither, come hither, come hither:
Here shall he see
No enemy
But winter and rough weather. ibid. II v 1
Besides, the oath of a love is no stronger than the word of a tapster. ibid.
Down on your knees,
And thank heaven, fasting, for a good man’s love. ibid. III v 57
I pray you, do not fall in love with me,
For I am falser than vows made in wine. ibid. III v 72
Dear shepherd, now I find thy saw of might:
‘Who ever loved that loved not at first sight.’ ibid. III v 81
Come woo me, woo me; for now I am in a holiday humour, and like enough to consent. ibid. IV i 70
The horn, the horn, the lusty horn
Is not a thing to laugh to scorn. ibid. IV ii 17
It was a lover and his lass,
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,
That o’er the green cornfield did pass,
In the spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding;
Sweet lovers love the spring. ibid. V iii 18
A poor virgin, sir, an ill-favoured thing, sir, but mine own. ibid. V iv 60
Away, you trifler! Love! I love thee not,
I care not for thee, Kate: this is no world
To play with mammets and to tilt with lips:
We must have bloody noses and cracked crowns. William Shakespeare, I Henry IV II iii 95
A man can die but once. We owe God a death. William Shakespeare, II Henry IV III ii 232-233, Feeble
Love is a familiar; love is a devil. There is no evil angel but love. William Shakespeare, Love’s Labour’s Lost I ii 164-165, Armado to Costard