Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs,
Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers’ eyes,
Being vexed, a sea nourished with lovers’ tears.
What is it else?
A madness most discreet,
A choking gall, and a preserving sweet. William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet I i 187-191, Romeo to Benvolio
Is love a tender thing? It is too rough,
Too rude, too boisterous, and it pricks like thorn. ibid. I iv 25-26, Romeo to Mercutio
If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark. ibid. II i 33, Mercutio to Benvolio
For stony limits cannot hold love out,
And what love can do, that dares love attempt. ibid. II i 109-110, Romeo to Juliet
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. ibid. II i 175-177, Juliet to Romeo
Love goes toward love as schoolboys from their books,
But love from love toward school with heavy looks. ibid. II i 201-202, Romeo to Juliet
Young men’s love then lies
Not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes. ibid. II ii 67-68, Friar Laurence to Romeo
Love’s heralds should be thoughts,
Which ten times faster glides than the sun’s beams
Driving back shadows over louring hills. ibid. II iv 4-6, Juliet to self
When he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night
And pay no worship to the garish sun. ibid. III ii @21
The course of true love never did run smooth. William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream I i 134, Lysander to Hermia
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,
And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.
Nor hath love’s mind of any judgement taste;
Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste.
And therefore is love said to be a child.
Because in choice he is so oft beguiled. ibid. I i 234-239
Wherefore was I to the keen mockery born? When at your hands did I deserve this scorn? ibid. II ii 129-130
And yet, to say the truth, reason and love keep little company together nowadays. ibid. III i 136-137
Lovers and madmen have such seething brains.
Such shaping fantasies, that apprehends
The lunatic, the lover, and the poet, are of imagination all compact. ibid. V i 4, Theseus to Hippolyta et al
But love is blind, and lovers cannot see
The petty follies that themselves commit. William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice II vi 36-37. Jessica to Lorenzo
When love begins to sicken and decay
It useth an enforced ceremony. William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar IV ii 20-21, Brutus
This is the very ecstasy of love. William Shakespeare, Hamlet II i 101, Polonius to Ophelia
Ophelia: ’Tis brief, my lord.
Hamlet: As woman’s love. ibid. III ii 141-142
But that I know love is begun by time;
And that I see, in passages of proof,
Time qualifies the spark and fire of it.
There lives within the very flame of love
A kind of wick or snuff that will abate it
And nothing is at a like goodness still. ibid. IV vii 111-116, King to Laertes
That’s a degree to love. William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night III I 122, Olivia
Love sought is good, but given unsought, is better. ibid. III I 154 Olivia
I have one heart, one bosom, and one truth. ibid. III I 156, Viola
Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none. William Shakespeare, All’s Well That Ends Well I i
I never found man that knew how to love himself. William Shakespeare, Othello I iii 313-314, Iago
As they say base men being in love have then a nobility in their natures more than is native to them. ibid. II i @216, Iago
The Moor … is of a constant, loving, noble nature
And I dare think he’ll prove to Desdemona
A most dear husband. Now I do love her too. ibid. II i @287
Love is not love
When it is mingled with respects that stands
Aloof from the entire point. William Shakespeare, The History of King Lear I i @230, France
I am sick of this false world, and will love naught. William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens IV iii 278, Timon
As I hope
For quiet days, fair issue, and long life
With such love as ’tis now. William Shakespeare, The Tempest IV i 23-25, Ferdinand
Hunting he loved, but love he laughed to scorn. William Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis l4
For looks kill love, and love by looks reviveth;
A smile recures the wounding of a frown. ibid.
Call it not love, for love to heaven is fled
Since sweating lust on earth usurped his name,
Under whose simple semblance he hath fed
Upon fresh beauty, blotting it with blame;
Which the hot tyrant stains, and soon bereaves,
As caterpillars do the tender leaves
Love comforted, like sunshine after rain,
But lust’s effect is tempest after sun,
Love’s gentle spring doth always fresh remain;
Lust’s winter comes ere summer half be done.
Love surfeits not; lust like a glutton lies,
Love is all truth, lust full of forget lies. ibid.
So true a fool is love that in your will,
Though you do anything, he thinks no ill. William Shakespeare, Sonnet 57
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken. William Shakespeare, Sonnet 116
Love’s not Time’s fool. ibid.
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error, and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved. ibid.
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare. William Shakespeare, Sonnet 130
When my love swears that she is made of truth,
I do believe her, though I know she lies. William Shakespeare, Sonnet 138
The perpetual hunger to be beautiful and that thirst to be loved which is the real curse of Eve. Jean Rhys, The Left Bank, 1927
There is love of course. And then there’s life, it’s enemy. Jean Anouilh, Ardèle, 1949
No, there’s nothing half so sweet in life
As love’s young dream. Thomas Moore, Irish Melodies, 1807
Reason is nothing less than the guardian of love. Sam Harris, The End of Faith
The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing. Blaise Pascal
What truly is logic? Who decides reason? ... It is only in the mysterious equations of love that any logic or reason can be found. John Nash
One, remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Two, never give up work. Work gives you meaning and purpose, and life is empty without it. Three, if you are lucky enough to find love, remember it is there and don’t throw it away. Stephen Hawking