Human history is scattered with all kinds of attempts to define love, and this evolution is far from ending. We, as a society, continue to think about love, talk about love, and let ourselves be consumed by its powerful force as ever before. Here is a collection of our favorite thought-provoking perspectives on love and amazing images from our community members. Enjoy! XOXOXO
On love and mystery:
“Nothing is mysterious, no human relation.
“Great love is never justified. It’s like the little tree that springs up in some inexplicable fashion on the side of a cliff: where are its roots, what does it feed on, what miracle produces those green leaves?” —Wis?awa Szymborska
“No one’s fated or doomed to love anyone. The accidents happen.we’re not heroines, they happen in our lives like car crashes, books that change us, neighborhoods we move into and come to love.” — Adrienne Rich
On love and joy:
“I get all excited like a child when I think about being with you again — If people could see into my heart I should almost feel ashamed.” —Mozart
On love and its paradoxical nature:
“All love stories are frustration stories… To fall in love is to be reminded of
“The only people who can still strike us as normal are those we don’t yet know very well.” —Alain de Botton
“Love rests on two pillars: surrender and autonomy. Our need for togetherness exists alongside our need for separateness. One does not exist without the other.” —Esther Perel
On love and loving:
“Love is the quality of attention we pay to things.” —J.D. McClatchy
“Attention without feeling … is only a report.” —Mary Oliver
“Love isn’t something natural. Rather it requires discipline, concentration, patience, faith, and the overcoming of narcissism. It isn’t a feeling, it is a practice.” —Eric Fromm
“Future love does not exist. Love is a present activity only. The man who does not manifest love in the present has
On love and boundaries:
“Love one another but make not a bond of love: let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.”—Kahlil Gibran
“Paradoxically, the ability to be alone is the condition for the ability to love.” —Eric Fromm
“People with strong boundaries understand that it’s unreasonable to expect two people to accommodate each other 100 percent and fulfill every need the other has. People with strong boundaries understand that they may hurt someone’s feelings sometimes, but ultimately they can’t determine how other people feel. People with strong boundaries understand that a healthy relationship is not about controlling one another’s emotions, but rather about each partner supporting the other in their individual growth and in solving their own problems.” —Mark Manson
“Why is love rich beyond all other possible human experiences and a sweet burden to those seized in its grasp? Because we become what we love and yet remain ourselves. Then we want to thank the beloved, but find nothing that suffices.”—Martin Heidegger
On love and maturity:
“Infantile love follows the principle: “I love because I am loved.”
Mature love follows the principle: “I am loved because I love.”
Immature love says: “I love you because I need you.”
Mature love says: “I need you because I love you.” ? Erich Fromm
“Once you know how to come home to yourself, then you can open your home to other
On love and perfectionism:
“Where the myth fails, human love begins. Then we love a human being, not our dream, but a human being with flaws.” —Anaïs Nin
“Perfection is inhuman… What evokes our love … is the imperfection of the human being.” —Joseph Campbell
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