Love quotes
Poets, playwrights and letter-writers have been trying to pin love down for as long as there has been ink. These are the lines that come closest: devoted, rueful, funny and plain, all from public-domain books and all free to put in a post or a video.
The library has 1,941 quotes on this topic. Here are 60 of the most quoted, no more than four from any one writer.
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60 love quotes
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’Tis better to have loved and lost Than never to have loved at all.
Alfred Tennyson In Memoriam A. H. H, XXVII -
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; And therefore is wing’d Cupid painted blind.
William Shakespeare A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act I Scene 1 -
The course of true love never did run smooth.
William Shakespeare A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act I Scene 1 -
But now faith, hope, and love remain—these three. The greatest of these is love.
Bible (World English Bible) 1 Corinthians, 13:13 -
But I am constant as the northern star, Of whose true-fix’d and resting quality There is no fellow in the firmament.
William Shakespeare Julius Caesar, Act iii. Sc. 1 -
A gentleman, nurse, that loves to hear himself talk, and will speak more in a minute than he will stand to in a month.
William Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet, Act ii. Sc. 4 -
The supreme happiness of life consists in the conviction that one is loved; loved for one’s own sake—let us say rather, loved in spite of one’s self.
Victor Hugo Les Misérables · translated by Isabel F. Hapgood -
It is easier to suppress the first desire, than to satisfy all that follow it.
Benjamin Franklin Poor Richard’s Almanack -
And hence one master-passion in the breast, Like Aaron’s serpent, swallows up the rest.
Alexander Pope Essay on Man. Epistle ii, Line 131 -
Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.
Alexander Pope The Rape of the Lock, Canto v. Line 34 -
Love is life in its fulness like the cup with its wine.
Rabindranath Tagore Stray Birds, 284 -
Men dream in courtship, but in wedlock wake.
Alexander Pope -
Lovers are never tired of each other,—they always speak of themselves.
François de La Rochefoucauld Maxims, Maxim 312 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
Nothing lovelier can be found In woman than to study household good, And good works in her husband to promote.
John Milton Paradise Lost -
Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.
Henry David Thoreau Walden -
True beauty dwells in deep retreats, Whose veil is unremoved Till heart with heart in concord beats, And the lover is beloved.
William Wordsworth To—-. Let other Bards of Angels sing -
Hatred does not cease by hatred at any time: hatred ceases by love, this is an old rule.
The Buddha Dhammapada, v. 5 · translated by F. Max Müller -
The ruling passion, be it what it will, The ruling passion conquers reason still.
Alexander Pope Moral Essays. Epistle iii, Line 153 -
You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope.
Jane Austen Persuasion, 1817 (Captain Wentworth’s letter) -
Love, and you shall be loved. All love is mathematically just, as much as the two sides of an algebraic equation.
Ralph Waldo Emerson Essays: First Series -
Girls we love for what they are; young men for what they promise to be.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe -
The love of justice is simply in the majority of men the fear of suffering injustice.
François de La Rochefoucauld Maxims, Maxim 78 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Kahlil Gibran The Prophet -
The pleasure of love is in loving, we are happier in the passion we feel than in that we inspire.
François de La Rochefoucauld Maxims, Maxim 259 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
Jealousy is always born with love, but does not always die with it.
François de La Rochefoucauld Maxims, Maxim 361 · translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell -
Yes, child of suffering, thou mayst well be sure He who ordained the Sabbath loves the poor!
Oliver Wendell Holmes A Rhymed Lesson. Urania -
Hail wedded love, mysterious law, true source Of human offspring.
John Milton Paradise Lost, Book iv. Line 750 -
Grace was in all her steps, heaven in her eye, In every gesture dignity and love.
John Milton Paradise Lost, Book viii. Line 488 -
To know, to esteem, to love, and then to part, Makes up life’s tale to many a feeling heart!
Samuel Taylor Coleridge On taking Leave of—-, 1817 -
Chords that vibrate sweetest pleasure Thrill the deepest notes of woe.
Robert Burns Sweet Sensibility -
The reason why so few marriages are happy is because young ladies spend their time in making nets, not in making cages.
Jonathan Swift Thoughts on Various Subjects -
Take heed lest passion sway Thy judgment to do aught, which else free will Would not admit.
John Milton Paradise Lost, Bk. VIII -
Lady of the Mere, Sole-sitting by the shores of old romance.
William Wordsworth A Narrow Girdle of Bough Stones -
Passions are likened best to floods and streams: The shallow murmur, but the deep are dumb.
Walter Raleigh The Silent Lover -
Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be.
Robert Browning Rabbi Ben Ezra, Dramatis Personæ -
And you must love him, ere to you He will seem worthy of your love.
William Wordsworth A Poet’s Epitaph, Stanza 11 -
But let there be spaces in your togetherness, And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.
Kahlil Gibran The Prophet -
The cold in clime are cold in blood, Their love can scarce deserve the name.
Lord Byron The Giaour, Line 1099 -
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning Sonnets from the Portuguese, XLIII -
Here the heart May give a useful lesson to the head, And Learning wiser grow without his books.
William Cowper The Task: Winter Walk at Noon -
Man’s love is of man’s life a thing apart; ’Tis woman’s whole existence.
Lord Byron Don Juan, Canto i. Stanza 194 -
I love scandals about other people, but scandals about myself don’t interest me. They have not got the charm of novelty.
Oscar Wilde Miscellaneous Aphorisms -
It’s the old, old story. Love—well, not at first sight—but love at the end of the season, which is so much more satisfactory.
Oscar Wilde Miscellaneous Aphorisms -
If the search for riches is sure to be successful, though I should become a groom with whip in hand to get them, I will do so. As the search may not be successful, I will follow after that which I love.
Confucius Analects, VII.11 · translated by James Legge -
One should always be in love. That is the reason one should never marry.
Oscar Wilde Miscellaneous Aphorisms -
It is only when we have learned to love forgetfulness that we have learned the art of living.
Oscar Wilde Miscellaneous Aphorisms -
I love these little people; and it is not a slight thing when they, who are so fresh from God, love us.
Charles Dickens -
From love comes grief, from love comes fear; he who is free from love knows neither grief nor fear.
The Buddha Dhammapada, v. 215 · translated by F. Max Müller -
Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.
William Congreve The Mourning Bride, Act iii. Sc. 8 -
Love took up the harp of Life, and smote on all the chords with might; Smote the chord of Self, that, trembling, pass’d in music out of sight.
Alfred Tennyson Locksley Hall, Line 33 -
Follow not after vanity, nor after the enjoyment of love and lust! He who is earnest and meditative, obtains ample joy.
The Buddha Dhammapada, v. 27 · translated by F. Max Müller -
He in whom there is truth, virtue, love, restraint, moderation, he who is free from impurity and is wise, he is called an elder.
The Buddha Dhammapada, v. 261 · translated by F. Max Müller -
They who know the truth are not equal to those who love it, and they who love it are not equal to those who delight in it.
Confucius Analects, VI.18 · translated by James Legge -
Man will do many things to get himself loved, he will do all things to get himself envied.
Mark Twain Following the Equator -
When rulers love to observe the rules of propriety, the people respond readily to the calls on them for service.
Confucius Analects, XIV.44 · translated by James Legge -
It is only the (truly) virtuous man, who can love, or who can hate, others.
Confucius Analects, IV.3 · translated by James Legge -
There are men who love their like and seek it; others love their opposite and follow after it.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Maxims and Reflections, Life and Character, No. 180 · translated by T. Bailey Saunders -
The modern sentimental term for the national minimum of celibacy is Purity.
George Bernard Shaw Maxims for Revolutionists -
Why did she love him? Curious fool!—be still—Is human love the growth of human will?
Lord Byron Lara, Canto II -
None are so desolate but something dear, dearer than self, possesses or possess’d.
Lord Byron Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage
Who wrote most about love
- William Shakespeare 180
- François de La Rochefoucauld 75
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 52
- Lord Byron 44
- Alfred Tennyson 33
- Ralph Waldo Emerson 33
- Thomas Carlyle 32
- Blaise Pascal 27
- Alexander Pope 26
- Jean Paul 25
- Oscar Wilde 20
- John Ruskin 20