The common prejudice that love is as common as “romance” may be due to the fact that we all learned about it first through poetry. But the poets fool us; they are the only ones to whom love is not only a crucial, but an indispensable experience, which entitles them to mistake it for a universal one.
~ Hannah Arendt
Then happy I that love and am beloved.
~ William Shakespeare / Sonnet 25
“The only real things in life are food and love in that order.”
~ David Hockney
It takes minimal life experience to know that happiness comes from a small number of disproportionately important things. Perhaps as few as two. One is a fulfilling job. The other is a vital private life, which could mean, according to taste, devotion to one person or what George Michael hailed as “fast love”.
~ Janan Ganesh / FT, February 7 2020
If you had to rate your satisfaction with your life so far, out of 10, what would you score?
10. I’ve been so lucky. I’ve loved and been loved, and in the end that’s all everybody ever wants.
~ Monty Don / Financial Times, 17th January 2020
“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,
And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.”
~ A Midsummer Night’s Dream
“All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.”
~
“I wanted to play Dracula because I wanted to say: ‘I’ve crossed oceans of time to find you.’ It was worth playing the role just to say that line.
We all look for that other half, that partner. I mean, wouldn’t it be great to say that line to someone and mean it?”
~ Gary Oldman / Esquire, December 16th 2011
“Who is there who would wish to be surrounded by all the riches in the world and enjoy every abundance in life and yet not love or be loved by anyone?”
~ Cicero