LOVE as defined by GREAT AUTHORS

Shakespeare
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, 1564-1616, English poet, Romeo and Juliet

Plato
At the touch of love every one becomes a poet, even though he had no music.
Plato, 428-347 b.C., Greek philosopher, Symposium


He whom love touches not walks in darkness.
Plato, 428-347 b.C., Greek philosopher, Symposium

Aristotle
To love is to rejoice

Aristotle, 384-322 b.C., Greek philosopher, The Nicomachean Ethics

Victor Hugo
The supreme happiness in life is the conviction that we are loved.
Victor Hugo, 1802-1885, French writer, Les Miserables

Seneca
You might say that love is friendship gone mad.
Seneca, 4 a.C.-65 d. C., Roman philosopher and politician, Letters to Lucilius

There can be no doubt that the desire lovers have for each other is not so very different from friendship – you might say it was friendship gone mad.
Seneca, 4 a.C.-65 d. C., Roman philosopher and politician, Letters to Lucilius


Santayana
The most ideal human passion is love, which is also the most absolute and animal and one of the most ephemeral.
George Santayana, 1863-1952, American philosopher, Reason in Religion

Novalis
Love is the supreme poetry of nature.

F. Novalis, 1722-1801, German writer, Heinrich von Ofterdingen

Bible, Corinthians
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, and it keeps no record of wrongs; it does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth; it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.
Bible, Corinthians 13


Alberoni
The love passion is the dawning state of collective movement of two beings.

Francesco Alberoni, Italian essayist, Le choc amoureux

Saint-Exupéry
Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction
A. Saint-Exupéry, 1900-1944, French writer, Wind, Sand and Stars

Stendhal
To love is to derive pleasure from seeing, touching and feeling through all one’s senses and as closely as possible, a lovable object who loves us.
Stendhal, 1783-1842, French writer, On Love


Lisa Hoffman
Love is like pi - natural, irrational, and very important
Attributed to Lisa Hoffman, American artist