The Four Loves

Friendship ... is born at the moment when one man says to another 'What! You too? I thought that no one but myself...'

Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: 'What! You too? I thought I was the only one.'

To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken.

We picture love as a momentary madness, but it is not. It is a long growing process.

Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our lives.

Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art. It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.

Love is not affectionate feeling, but a steady wish for the loved person's ultimate good as far as it can be obtained.

The course of true love never did run smooth.

We are all, in private life, decent people; and we are all, in public life, savage people.

The natural loves are not all selfless. Even the best of them is partly self-regarding.

We do not want merely to see beauty, though that is bad enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words: to be united with the beauty we see.