What is love? That depends on who you ask.
The ancient Greeks defined four types of love--agape, philia, storge, eros--and our modern dictionary reflects these distinctions with multiple definitions of the word:
1. a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person;
2. a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend;
3. sexual passion or desire.
Accurate, but not exactly stirring. When scientist Ellie Arroway (Jodie Foster) hurtles through deep space in the movie Contact and is overcome with emotion at the vastness and beauty of the cosmos before her, she exclaims, "They should have sent a poet." That's how I feel about defining love. We should leave it to the poets, philosophers, and other deep thinkers like these:
"To love is to will the good of another." - St. Thomas Aquinas
"Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence." - H. L. Mencken
"Love is a single soul inhabiting two bodies." - Aristotle
"Love is life. All that I understand, I understand only because I love. Everything is, everything exists, only because I love. Everything is united by it alone." - Leo Tolstoy
"To love is to be delighted by the happiness of another." - Gottfried Leibniz
"Love is the only gold." - Alfred, Lord Tennyson
"Love is a mutual self-giving which ends in self-recovery." - Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen
"Love is like quicksilver in the hand. Leave the fingers open and it stays. Clutch it, and it darts away." - Dorothy Parker
"Love is most nearly itself when here and now cease to matter." - T. S. Eliot
"Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself. Love possesses not nor would it be possessed. Love is sufficient unto love." - Kahlil Gibran
"Love looks not with eyes, but with the mind." - William Shakespeare
"Love is, above all, the gift of oneself." - Jean Anouilh
And, finally, from Urban Dictionary, a definition more practical than poetic:
"Love: nature's way of tricking people into reproducing."
Which of these is closest to your definition of love? What is your definition of love? What definitions would you add to this list?
The ancient Greeks defined four types of love--agape, philia, storge, eros--and our modern dictionary reflects these distinctions with multiple definitions of the word:
1. a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person;
2. a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend;
3. sexual passion or desire.
Accurate, but not exactly stirring. When scientist Ellie Arroway (Jodie Foster) hurtles through deep space in the movie Contact and is overcome with emotion at the vastness and beauty of the cosmos before her, she exclaims, "They should have sent a poet." That's how I feel about defining love. We should leave it to the poets, philosophers, and other deep thinkers like these:
"To love is to will the good of another." - St. Thomas Aquinas
"Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence." - H. L. Mencken
"Love is a single soul inhabiting two bodies." - Aristotle
"Love is life. All that I understand, I understand only because I love. Everything is, everything exists, only because I love. Everything is united by it alone." - Leo Tolstoy
"To love is to be delighted by the happiness of another." - Gottfried Leibniz
"Love is the only gold." - Alfred, Lord Tennyson
"Love is a mutual self-giving which ends in self-recovery." - Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen
"Love is like quicksilver in the hand. Leave the fingers open and it stays. Clutch it, and it darts away." - Dorothy Parker
"Love is most nearly itself when here and now cease to matter." - T. S. Eliot
"Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself. Love possesses not nor would it be possessed. Love is sufficient unto love." - Kahlil Gibran
"Love looks not with eyes, but with the mind." - William Shakespeare
"Love is, above all, the gift of oneself." - Jean Anouilh
And, finally, from Urban Dictionary, a definition more practical than poetic:
"Love: nature's way of tricking people into reproducing."
Which of these is closest to your definition of love? What is your definition of love? What definitions would you add to this list?
Baby don't hurt me...
Don't hurt me...
No more!
No more...
SCORE! Well done, mes amis.
I always think of this snipit from WH Auden's "Funeral Blues":
He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
That's what love means to me. :)
"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." 1 cor, 13:4-7
I don't mean to bring religion into it, but I just love this passage.
Love is what you do when there is a element or incident when you dont "feel" like it, its what you do when you dont want to...
Love is the reason we are all here. To learn to give it and maybe more importantly, to receive it. Everything else is bullshit. Love is the thing. :)
Love is life. And if you miss love, you miss life.
"Love Is When Your Puppy Licks Your Face Even After You Left Him Alone All Day."
I think this quote says it all. Love is unconditional and accepting of all flaws, even to those actions that werent all that great. Love is forgiveness.
Love is feeling without walls. Those I love I will always love no matter what. Meaning if my love goes crazy and burns down my house I will still love them. That love will not prevent me from pressing charges and getting a restraining order, love in itself is not necessarily enough. But the love will always remain.
A wise and dear friend of mine once told me that love is putting another person's needs ahead of your own. The Buddhist definition of love is wanting others to be happy. Both of these boil down to one thing: selflessness. Love is self-less.
To me love is wanting to spend as much time with another as you can. You feel comfortable in their company. You also want the best for them. Their joy is your joy and their sorrow is your sorrow.
Aw, lovely put.