Didst thou but know the inly touch of love, Thou wouldst as soon go kindle fire with snow, As seek to quench the fire of love with words. Shakespeare.Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act II. Scene 7. (Julia to Lucetta.)
O, how this spring of love resembleth The uncertain glory of an April day; Which now shews all the beauty of the sun, And, by and by, a cloud takes all away! Shakespeare.Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act I. Scene 3. (Proteus alone.)
Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom. If this be error, and upon me provd, I never writ, nor no man ever lovd. Shakespeare.Sonnet, CXVI.
Fie, fie! how wayward is this foolish love, That, like a testy babe, will scratch the nurse, And presently all humbled, kiss the rod! Shakespeare.Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act I. Scene 2. (Julia alone.)
Ah me! for aught that ever I could read, Could ever hear by tale or history, The course of true love never did run smooth. Shakespeare.Midsummer Nights Dream, Act I. Scene 1. (Lysander to Hermia.)
But he who stems a stream with sand, And fetters flame with flaxen band, Has yet a harder task to prove By firm resolve to conquer love! Scott.Lady of the Lake, Canto III. Stanza 28.
But love is blind, and lovers cannot see The pretty follies that themselves commit. Shakespeare.Merchant of Venice, Act II. Scene 6. (Jessica to Lorenzo.)
All hearts in love use their own tongues; Let every eye negotiate for itself, And trust no agent. Shakespeare.Much Ado About Nothing, Act II. Scene 1. (Claudio alone.)
Love! who lightest on wealth, who makest thy couch in the soft cheeks of the youthful damsel, and roamest beyond the sea, and mid the rural cots, thee shall neither any of the immortals escape, nor men the creatures of a day. Buckleys Sophocles, Antigone, Page 188.
Alas! the love of women! it is known To be a lovely and a fearful thing; For all of theirs upon that die is thrown, And if tis lost, life hath no more to bring To them but mockeries of the past alone, And their revenge is as the tigers spring, Deadly, and quick, and crushing; yet, as real Torture is theirs, what they inflict they feel. Byron.Don Juan, Canto II. Stanza 199.
In men desire begets love, and in women love begets desire. Swift.A Quotation from Fitzharding the sister of Lady Orkney. (Journal to Stella, Letter 54.)
Oh love! what is it in this world of ours Which makes it fatal to be loved? Ah! why With cypress branches hast thou wreathed thy bowers, And made thy best interpreter a sigh? As those who dote on odours pluck the flowers, And place them on their breastbut place to die; Thus the frail beings we would fondly cherish Are laid within our bosoms but to perish. Byron.Don Juan, Canto III. Stanza 2.
True he it said, whatever man it said, That love with gall and honey doth abound; But if the one be with the other weighed, For every dram of honey therein found A pound of gall doth over it redound. Spenser.Fairy Queen, Book IV. Canto X., and Eclogue III. March.
In peace, love tunes the shepherds reed; In war, he mounts the warriors steed; In halls, in gay attire is seen; In hamlets, dances on the green. Love rules the court, the camp, the grove; And men below, and saints above; For love is heaven, and heaven is love. Scott.Lay of the Last Minstrel, Canto III. Verse 2.
Mans love is of mans life a thing apart, Tis womans whole existence: man may range The court, camp, church, the vessel, and the mart; Sword, gown, gain, glory, offer in exchange Pride, fame, ambition, to fill up his heart, And few there are whom these cannot estrange; Men have all these resources, we but one, To love again, and be again undone. Byron.Don Juan, Canto I. Stanza 194.
I cannot love thee as I ought, For love reflects the thing beloved; My words are only words, and moved Upon the topmost froth of thought. Tennyson.In Memoriam, Line I. Verse 1.
There is no other remedy for love, O Nicias, either in the way of salve, as it seems to me, or of plaster, except the Muses. Buckleys Theocritus, Page 58.
How to know a man in loveyour hose should be ungartered, your bonnet unbanded, your sleeve unbuttoned, your shoe untied, and every thing about you demonstrating a careless desolation. Shakespeare.As You Like It, Act III. Scene 2. (Rosalind to Orlando.)