On love

Lay your sleeping head, my love
Human on my faithless arm.

WH Auden . 1907-1973 . Anglo-American poet . Lullaby

When you cook it should be an act of love.  To put a frozen bag in the microwave for your child is an act of hate.

Raymond Blanc . 1949-   . French chef . article, Daily Telegraph

We need others.  We need others to love and we need to be loved by them.  There is no doubt that without it, we too, like the infant left alone, would cease to grow, cease to develop, choose madness and even death.

Leo Buscaglia . 1924-1998 . American teacher, writer and lecturer . Love

Twice or thrice had I loved thee,
Before I knew thy face or name.
So in a voice, so in a shapeless flame
Angels affect us oft, and worshipp’d be.

John Donne . 1572-1631 . English poet . Air and angels

“What is hell?” I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.

Fyodor Dostoevsky . 1821-1881 . Russian writer . The brothers Karamazov [trans, Constance Garnett]

She turned away, but with the autumn weather
Compelled my imagination many days,
Many days and many hours:
Her hair over her arms and her arms full of flowers.

TS Eliot  . 1888-1965 . American poet, dramatist and publisher . La figlia che piange

Lovers embrace that which is between them rather than each other.

Kahlil Gibran  . 1883-1931 . Lebanese-American artist, poet and writer . Sand and foam

As Narcissus fell in love with an outering (projection, extension) of himself, man seems invariably to fall in love with the newest gadget or gimmick that is merely an extension of his own body.

Marshall McLuhan . 1911-1980 . Canadian philosopher of communication theory . The agenbite of outwit

Not to be loved is a misfortune, but it is an insult to be loved no longer.

Charles de Montesquieu . 1689-1755 . French political thinker . Lettres persanes

Anxiety is love’s greatest killer…  It makes others feel as you might when a drowning man holds unto you.  You want to save him, but you know he will strangle you with his panic.

Anaïs Nin . 1903-1977 . French-born author . as quoted, French writers of the past (Dingle, 2000)

Love is like quicksilver in the hand.  Leave the fingers open and it stays.  Clutch it, and it darts away.

Dorothy Parker . 1893-1967 . American short story writer, poet and wit

Please don’t go.  We’ll eat you up.  We love you so.

Maurice Sendak . 1928-2012 . American writer and illustrator of children’s literature . Where the wild things are

He stepped down, trying not to look long at her, as if she were the sun, yet he saw her, like the sun, even without looking.

Leo Tolstoy . 1828-1910 . Russian writer, philosopher and social activist . Anna Karenina

selection copyright © 2015 Jeremy Marchant . extended 28 may 2015 . image:  Free images