Love

Love makes obedience lighter than liberty.
~ William Rounseville (W.R.) Alger, The Friendships of Women (1868). Friendships of Wives and Husbands

The proportionate number of examples of virtuous love, completing itself in marriage, will probably diminish, and the relative examples of defeated or of unlawful love increase, until we reach some new phase of civilization, with better harmonized social arrangements, -- arrangements both more economical and more truthful.
~ William Rounseville (W.R.) Alger, The Friendships of Women (1868). Introduction

Scarcely a tear to shed;
Hardly a word to say;
The end of a Summer's day;
Sweet Love is dead.
~ William Allingham, from Flower Pieces and Other Poems (1888). An Evening

Lo, thou art fair, my Love; lo, thou art fair;
Thou hast dove's eyes.
~ William Baldwin, from The Canticles or Ballads of Solomon (1549).

Love always involves responsibility, and love always involves sacrifice. And we do not really love Christ unless we are prepared to face His task and to take up His Cross ...
~ William Barclay

The only victory love can enjoy is the day when its offer of love is answered by the return of love.
~ William Barclay, William Barclay, A Spiritual Autobiography (1975).

When we love anyone with our whole hearts, life begins when we are with that person; it is only in their company that we are really and truly alive.
~ William Barclay, The Gospel of John, Vol. 2 (1975).

When you're trying to love two, it sure ain't easy to do.
~ William Bell, Tryin' To Love Two (1976).

[M]ortal, know thou, love
Is highest wisdom, and its joy
Is joy, all joy above.
~ William Cox (W.C.) Bennett, from Poems (1850). The Prayers. A Dream

And we are put on earth a little space
That we may learn to bear the beams of love.
~ William Blake, from Songs of Innocence (1789). The Little Black Boy

I am in you, and you in Me, mutual in Love Divine.
~ William Blake, from Jerusalem: The Emanation of The Giant Albion (1804).

I cry, Love! Love! Love! happy happy Love! free as the mountain wind!
~ William Blake, Visions of the Daughters of Albion (1793).

I thought Love lived in the hot sunshine,
But O, he lives in the moony light!
I thought to find Love in the heat of day,
But sweet Love is the comforter of night.
~ William Blake, from The Pickering Manuscript (c. 1803). William Bond

[I]f a thing loves, it is infinite.
~ William Blake, from Annotations to Swedenborg's 'Divine Love and Divine Wisdom' (1788).

Love seeketh not itself to please,
Nor for itself hath any care;
But for another gives its ease,
And builds a Heaven in Hell's despair.
~ William Blake, from Songs of Experience (1794). The Clod and the Pebble

Love seeketh only Self to please,
To bind another to its delight,
Joys in another's loss of ease,
And builds a Hell in Heaven's despite.
~ William Blake, from Songs of Experience (1794). The Clod and the Pebble

Love to faults is always blind
Always is to joy inclin'd
Lawless wing'd & unconfin'd
And breaks all chains from every mind.
~ William Blake, How to know Love from Deceit

Never seek to tell thy love,
Love that never told can be;
For the gentle wind does move
Silently, invisibly.
~ William Blake, from The Rossetti Manuscript (c. 1793-1811). Love's Secret

The Angel that presided o'er my birth
Said, "Little creature, formed of joy and mirth,
Go love without the help of any thing on earth."
~ William Blake, The Angel That Presided

The mind has a thousand eyes.
And the heart but one;
Yet the light of a whole life dies
When love is done.
~ Francis William Bourdillon, Among the Flowers (1878). Light

But come on shore
Where no joy dies till love hath gotten more.
~ William Browne, of Tavistock, The Inner Temple Masque (1614). Siren's Song

For her gait, if she be walking;
Be she sitting,
I desire her
For her state's sake; and admire her
For her wit if she be talking.
~ William Browne, of Tavistock, in The Poems of William Browne of Tavistock, Volume 2 (1894). Miscellaneous Poems. Sonnet

Love makes money-grabbing seem contemptible; love makes class prejudice impossible; love makes selfish ambition a thing to be despised; love converts enemies into friends.
~ William Jennings Bryan, from In His Image (1922). VIII: His Government And Peace

Love came at dawn when hope's wings fanned the air,
And murmured, "I am life."
~ William Wilfred Campbell, Beyond the Hills of Dream (1899). Love

My true love is she
Who can jest with any man --
Any man but me.
~ William Canton, from A Lost Epic: And Other Poems (1887). Song

I was that silly thing that once was wrought
To practise this thin love;
I climbed from sex to soul, from soul to thought;
But thinking there to move,
Headlong I rolled from thought to soul, and then
From soul I lighted at the sex again.
~ William Cartwright, in Comedies, Tragi-comedies, With other Poems (1651). No Platonic Love

Were she less lovely, less divine,
Less passion and despair were mine!
~ Guillaume de Cabestaing

Human love was a wonderful thing, he told himself, and it was most wonderful where it had least to gain.
~ Willa Sibert Cather, One of Ours (1922). Book Two: Enid. Chapter XII

Where there is great love there are always miracles.
~ Willa Sibert Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927). The Vicar Apostolic

All the works of love are joys to love, whether they be hard or easy.
~ William Newton Clarke, The Christian Doctrine of God (1909). I. God

The ideal of love is a mighty peace.
~ William Newton Clarke, The Christian Doctrine of God (1909). I. God

Genuine love expands, it doesn't contract.
~ Rev. William Sloane Coffin, Jr., from A Passion for the Possible: A Message to U.S. Churches (1993). A Vision of the Future

Love measures our stature: the more we love, the bigger we are. There is no smaller package in all the world than that of a man all wrapped up in himself!
~ Rev. William Sloane Coffin, Jr., from Credo (2003). Faith, Hope, Love

Is there something wrong in human nature? or something wrong in human laws? All that is best and noblest in us feels the influence of love -- and the rules of society declare that an accident of position shall decide whether love is a virtue or a crime.
~ (William) Wilkie Collins, The Evil Genius (1886), Vol. I. Third Book, Chapter V: Decision

[A]gad, my heart has gone a pit pat for thee.
~ William Congreve, The Old Bachelor (1693). Act II, scene ii

[H]e that can't live upon love deserves to die in a ditch.
~ William Congreve, The Double Dealer (1694).

If there's delight in love, 'tis when I see
That heart which others bleed for, bleed for me.
~ William Congreve, The Way of the World (1700). Act III, scene xii

If this be not love, it is madness, and then it is pardonable.
~ William Congreve, The Old Bachelor (1693).

Life without Love is Load; and Time stands still:
What we refuse to him, to Death we give;
And then, then only, when we love, we live.
~ William Congreve, The Mourning Bride (1697). Act II, scene i

Love's but the frailty of the mind,
When 'tis not with ambition joined:
A sickly flame, which, if not fed, expires,
And feeding, wastes in self-consuming fires.
~ William Congreve, The Way of the World (1700). Act III, scene xii

That's one of love's April fools; is always upon some errand that's to no purpose; ever embarking in adventures, yet never comes to harbour.
~ William Congreve, The Old Bachelor (1693).

'Tis true she is excessively foppish and affected; but in my conscience I believe the baggage loves me: for she never speaks well of me herself, nor suffers anybody else to rail at me.
~ William Congreve, The Old Bachelor (1693).

[S]ay what you will, 'tis better to be left than never to have been loved.
~ William Congreve, The Way of the World (1700). Act II, scene i

[W]ords are the weak support of cold indifference; love has no language to be heard.
~ William Congreve, The Double Dealer (1694). Act IV, scene ii

Absence from whom we love is worse than death, and frustrates hope severer than despair.
~ William Cowper, Hope, like the Short-lived Ray

Mine is an unchanging love,
Higher than the heights above,
Deeper than the depths beneath,
Free and faithful, strong as death.
~ William Cowper, from Olney Hymns (1779). Book I: On Select Passages of Scripture. Lovest Thou Me?

Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die.
~ William Cowper, from Olney Hymns (1779). Book I: On Select Passages of Scripture. Praise for the fountain opened

I love thee for a heart that's kind --
Not for the knowledge of thy mind.
~ William Henry (W.H.) Davies, from Foliage: Various Poems (1913). Sweet Stay-at-Home

And for bonnie Annie Laurie
I'd lay doun my head and die.
~ William Douglas (of Fingland), Annie Laurie (c. 1700).

The love we have in our youth is superficial compared to the love that an old man has for his old wife.
~ William James "Will" Durant (on his 90th birthday), in The New York Times (6 November 1975).

Love makes the world go 'round, and so does a bump on the head.
~ Bill Ekstrand

Loving all of it even while he had to hate some of it because he knows now that you don't love because: you love despite; not for the virtues, but despite the faults.
~ William Faulkner, in Holiday Magazine (April 1954). Mississippi (essay).

Perhaps they were right in putting love into books, ... Perhaps it could not live anywhere else.
~ William Faulkner, Light in August (1932).

If you want to have love, you have to open your heart and give love.
~ Bill Ferguson

My heart is a bargain today. Will you take it?
~ W.C. Fields, Attributed

What is the charm of all, but love?
~ William Johnson ("W.J.") Fox, Hymns and Anthems (1845). Book II. CXXIX

In cases where every thing is understood, and measured, and reduced to rule, love is out of the question.
~ William Godwin, Thoughts on Man, His Nature, Productions and Discoveries (1831). Essay XV. Of Love and Friendship

The great model of the affection of love in human beings, is the sentiment which subsists between parents and children.
~ William Godwin, Thoughts on Man, His Nature, Productions and Discoveries (1831). Essay XV. Of Love and Friendship

[B]ut love is many things, none of them logical.
~ William Goldman, The Princess Bride (1973).

Love refuseth nothing that love sends.
~ William Gurnall, The Christian In Complete Armour (1665).

When afflicted, love can allow thee to groan, but not to grumble.
~ William Gurnall, The Christian In Complete Armour (1665).

There is no instruction booklet for loving. Love is not something you "learn" how to do, nor is it a habit you can develop if you try hard enough. ... Love is much more fundamental than any kind of thinking or believing. Love, rather, is the root and basis of who you are, at the most fundamental level. This means that anything other than love as an expression of your being is artificial and unnatural and is a result of not knowing who you are.
~ Bill Harris, Centerpointe Research Institute "Mind Chatter" (1 May 2001). Where is the Love?

Diffidence and awkwardness are the two antidotes to love.
~ William Hazlitt, in Sketches and Essays (1839). On Disagreeable People (written in 1827)

In love we never think of moral qualities, and scarcely of intellectual ones. Temperament and manner alone (with beauty) excite love.
~ William Hazlitt, Characteristics: in the Manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims (1823).

The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the love of ourselves.
~ William Hazlitt, from Political Essays, with Sketches of Public Characters (1819). The Times Newspaper (written 12 January 1817)

Don't threaten me with love, baby. Let's just go walking in the rain.
~ Billie Holiday

Love is like a faucet (it turns off and on).
~ Billie Holiday

Mama may have, papa may have,
But God bless the child that's got his own!
~ Billie Holiday, God Bless the Child (1941 song).

I rocked the cradle of love.
~ Billy Idol, in Charmed Life (2000 album). Cradle Of Love

Don't go trying some new fashion
Don't change the color of your hair ...
I could not love you any better
I love you just the way you are.
~ Billy Joel, from The Stranger (1977 album). Just The Way You Are

[L]ove extinguish'ed, earth and heav'n must fail.
~ Sir William Jones, Hymn to Durga. VIII.2 (1788)

They invented hugs to let people know you love them without saying anything.
~ Bil Keane, Family Circus

[H]armony in Love is Nature's voice.
~ William King, The Art of Love, in imitation of Ovid (1709). Part III

True lovers would require only a mattress on the floor to cast their spells one upon the other and enjoin the world to slip away. Until the world refused.
~ William Lashner, Fatal Flaw (2003).

Let every creature have your love.
~ William Law, A Collection of Letters: On the Most Interesting and Important Subjects, and on Several Occasions (1760). Letter XI

Love and pity and wish well to every soul in the world; dwell in love, and then you dwell in God; hate nothing but the evil that stirs in your own heart.
~ William Law, A Collection of Letters: On the Most Interesting and Important Subjects, and on Several Occasions (1760). Letter XI

[Love] has no Errors, for all Errors are the Want of Love.
~ William Law, The Spirit of Prayer, Part II (1752).

The love that brought forth the existence of all things changes not through the fall of its creatures, but is continually at work to bring back all fallen nature and creature to their first state of goodness.
~ William Law, An Humble, Earnest, And Affectionate Address to the Clergy (1761).

The spirit of love does not want to be rewarded, honoured, or esteemed. Its only desire is to propagate itself and become the blessing and happiness of everything that wants it.
~ William Law, The Spirit of Love, Part I (1752).

You may indeed do many works of love and delight in them -- especially at such times as they are not inconvenient to your state or temper or occurrences in life. But the Spirit of Love is not in you till it is the spirit of your life, till you live freely, willingly, and universally according to it.
~ William Law, The Spirit of Love, Part I (1752).

To love is to find pleasure in the happiness of the person loved.
~ Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz

Pure worship of the Beautiful--the True --
Under whatever form it comes to you.
~ William James Linton, Claribel and Other Poems (1865). Definitions. Love

And love wins love, loud shouted he!
~ William Wilberforce (W.W.) Lord, from Poems (1845). A Rime

Is love the reward, or the test itself?
~ William Matthews, A Happy Childhood (1985). The Theme of the Three Caskets

"True love" isn't so much a dreamy feeling that you have as it is an enduring commitment to give sacrificially -- even, or perhaps especially, when you don't feel like it.
~ William R. Mattox, Jr.

But it's loving that's the important thing, not being loved. One's not even grateful to the people who love one; if one doesn't love them, they only bore one.
~ W. Somerset Maugham, The Painted Veil (1925).

It is awful, love, isn't it? Fancy anyone wanting to be in love.
~ W. Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage (1915).

Love is only the dirty trick played on us to achieve continuation of the species.
~ W. Somerset Maugham, from A Writer's Notebook (1949).

Love is what happens to men and women who don't know each other.
~ W. Somerset Maugham

The great tragedy of life is not that men perish, but that they cease to love.
~ W. Somerset Maugham, The Summing Up (1938).

The important thing was to love rather than to be loved.
~ W. Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage (1915).

The love that lasts longest is the love that is never returned.
~ W. Somerset Maugham, quoted in his obituaries (1965).

The tragedy of love is indifference.
~ W. Somerset Maugham, The Trembling of a Leaf (1921). IV. Red

There's always one who loves and one who lets himself be loved.
~ W. Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage (1915).

Send the light of your own loving ahead of you. When you get there, the loving will have prepared a place for you. Be kind, gentle, and enjoy the journey.
~ Peter McWilliams, You Can't Afford the Luxury of a Negative Thought (1995). Part Two -- The Cure

Some of the greatest love affairs I've known have involved one actor -- unassisted.
~ Wilson Mizner, Attributed

Stirr'd by strong powers more wise than ours, we met, we saw, we loved.
~ William Cosmo Monkhouse, from A Dream of Idleness, And Other Poems (1865). Love's Gain

Love is enough: though the world be a-waning,
And the woods have no voice but the voice of complaining.
~ William Morris, Love Is Enough

Love is not blind - It sees more and not less, but because it sees more it is willing to see less.
~ Will Moss

Ninety-nine percent of the world's lovers are not with their first choice. That's what makes the jukebox play.
~ Willie Nelson, The Tao of Willie: A Guide to the Happiness in Your Heart (2006). The Willie Way -- Things I've Had to Learn Twice

Do I advise you to love the neighbor? I suggest rather to escape from the neighbor and to love those who are the farthest away from you. Higher than the love for the neighbor is the love for the man who is distant and has still to come.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra (1885).

Family love is messy, clinging, and of an annoying and repetitive pattern, like bad wallpaper.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Love is a state in which a man sees things most decidedly as they are not.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, The Antichrist (1888).

Love is not consolation. It is light.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Love matches, so called, have illusion for their father and need for their mother.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

One must learn to be a sponge if one wants to be loved by hearts that overflow.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

That which is done out of love always takes place beyond good and evil.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil (1885-86).

True, we love life, not because we are used to living, but because we are used to loving. There is always some madness in love, but there is also always some reason in madness.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra (1885). Reading and Writing

Along the garden ways just now
I heard the flowers speak;
The white rose told me of your brow,
The red rose of your cheek;
The lily of your bended head,
The bindweed of your hair:
Each looked its loveliest and said
You were more fair.
~ Arthur William Edgar O'Shaughnessy, from Songs of a Worker (1881). A Love Symphony

As Love ought to bring them together, so it is the best Way to keep them well together.
~ William Penn, Some Fruits of Solitude (1693). Part I. Avarice

Never marry but for love; but see that thou lovest what is lovely.
~ William Penn, Some Fruits of Solitude (1693). Part I. Right Marriage

They that love beyond the world cannot be separated by it.
~ William Penn, Some Fruits of Solitude (1693). Part II. Union of Friends

Love is a creative force; it sees what is good, brings it out, encourages it, develops it. They say that Love is blind; but it is blind only to defects; it has in reality the sharpest and clearest vision, for it sees beauty where others see only ugliness; it sees courage in obscure corners, and in commonplace minds it detects and recognizes the seeds of nobility. One cannot become a good critic of music unless one loves music; one will never understand men and women unless one begins by loving them.
~ William Lyon ("Billy") Phelps, Love (1928 essay).

Two persons who love each other are in a place more holy than the interior of a church.
~ William Lyon ("Billy") Phelps

I'm gonna wait 'til the stars come out
And see that twinkle in your eyes
I'm gonna wait 'til the midnight hour
That's when my love begins to shine.
~ Wilson Pickett

[I]t's said that love makes the world go 'round. Let me tell you, the announcement lacks verification. It's wind from the dinner horn that does it.
~ William Sydney Porter (O. Henry), The Heart of the West (1904). Cupid a la Carte

Only the liberation of the natural capacity for love in human beings can master their sadistic destructiveness.
~ Wilhelm Reich

And when love speaks, the voice of all the gods
Makes heaven drowsy with the harmony.
~ William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost. Act IV, scene iii

But I do love thee! and when I love thee not,
Chaos is come again.
~ William Shakespeare, Othello

Eternity was in our lips and eyes,
Bliss in our brows bent.
~ William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra. Act I, scene iii

For aught that I could ever read,
Could ever hear by tale or history,
The course of true love never did run smooth.
~ William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act I, scene i

Forty thousand brothers
Could not, with all their quantity of love,
Make up my sum.
~ William Shakespeare, Hamlet

He jests at scars that never felt a wound.
~ William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet. Act II, scene ii

I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me.
~ William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing. Act I, scene i

I have no joy of this contract to-night:
It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden;
Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be
Ere one can say "It lightens."
~ William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet. Act II, scene ii

I kissed thee ere I killed thee -- no way but this,
Killing myself, to die upon a kiss.
~ William Shakespeare, Othello. Act V, scene ii

If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark.
~ William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet. Act II, scene i

If love be rough with you, be rough with love;
Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down.
~ William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet. Act I, scene iv

It adds a precious seeing to the eye;
A lover's eyes will gaze an ealge blind;
A lover's ear will hear the lowest sound
When the suspicious head of theft is stopp'd.
~ William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost

Love's fire heats water, water cools not love.
~ William Shakespeare, Sonnet 154

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
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 proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
~ William Shakespeare, Sonnet 116

Looks kill love, and love by looks reviveth.
~ William Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis (1593).

Love comforteth like sunshine after rain.
~ William Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis (1593).

Love goes toward love, as schoolboys from their books;
But love from love, toward school with heavy looks.
~ William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

Love is a smoke raised 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, Romeo and Juliet. Act I, scene i

Love is a spirit of all compact of fire,
Not gross to sink, but light, and will aspire.
~ William Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis (1593).

Love is like a child
That longs for everything that he can come by.
~ William Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Act III, scene i

Love is merely a madness, and, I tell you, deserves as well a dark house and a whip as madmen do.
~ William Shakespeare, As You Like It

Love is the sweetest of dreams,
and the worst of nightmares.
~ William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream

Love like a shadow flies when substance love pursues;
Pursuing that that flies, and flying what pursues.
~ William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;
And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.
~ William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act I, scene i

Love sought is good, but giv'n unsought is better.
~ William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night. Act III, scene i

Men have died from time to time, and worms have eaten them, but not for love.
~ William Shakespeare, As You Like It. Act IV, scene i

Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms!
Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!
... This love feel I.
~ William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite.
~ William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet. Act II, scene ii

My throbbing heart shall rock thee day and night.
~ William Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis (1593).

Nor gives it satisfaction to our blood,
That we must curb it upon others' proof;
To be forbod the sweets that seem so good,
For fear of harms that preach in our behoof.
~ William Shakespeare, A Lover's Complaint

O, flatter me; for love delights in praises.
~ William Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Act II, scene iv

O powerful love,
that in some respects makes a beast a man,
in some other, a man a beast.
~ William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
~ William Shakespeare, Sonnet 18

Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps.
~ William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing. Act III, scene i

Sweet, above thought I love thee.
~ William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida. Act III, scene i

Then let thy love be younger than thyself,
Or thy affection cannot hold the bent.
~ William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night. Act II, scene iv

There 's beggary in the love that can be reckon'd.
~ William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra

They do not love that do not show their love.
~ William Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona

This bud of love, by summer's ripening breath,
May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet.
~ William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet. Act II, scene ii

This is the very ecstasy of love.
~ William Shakespeare, Hamlet. Act II, scene i

This wimpled, whining, purblind, wayward boy,
This senior-junior, giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid.
~ William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost. Act III, scene i

Thou blind fool, Love, what dost thou to mine eyes
That they behold, and see not what they see?
~ William Shakespeare, Sonnet 137

Thou wouldst as soon go kindle fire with snow
As seek to quench the fire of love with words.
~ William Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Act II, scene vii

Two loves I have, of comfort and despair.
~ William Shakespeare, Sonnet 144

We that are true lovers run into strange capers; but as all is mortal in nature, so is all nature in love mortal in folly.
~ William Shakespeare, As You Like It. Act II, scene iv

Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?
~ William Shakespeare, As You Like It. Act III, scene v

Love is a beautiful dream.
~ William Sharp (as Fiona MacLeod), in The Hour of Beauty: Songs and Poems (1907). Flowers of Dream I. Cor Cordium

Love is but another name for that inscrutable presence by which the soul is connected with humanity.
~ William Gilmore Simms, Egeria: Or, Voices of Thought and Counsel for the Woods and Wayside (1853).

The Lord is a shoving leopard.
~ Reverand William A. Spooner (i.e., a spoonerism for 'loving shepard')

"It's love," they say. You touch
the right one and a whole half of the universe
wakes up, a new half.
~ William Stafford, from The Way It Is (1993). Choosing A Dog

Love at first sight is explained as a revival of an infantile impression. The first love object reappears in a different disguise.
~ Wilhelm Stekel, in the American Journal of Psychotherapy, Volume I (1947). First Love

Love rarely overtakes; it mostly comes to meet us.
~ Wilhelm Stekhel, Marriage at the Crossroads (1931).

Love lives through all eternity.
~ William Leroy "Bill" Stidger, I Saw God Wash the World (1934). Love Lives

Love conquers Love, but Hate hath never conquered Hate.
~ William Wetmore Story, from Poems By William Wetmore Story (1856). Couplets. VI

Nothing can be sour and sharp
As a love that has decayed --
On the loose strings of the harp
Only discord can be made.
~ William Wetmore Story, from Graffiti d'Italia (1868). Black Eyes

Although I enter not,
Yet round about the spot
Ofttimes I hover:
And near the second gate,
With longing eyes I wait,
Expectant of her.
~ William Makepeace Thackeray, The History of Pendennis (1848-1850), Volume I. Chapter XXXII: In which the Printer's Devil comes to the Door

As the gambler said of his dice, to love and win is the best thing, to love and lose is the next best.
~ William Makepeace Thackeray, The History of Pendennis (1848-1850), Volume II. Chapter XL: Relates to Mr. Harry Foker's Affairs

If we love still those we lose, can we altogether lose those we love?
~ William Makepeace Thackeray, The Newcomes (1853-55). Chapter XLV

It is best to love wisely, no doubt; but to love foolishly is better than not to be able to love at all.
~ William Makepeace Thackeray, The History of Pendennis (1848-1850), Volume I. Chapter VI: Contains Both Love and War

[L]ove seems to survive life, and to reach beyond it.
~ William Makepeace Thackeray, The Virginians (1857-59). Chapter 21

No, you are not worthy of the love which I have devoted to you. I knew all along that the prize I had set my life on was not worth the winning; that I was a fool, with fond fancies, too, bartering away my all of truth and ardour against your little feeble remnant of love. I will bargain no more.
~ William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair: A Novel without a Hero (1848). Chapter LXVI

Those who departed loving you, love you still; and you love them always.
~ William Makepeace Thackeray, Roundabout Papers (1863). On Lett's Diary

True love is better than glory.
~ William Makepeace Thackeray, The Virginians (1857-59). Chapter 24

We love being in love, that's the truth on't.
~ William Makepeace Thackeray, The History of Henry Esmond (1852). Book II. Chapter XV: General Webb Wins The Battle Of Wynendael

Loving is a muscle, the love that is strong and eternal endures. Love is the creation. It is love that coheres and it is hate that decoheres. We have not evolved far enough to understand what love is.
~ William Tiller, in The Spirit of Ma'at Magazine (2002). How the Power of Intention Alters Matter

Love is the righteousness of the heart.
~ William Tyndale, An Exposition upon the Sixth Chapter of Matthew (c. 1532).

Love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is done well.
~ Vincent Willem van Gogh

Love is a medley of endearments, jars,
Suspicions, quarrels, reconcilements, wars;
Then peace again.
~ William Walsh, from Letters and Poems, Amorous and Gallant (1692).

Love is more than a noun -- it is a verb; it is more than a feeling -- it is caring, sharing, helping, sacrificing.
~ William Arthur Ward

All love that has not friendship for its base,
Is like a mansion built upon the sand.
~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox, from Poems of Passion (1883). Upon the Sand

Between the finite and the infinite
The missing link of Love has left a void.
Supply the link, and earth with Heaven will join
In one continued chain of endless life.
~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox, from New Thought Pastels (1906). The Way

If there be mortal without love,
He wakes to no new life above.
~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox, from New Thought Pastels (1906). Realisation

Why waste more time in controversy, when
There is not time enough for all of love,
Our rightful occupation in this life.
~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox, from Poems of Power (1901). Woman to Man

Never love anything that can't love you back.
~ Bruce Williams

Love does not put everything at rest; it puts everything in motion. Love does not resolve every conflict; it accepts conflict as the arena in which the work of love is to be done. Love does not separate the good people from the bad, bestowing endless bliss on one, and endless torment on the other. Love seeks reconciliation of every life so that it may share all the others.
~ Daniel Day Williams

And the only word for love is everybody's name
And that will always stay
It happens every day.
~ Dar Williams, in The Green World (2000 album). It Happens Every Day

What do you love more than love
When you question what your desire is for
When you don't just figure
That you just want more.
~ Dar Williams, in The Green World (2000 album). What Do You Love More Than Love?

Intimacy, closeness, is built by loving and hurting and reconciling. We can't really learn to love unless we are willing to run the risks of hurting and failing.
~ Philip W. Williams, in When A Loved One Dies (1976). Real Guilt, Real Grace

I love getting love and affection ... and I like giving affection in return.
~ Robbie Williams

Oh, Jacques, we're used to each other, we're a pair of captive hawks caught in the same cage, and so we've grown used to each other. That's what passes for love at this dim, shadowy end of the Camino Real.
~ Thomas Lanier ("Tennessee") Williams, Camino Real (1953).

The strongest influences in my life and my work are always whomever I love. Whomever I love and am with most of the time, or whomever I remember most vividly. I think that's true of everyone, don't you?
~ Thomas Lanier ("Tennessee") Williams, in The New York Times (18 March 1965).

Antony and Cleopatra
were right;
they have shown
the way. I love you
or I do not live
at all.
~ William Carlos Williams, from Journey to Love (1955). The Ivy Crown

It is at the edge of the
petal that love waits.
~ William Carlos Williams, from Spring and All (1923). The Rose

It was the love of love,
the love that swallows up all else,
a grateful love,
a love of nature, of people,
of animals,
a love engendering
gentleness and goodness
that moved me
and that I saw in you.
~ William Carlos Williams, from Journey to Love (1955). Asphodel, That Greeny Flower

The business of love is
cruelty which,
by our wills,
we transform
to live together.
~ William Carlos Williams, from Journey to Love (1955). The Ivy Crown

If you give your life as a wholehearted response to love, then love will wholeheartedly respond to you.
~ Marianne Williamson

Love is what we are born with. Fear is what we learn. The spiritual journey is the unlearning of fear and prejudices and the acceptance of love back in our hearts. Love is the essential reality and our purpose on earth. To be consciously aware of it, to experience love in ourselves and others, is the meaning of life.
~ Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of a Course in Miracles (1992).

Miracles occur naturally as expressions of love. The real miracle is the love that inspires them. In this sense everything that comes from love is a miracle.
~ Marianne Williamson

We are not held back by the love we didn't receive in the past, but by the love we're not extending in the present.
~ Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of a Course in Miracles (1992).

If there is any thing that keeps the mind
Open to angel visits and
Repels the ministry of ill -- 'tis pure human love.
~ Nathaniel Parker (N.P.) Willis, from Poem delivered before the Society of United Brothers at Brown University, with Other Poems (1831).

I get love from the audiences, I love that love they give me, you know the standing ovations. Makes you feel good, makes you feel good.
~ Brian Wilson (on performing live concerts), Scotland Today (1 February 2002). Brian Wilson Interview

It is never too late to fall in love.
~ Sandy Wilson

Love is a talkative passion.
~ (Bishop) Thomas Wilson, in Sacra Privata: The Private Meditations and Prayers of Right Rev. T. Wilson, D.D. (1781).

His love was like the liberal air,-
Embracing all, to cheer and bless;
And every grief that mortals share
Found pity in his tenderness.
~ William Winter, from The Poems of William Winter (1909). Elegy for Bromley

The seeds of love can never grow but under the warm and genial influence of kind feelings and affectionate manners.
~ William Wirt, in Memoirs of the Life of William Wirt, Volume II (1849). Chapter VI. Letter to Laura H. Wirt; 23 May 1820.

And you must love him, ere to you
He will seem worthy of your love.
~ William Wordsworth, from Poems of Sentiment and Reflection (1800). A Poet's Epitaph (1799)

Love is better known by Liberality, than by Jealousy.
~ William Wycherley, The Country Wife (1673). Act V, scene iv

Love proceeds from esteem.
~ William Wycherley, The Country Wife (1673). Act II, scene i

A pity beyond all telling,
Is hid in the heart of love.
~ William Butler Yeats, from The Rose (1893). The Pity of Love

A woman can be proud and stiff
When on love intent;
But Love has pitched his mansion in
The place of excrement;
For nothing can be sole or whole
That has not been rent.
~ William Butler Yeats, from Words for Music, Perhaps (1932). Crazy Jane Talks with The Bishop

For everything that's lovely is
But a brief dreamy kind delight.
~ William Butler Yeats, from In The Seven Woods (1904). Never Give All The Heart

Hearts are not had as a gift but hearts are earned
By those that are not entirely beautiful.
~ William Butler Yeats, from Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921). A Prayer for My Daughter (June 1919).

In wise love each divines the high secret self of the other, and, refusing to believe in the mere daily self, creates a mirror where the lover or beloved sees an image to copy in daily life. Love also creates the mask.
~ William Butler Yeats, in Memoirs. Autobiography -- First Draft Journal (1972).

Man is in love and loves what vanishes,
What more is there to say?
~ William Butler Yeats, from The Tower (1928). Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen

O love is the crooked thing,
There is nobody wise enough
To find out all that is in it.
~ William Butler Yeats, from The Green Helmet and Other Poems (1910). Brown Penny