Love is generally confused with dependence; but in point of fact, you can love only in proportion to your capacity for independence.
Rollo MayRead
Generally, the shaking is consciously felt in its positive aspects — as the wonderful new heaven and earth which love with its miracle and mystery has suddenly produced. Love is the answer, we sing. Our Western culture seems to be engaged in a romantic - albeit desperate - conspiracy to enforce the illusion that that is all there is to eros.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Love brings about positive transformations in our lives, but its complexities are often overlooked.
In this quote, Rollo May reflects on the dual nature of love as both a wondrous and mysterious force that creates beauty in our lives. He critiques Western culture's tendency to simplify love to mere romantic notions, suggesting that there is much more depth and complexity to love that is often ignored, urging us to explore its full range of experiences beyond superficial interpretations.
Themes
LoveErosCultureRomanticIllusionTransformation
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech on love and relationships, one could use this quote to emphasize the deeper meanings of love beyond romance.
More from Rollo May
All quotes →To love means to open ourselves to the negative as well as the positive - to grief, sorrow, and disappointment as well as to joy, fulfillment, and an intensity of consciousness we did not know was possible before
Rollo MayRead
Terrorism and the whole drug scene are vivid examples of the fact that what persons abhor most of all in life is the possibility that they will not matter.
Rollo MayRead
Humor is the healthy way of feeling "distance" between one's self and the problem, a way of standing off and looking at one's problem with perspective.
Rollo MayRead
Beauty is the experience that gives us a sense of joy and a sense of peace simultaneously.
Rollo MayRead
The poet, like the lover, is a menace on the assembly line.
Rollo MayRead
Similar quotes
We really have to understand the person we want to love. If our love is only a will to possess, it is not love. If we only think of ourselves, if we know only our own needs and ignore the needs of the other person, we cannot love.
Nhat HanhRead
Just like that. Gone forever. They will not grow old together. They will never live on a beach by the sea, their hair turned white, dancing in a living room to Billie Holiday or Nat Cole. They will not enter a New York club at midnight and show the poor hip-hop fools how to dance. They will not chuckle together over the endless folly of the world, its vanities and stupid ambitions. They will not hug each other in any chilly New York dawn. Oh, Mary Lou. My baby. My love.
Pete HamillRead
Never stop smiling not even when you're sad, someone might fall in love with your smile.
Gabriel Garcia MarquezRead
O my heart! Love God as the chatrik loves the rain drops, Who even when fountains are full and the land green, Is not satisfied as long as it cannot get a drop of rain.
Guru NanakRead
And the coolness of your smile is stirringofbirds between my arms
E. E. CummingsRead
Abstinence sows sand all over The ruddy limbs and flaming hair, But desire gratified Plants fruits of life and beauty there.
William BlakeRead