As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends, / I must not look to have; but, in their stead, / Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honour, breath, / Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not" (5.3.25-28).
William ShakespeareRead
love is blind and lovers cannot see the pretty follies that themselves commit
Interpretation
What this quote means
Love can lead people to overlook their partner's faults.
This quote by William Shakespeare highlights the idea that when people are in love, they often become oblivious to their partner's shortcomings and mistakes. The intense emotions and affection can cloud their judgment, making them unable to recognize the trivial errors or foolish behaviors they or their partner may commit in the course of their relationship. This blindness can either be seen as a hallmark of romantic love or a cautionary note about the potential pitfalls of infatuation.
Themes
LoveBlindnessRelationshipsFolliesRomanceJudgment
In practice
Example use cases
In a wedding speech, one might say, 'As Shakespeare said, love is blind, reminding us that our affection often makes us overlook each other's quirks.'
More from William Shakespeare
All quotes →Love bears it out even to the edge of doom.
William ShakespeareRead
Good company, good wine, good welcome, can make good people.
William ShakespeareRead
Absence doth sharpen love, presence strengthens it; the one brings fuel, the other blows it till it burns clear.
William ShakespeareRead
Lord, Lord, how this world is given to lying!
William ShakespeareRead
Give it an understanding, but no tongue.
William ShakespeareRead
Similar quotes
Admiration is a very short lived passion that immediately decays upon growing familiar with its object, unless it still be fed with fresh discoveries, and kept alive by a new perpetual succession of miracles rising up to its view.
Joseph AddisonRead
I am a princess. All girls are. Even if they live in tiny old attics. Even if they dress in rags, even if they aren’t pretty, or smart, or young. They’re still princesses.
Frances Hodgson BurnettRead
The Cross will be for us as it was for Christ: proof of the greatest love.
Mother TeresaRead
For the crown of our life as it closes Is darkness, the fruit thereof dust; No thorns go as deep as a rose's, And love is more cruel than lust. Time turns the old days to derision, Our loves into corpses or wives; And marriage and death and division Make barren our lives.
Algernon Charles SwinburneRead
There is someone that I love even though I don't approve of what he does. There is someone I accept though some of his thoughts and actions revolt me. There is someone I forgive though he hurts the people I love the most. That person is......me.
C. S. LewisRead
You can't reason with your heart; it has its own laws, and thumps about things which the intellect scorns.
Mark TwainRead