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Love fills everything. It cannot be desired because it is an end in itself. It cannot betray because it has nothing to do with possession. It cannot be held prisoner because it is a river and will overflow its banks. Anyone who tries to imprison love will cut off the spring that feeds it, and the trapped water will grow stagnant.
Paulo Coelho
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Love is an abundant force that cannot be controlled or contained.

This quote by Paulo Coelho emphasizes the nature of love as a free-flowing and boundless emotion. It suggests that love exists for its own sake, cannot be owned or possessed, and that any attempts to limit or control it will ultimately lead to its deterioration, much like water that becomes stagnant when trapped. Coelho uses the imagery of a river to illustrate love's intrinsic quality of overflow and the inherent danger of trying to confine it.

Themes

LoveFreedomEmotionAbundanceNature

In practice

Example use cases

During a wedding ceremony to emphasize the importance of unconditional love.

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Quote by Paulo Coelho | QuoteProject