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
Why then, O brawling love! O loving hate! O any thing, of nothing first create! O heavy lightness, serious vanity, Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms, Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health, Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is! This love feel I, that feel no love in this.
Interpretation
This quote expresses the paradoxes and contradictions inherent in love.
In this quote, Shakespeare highlights the complex and often contradictory nature of love through a series of paradoxes. The imagery of 'brawling love' and 'loving hate' illustrates how love can evoke intense emotions that seem at odds with each other, reflecting the turmoil one can feel when in love. The speaker confesses to experiencing these conflicting feelings, conveying a sense of confusion and dissatisfaction in their pursuit of love, which adds depth to the exploration of romantic emotions.
In practice
In a romantic movie scene discussing the complexities of relationships.
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).
Love bears it out even to the edge of doom.
Good company, good wine, good welcome, can make good people.
Absence doth sharpen love, presence strengthens it; the one brings fuel, the other blows it till it burns clear.
Lord, Lord, how this world is given to lying!
Give it an understanding, but no tongue.
The real lover is the man who can thrill you just by touching your head or smiling into your eyes - or just by staring into space.
He, too, stood looking at her for a moment - and it seemed to her that it was not a look of greeting after an absence, but the look of someone who had thought of her every day of that year. She could not be certain, it was only an instant, so brief that just as she caught it, he was turning.
Every human activity can be put at the service of the divine and of love. We should all exercise our gift to build community.
YOU are valuable and rare and worthy of love.
Rebellion cannot exist without a strange form of love.
We need to put love back into the world remind the world that love is important. We're all one.
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