To be in love is merely to be in a state of perceptual anesthesia - to mistake an ordinary young woman for a goddess.
Interpretation
Love can cloud our perception, making us idealize the person we are attracted to.
This quote by H. L. Mencken suggests that love can create a kind of blindness where we fail to see the reality of a person, seeing them instead as extraordinary or divine. It highlights the tendency of lovers to elevate their partners to a pedestal, obscuring their flaws and presenting them as idealized beings, which is often a temporary state caused by the intensity of romantic feelings.
In practice
This quote can be shared during a discussion about the nature of romantic relationships.
I know a good many men of great learning-that is, men born with an extraordinary eagerness and capacity to acquire knowledge. One and all, they tell me that they can't recall learning anything of any value in school. All that schoolmasters managed to accomplish with them was to test and determine the amount of knowledge that they had already acquired independently-and not infrequently the determination was made clumsily and inaccurately.
It takes a long while for a naturally trustful person to reconcile himself to the idea that after all God will not help him
It is the theory of all modern civilized governments that they protect and foster the liberty of the citizen; it is the practice of all of them to limit its exercise, and sometimes very narrowly.
The central belief of every moron is that he is the victim of a mysterious conspiracy against his common rights and true deserts.
The cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy.
It is my conviction that no normal man ever fell in love, within the ordinary meaning of the term, after the age of thirty.
He looked like the love thoughts of women.
Love is just a word until someone comes along and gives it meaning. Dream is also just a word until you decide to fight for it with all your enthusiasm and commitment
There are scores of people waiting for someone just like us to come along; people who will appreciate our compassion, our encouragement, who will need our unique talents. Someone who will live a happier life merely because we took the time to share what we had to give.
A first lesson in the fragility of love and the preternatural cowardice of men. And out of this disillusionment and turmoil sprang Beli's first adult oath, one that would follow her into adulthood, to the States and beyond. I will not serve.
And I know these scars will bleed, but both of our hearts believe all of these stars will guide us home
Real love still happens sometimes. It's not just something we make up when you're nine. I have to believe that. You do too.
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