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 goes toward love as schoolboys from their books, But love from love, toward school with heavy looks.
Interpretation
Love naturally draws people together, while separation from love can lead to sadness and reluctance.
This quote illustrates the contrasting feelings that love evokes; it suggests that when people are in love, they are eager to be together, much like schoolboys excitedly leaving their studies. However, when love is absent or they must be apart, they feel weighed down, reflecting the heaviness of longing and absence that love can create.
In practice
During a wedding speech, you might use this quote to highlight the joy and struggles of love.
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.
How can I, that girl standing there, My attention fix On Roman or on Russian Or on Spanish politics? Yet here's a travelled man that knows What he talks about, And there's a politician That has read and thought, And maybe what they say is true Of war and war's alarms, But O that I were young again And held her in my arms!
Not everyone is your brother or sister in the faith, but everyone is your neighbor, and you must love your neighbor.
I need to capture my sprite with trembling hands. Except I could crush her. Wonder how many small things of beauty - flowers, seashells, dragonflies - have met such a demise. Wonder how much fragile love has collapsed beneath the weight of confession.
A conditional love is nothing but an infatuation, sexuality. Unconditional is the only way love can be. Wherever a condition comes in, love disappears. It cannot live in bondage, and a condition gives it an imprisonment. Love can only live like the vast sky. Love knows no boundaries.
What the world needs is not 'a little bit of love', but a surgical operation.
Love is a battle, and I plan to go on fighting. To the end.
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