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
It is not night when I do see your face, Therefore I think I am not in the night; Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company, For you in my respect are all the world: Then how can it be said I am alone, When all the world is here to look on me?
Interpretation
The presence of a loved one can illuminate even the darkest times, making one feel complete and not alone.
In this quote, Shakespeare expresses the profound impact that a beloved person has on one's perception of reality. Even amidst darkness or solitude, the love and connection with this person transforms the environment, making one feel as though they are surrounded by the whole world through their love, thus dispelling feelings of loneliness.
In practice
In a romantic card for Valentine's Day.
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.
Be kind to each other. It is better to commit faults with gentleness than to work miracles with unkindness.
Capacity for love in its higher forms seems to be peculiarly human although even in humans it is still peculiar.
Her love was trembling in laughter on her lips.
I am glad it cannot happen twice, the fever of first love. For it is a fever, and a burden, too, whatever the poets may say.
Clouds pass and disperse. Are those the faces of love, those pale irretrievables? Is it for such I agitate my heart?
I've found what I was looking for, Child: what people call love between a man and a woman is a season. And if, at its flowering, this season is a feast of greenery, at its waning, it's only a heap of rotting leaves.
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