[Women] tend to collect more pieces of data when they think, put them into more complex patterns, see more options and outcomes. They tend to be contextual, holistic thinkers.
Helen FisherRead
Romantic love is one of the most addictive substances on Earth.
Interpretation
Romantic love can create a powerful and compelling emotional experience, akin to addiction.
In this quote, Helen Fisher compares romantic love to an addictive substance, highlighting the intense emotional response and attachment it can create. Just as substances can alter brain chemistry and induce feelings of euphoria, romantic love can captivate individuals, making them crave connection and intimacy in a way that is almost irresistible.
In practice
During a wedding toast, one might say this quote to illustrate the deep connection between partners.
[Women] tend to collect more pieces of data when they think, put them into more complex patterns, see more options and outcomes. They tend to be contextual, holistic thinkers.
People live for love. They kill for love. They die for love. They have songs, poems, novels, sculptures, paintings, myths, legends. It's one of the most powerful brain systems on Earth for both great joy and great sorrow.
Your sweetheart calls you by another's name. His eyes linger too long on your best friend. He talks with excitement about a girl at work. And the fire catches. Jealousy - that sickening combination of possessiveness, suspicion, rage, and humiliation - can overtake your mind and threaten your very core as you contemplate your rival.
Any kind of novelty or excitement drives up dopamine in the brain, and dopamine is associated with romantic love.
Most of us make up our minds in the first three minutes of meeting someone whether there's a potential for a relationship.
People have often asked me whether what I know about love has spoiled it for me. And I just simply say, 'Hardly.' You can know every single ingredient in a piece of chocolate cake, and then when you sit down and eat that cake, you can still feel that joy.
Where love is concerned, too much is not even enough.
I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be.
If I can enjoy a joke at the expense of another; if I can in any way slight another in conversation, or even in thought, then I know nothing of Calvary love.
She said the reason that love is so painful is that it always amounts to two people wanting more than two people can give.
Some people are trapped by the belief that love comes in finite quantities, and that our kind of love exhausts the supply upon which they need to draw. I do not accept competitive models of love, only additive ones.
Every time I read to her, it was like I was courting her, because sometimes, just sometimes, she would fall in love with me again, just like she had a long time ago. And that's the most wonderful feeling in the world. How many people are ever given that chance? To have someone you love fall in love with you over and over?
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