Liberty's in every blow! Let us do or die.
I want someone to laugh with me, someone to be grave with me, someone to please me and help my discrimination with his or her own remark, and at times, no doubt, to admire my acuteness and penetration.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote expresses a desire for a deep and multifaceted connection with a partner who complements and challenges one another.
In this quote, Robert Burns articulates the yearning for a companion who can share both joyful and serious moments. He emphasizes the importance of having someone who not only provides companionship but also engages in meaningful discussions, challenges one's thoughts, and appreciates one's insights. This suggests that true connection goes beyond surface-level interactions and requires a blend of emotional intimacy, intellectual stimulation, and mutual admiration.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a romantic setting, one might say this quote to express the depth they seek in their relationship.
More from Robert Burns
All quotes →I'm truly sorry man's dominion has broken Nature's social union.
Love's first snow-drop, virgin kiss.
All-cheering Plenty, with her flowing horn, Led yellow Autumn, wreath'd with nodding corn.
Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And never brought to min?
Apropos, is not the Scotch phrase 'Auld Lang Syne' exceedingly expressive? I shall give you the verses on the other sheet. The words of 'Auld Lang Syne' are good, but the music is an old air, the rudiments of the modern tune of that name. ... Dare to be honest and fear no labor. ... Opera is where a man gets stabbed in the back, and instead of dying, he sings. ... Chords that vibrate sweetest pleasure thrill the deepest notes of woe. ... Critics! Those cut-throat bandits in the paths of fame.
Similar quotes
What I'm not confused about is the world needing much more love, no hate, no prejudice, no bigotry and more unity, peace and understanding. Period.
You will reciprocally promise love, loyalty and matrimonial honesty. We only want for you this day that these words constitute the principle of your entire life and that with the help of divine grace you will observe these solemn vows that today, before God, you formulate.
The other one he loved like a slave, like a madman and like a beggar. Why? Ask the dust on the road and the falling leaves, ask the mysterious God of life; for no one knows such things. She gave him nothing, no nothing did she give him and yet he thanked her. She said: Give me your peace and your reason! And he was only sorry she did not ask for his life.
Oh, why was he so handsomely blond, so courteously aloof, so maddeningly boring with his talk about Europe and books and music and poetry and things that interested her not at all - and yet so desirable?
I looked at this tiny, perfect creature and it was as though a light switch had been turned on. A great rush of love flooded out of me.
A heat full of coldness, a sweet full of bitterness, a pain full of pleasantness, which maketh thoughts have eyes and hearts ears, bred by desire, nursed by delight, weaned by jealousy, kill'd by dissembling, buried by ingratitude, and this is love.