Falling in love is not an extension of one's limits or boundaries; it is a partial and temporary collapse of them.
M. Scott PeckRead
When we love someone our love becomes demonstrable or real only through our exertion - through the fact that for that someone (or for ourself) we take an extra step or walk an extra mile. Love is not effortless. To the contrary, love is effortful.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Love requires effort and actions to be meaningful and real.
This quote emphasizes that true love is not simply a feeling or an emotion but something that is made tangible through our actions and commitment. It suggests that love involves putting in effort, making sacrifices, and going out of our way to support and care for the people we love, reinforcing the idea that love is an active choice rather than a passive state.
Themes
LoveEffortRelationshipsCommitmentActions
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about relationships, you might say, 'As M. Scott Peck beautifully stated, love is effortful and requires us to take that extra step for one another.'
More from M. Scott Peck
All quotes →Listening well is an exercise of attention and by necessity hard work. It is because they do not realize this or because they are not willing to do the work that most people do not listen well.
M. Scott PeckRead
If your goal is to avoid pain and escape suffering, I would not advise you to seek higher levels of consciousness or spiritual evolution.
M. Scott PeckRead
All my life I used to wonder what I would become when I grew up. Then, about seven years ago, I realized that I was never going to grow up--that growing is an ever ongoing process.
M. Scott PeckRead
An unconscious, gentle process whereby people who want to be loving attempt to be so by telling little white lies, by withholding some of the truth about themselves and their feelings in order to avoid conflict. Pseudocommunity is conflict-avoiding; true community is conflict-resolving.
M. Scott PeckRead
Idealists are people who believe in the potential of human nature for transformation. . . . The most essential attribute of human nature is its mutability and freedom from instinct . . . it is always within our power to change our nature. So it is actually the idealists who are on the mark and the realists who are off base.
M. Scott PeckRead
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Paradise was made for tender hearts; hell, for loveless hearts.
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I'll be happy if running and I can grow old together.
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But what we're really trapped by is perceptions. You think you need to lose weight for someone to love you. I think if I gain weight, no one will love me. What we really need is to just stop thinking of ourselves as bodies and start thinking of ourselves as people.
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But the act, called the sexual act, is not for the depositing of seed. It is for leaping off into the unknown, as from a cliff's edge, like Sappho into the sea.
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