Life never presents us with anything which may not be looked upon as a fresh starting point, no less than as a termination.
Andre GideRead
It is the special quality of love not to be able to remain stationary, to be obliged to increase under pain of diminishing.
Interpretation
Love inherently requires growth and cannot stagnate; it must continuously evolve or it risks fading away.
In this quote, AndrΓ© Gide emphasizes the dynamic nature of love, suggesting that it cannot remain static. Love is an ever-growing entity that demands nurturing and progression; if it does not expand, it will inevitably decline. This perspective frames love as an active force that requires engagement and effort to thrive, highlighting the necessity of continuous emotional investment in relationships.
In practice
In a wedding toast, you might say this quote to highlight the evolving nature of love between partners.
Life never presents us with anything which may not be looked upon as a fresh starting point, no less than as a termination.
Do not do what someone else could do as well as you. Do not say, do not write what someone else could say, could write as well as you. Care for nothing in yourself but what you feel exists nowhere else. And, out of yourself create, impatiently or patiently, the most irreplaceable of beings.
Old hands soil, it seems, whatever they caress, but they too have their beauty when they are joined in prayer. Young hands were made for caresses and the sheathing of love. It is a pity to make them join too soon.
Through fear of resembling one another, through horror of having to submit, through uncertainty as well, through skepticism and complexity, there is a multitude of individual little beliefs for the triumph of strange little individuals.
It is with noble sentiments that bad literature gets written.
I intend to bring you strength, joy, courage, perspicacity, defiance.
Forgive my grief for one removed Thy creature whom I found so fair I trust he lives in Thee and there I find him worthier to be loved.
Love cannot be forced, love cannot be coaxed and teased. It comes out of heaven, unasked and unsought.
If you love something - and there are things that I love - you do want more and more and more of it, but that's not the way to produce good work.
If one wishes to know love, one must live love, in action.
And with the morn those angel faces smile Which I have loved long since and lost awhile.
I know people who've gone to jail. It don't mean you stop loving them! They deservin' love just as much in there, and maybe they needin' it more.
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