Whoever loves above all the approach of love will never know the joy of attaining it.
Interpretation
Focusing too much on the idea of love can prevent one from experiencing its true joy.
This quote by Antoine De Saint-Exupery conveys that when a person is overly fixated on the concept or ideal of love, they may miss out on the genuine happiness that comes from actually experiencing love. The joy of love lies not in the pursuit or the perfection of its form, but in the simple act of loving and being loved.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of experiencing love rather than just idealizing it.
Grown-ups love figures... When you tell them you've made a new friend they never ask you any questions about essential matters. They never say to you "What does his voice sound like? What games does he love best? Does he collect butterflies? " Instead they demand "How old is he? How much does he weigh? How much money does his father make? " Only from these figures do they think they have learned anything about him.
Attitude is a paintbrush. It colors everything!
Water, thou hast no taste, no color, no odor; canst not be defined, art relished while ever mysterious. Not necessary to life, but rather life itself, thou fillest us with a gratification that exceeds the delight of the senses.
In those days, I didn't understand anything. I should have judged her according to her actions, not her words. She perfumed my planet and lit up my life. I should never have run away! I ought to have realized the tenderness underlying her silly pretensions. Flowers are so contadictory! But I was too young to know how to love her.
When a mystery is too overpowering, one dare not disobey.
When the body sinks into death, the essence of man is revealed. Man is a knot, a web, a mesh into which relationships are tied. Only those relationships matter. The body is an old crock that nobody will miss. I have never known a man to think of himself when dying. Never.
Oh, if it be to choose and call thee mine, love, thou art every day my Valentine!
YOU know, I may have to be born again, you see, I have fallen in love with mankind.
Behold, my love, behold all that I simultaneously do: scandal, seduction, bad example, incest, adultery, sodomy! Oh, Satan! one and unique God of my soul, inspire thou in me something yet more, present further perversions to my smoking heart, and then shalt thou see how I shall plunge myself into them all!
She could not have gazed at him with a more rapturous intensity if she had been a small child and he a saucer of ice cream.
To love very much is to love inadequately; we love-that is all. Love cannot be modified without being nullified. Love is a short word but it contains everything. Love means the body, the soul, the life, the entire being. We feel love as we feel the warmth of our blood, we breathe love as we breathe the air, we hold it in ourselves as we hold our thoughts. Nothing more exists for us. Love is not a word; it is a wordless state indicated by four letters.
There is only one good thing in life, and that is love.
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