6 Quiet Quotes About Love
When it comes to Valentine's Day, I'm somewhere in the middle of the 'love it' and 'hate it' camps. I find the present-giving a bit arbitrary and weird, but I do think a celebration of love is, well, lovely. Love has inspired many of our greatest works of art and literature, and, whether you choose to believe it or not, it dominates the way our worlds turn as much as the gravity and the moon.I am fascinated by love's intangible power, but I'm not into the soppiness and giant teddy bear kind of love. Ours is quiet, built on comfort, trust, in-jokes and hours spent in silence. No matter what kind of love you have, here are 6 of my favourite un-soppy quotes about it - more peppery than sugar-sweet.
For accidental love...
"They slipped briskly into an intimacy from which they never recovered."- F. Scott Fitzgerald (from 'This Side of Paradise')
This one is my favourite. As soon as I saw it I thought it perfectly encapsulates mine and Dan's own love-falling. I find all the 'I just knew' conversations about love a little dangerous - they raise expectations impossibly high and they degrade a love that falls anything short. We never had violins and angels singing, we never locked eyes across a crowded room, we never 'just knew'. But without even realising we fell down the hole of love, and have built our home there.
For longing love...
"Somewhere on the other side of this wide night and the distance between us, I am thinking of you."- Carol Ann Duffy (from 'Words, Wide Night')
"For I am in love with you, and this is what it is like, or what it is like in words."- Carol Ann Duffy (from 'Words, Wide Night')
Words, Wide Night is definitely up there as one of my all time favourite poems. You should finish this post, then go and read it immediately. It perfectly captures the mind-boggling longing that comes with long distance love, of feeling so connected but so distanced from someone. The last line, "For I am in love with you, and this is what it is like, or what it is like in words" feels like the most romantic sentence in the world - the wordlessness of love encapsulated.
For impatient love...
"My very soul demands you."- Charlotte Bronte (from 'Jane Eyre')
I read Jane Eyre for A-Level and it's one of those narratives that has seemed to wind its way into my very being. I remember it better than any story I've ever read, and more often than normal find myself comparing situations to scenes from the book. This quote spoken, of course, by Rochester, quietly and politely belies burning lust and passion. But more than being a Victorian Fifty Shades, it speaks of souls rather than flesh, impatiently demanding life long partnership and love.
For everyday love...
"Had we but world enough, and time..."- Andrew Marvell (from 'To His Coy Mistress')
There's something about the rhythm of this line that I just love. The full poem talks about taking time over love, of how many tens of thousands of years he would take to adore each tiny part of her body, but how there is only a finite amount of time. I think we all have dreams and daydreams that we imagine our lives will be like. Whether it's travelling the world, eloping, escaping to a cabin in the woods together. This quote leaves room for our dreams, but reminds us to make the most of everyday love.
For uncomplicated love...
"i carry your heart with me (i carry it in my heart)"- e.e. cummings (from '[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]'
This is about as soppy as it gets here. I've always liked the simplicity of this line, the balanced phrasing, the simple words. As complicated as we like to make it, love is really a very simple thing. You both exchange you hearts, giving a piece of yourself away and looking after someone else's.
For self-love...
"Give back your heart to itself, to the stranger who has loved you all your life...who knows you by heart"- Derek Walcott (from 'Love After Love')
Whether you're single or not, there are not enough love quotes about the importance of loving yourself. This poem is a beautifully wistful, yet positive, look at life after a break up. I love these lines because we can sometimes be a stranger to ourselves, then surprise ourselves with how much we know. We talk often of giving hearts away, but never of giving to ourselves, to the person we are or want to be. We are always there for ourselves, and know ourselves best.