Lovers Quotes
More Lovers Quotes
The heart of the jealous knows the best and most satisfying love, that of the other’s bed, where the rival perfects the lover’s imperfections.
Djuna Barnes— Ch. 5 : Watchman, What of the Night?
We would prefer to see the House run bya philistine with the requisite financial acumen than by the succession of opera and ballet lovers who have brought a great and valuable institution to its knees.
Gerald Kaufman— 1997 Report of the Commons' Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee on Covent Garden, 3 Dec.
Now lap-dogs give themselves the rousing shake, And sleepless lovers, just at twelve, awake.
Alexander Pope— 1714 The Rape of the Lock, canto1, l.15-16.
Deliver me from your cold phlegmatic preachers, politicians, friends, lovers and husbands.
Abigail Adams— Letter to John Adams (5 August 1776).
The month of May was come, when every lusty heart beginneth to blossom, and to bring forth fruit; for like as herbs and trees bring forth fruit and flourish in May, in likewise every lusty heart that is in any manner a lover, springeth and flourisheth in lusty deeds. For it giveth unto all lovers courage, that lusty month of May.
thomas malory— Le Morte d'Arthur (c. 1469), Book XVIII, ch. 25
All her lovers have passed, her beautiful lovers have passed,The young and eager men that fought for her arrogant hand,And the only voice which endures to mourn for her at the lastIs the voice of the lonely land.
vita sackville-west— "Mariana In The North"
Oh, we have had great lovers that we followed to the pyre; Our boasts out-do the Sabine girls the Mosque of St. Sophia. And we are very sure of ours, for when a city falls, They seize us and they love us and they hurl us from the walls.
nathalia crane— "Our Lovers"
We that are true lovers run into strange capers; but as all is mortal in nature, so is all nature in love mortal in folly.
— Act II, scene 4, lines 53-56.
Fathers, be good to your daughters, Daughters will love like you do, Girls become lovers who turn into mothers, So mothers be good to your daughters too.
john mayer— "Daughters" (2003)
Fool, not to know that love endures no tie, And Jove but laughs at lovers' perjury.
john dryden— Palamon and Arcite, book ii, line 758.
Dear, why should you command me to my rest, When now the night doth summon all to sleep? Methinks this time becometh lovers best; Night was ordained together friends to keep.
Michael Drayton— 1594 Ideas Mirrour, sonnet 37.
There is no country ... where there are not somewhere lovers of freedom who look to this country to carry the torch and keep it burning bright until such time as they may again be able to light their extinguished torches at our flame. We owe it not only to our own people but to the world to preserve our soul for that.
stanley baldwin— Speech at University of Durham to the Ashridge Fellowship, as quoted in The Times (3 December 1934); also in Christian Conservatives and the Totalitarian Challenge, 1933-40 by Philip Williamson, in The English Historical Review, Vol. 115, No. 462 (June 2000)
It was magic. We became lovers for ever, eternally. Big words, I know, but I truly felt that no matter what happened we would always be in love.
ava gardner— Falling in love with Frank Sinatra
If that thise men that lovers hem pretende,To women weren feythfull good and trewe,And dreden hem to deceyven or offende,Women, to love hem, wolde nat eschewe;But every day hath man an herte newe:Yt, upon oon, abide can no while.What fore ys it, swich a wight to be-gile?
thomas occleve— If those men who to be lovers pretendBehaved more faithfully and did not lie,And dreaded to deceive or to offend,Then women might not choose to pass them by.But each man's heart's a fickle butterflyWhich can alight on one just a short while.Can it be wrong in this case to beguile?
— "The Letter of Cupid", line 267; vol. 1, p. 83; translation from Thelma S. Fenster and Mary Carpenter Erler (eds.) Poems of Cupid, God of Love (Leiden: Brill, 1990) p. 191.
It is my profound wish that this entire collection shall be devoted to the advancement of fine music for the continued enjoyment of music enthusiasts throughout the United States, be they students of the arts, performing artists, or members of that vast audience of music lovers among the American public.
leopold stokowski— From his will, in which he provided for his conducting scores, manuscript orchestral transcriptions, and recordings to archived and accessible to the public. The Stokowski Archives are now housed in the University of Pennsylvania Library.
The anger of lovers renews the strength of love.
publilius syrus— Maxim 24. (Sentences)
Alas! is even love too weak To unlock the heart, and let it speak? Are even lovers powerless to reveal To one another what indeed they feel? I knew the mass of men conceal'd Their thoughts, for fear that if reveal'd They would by other men be met With blank indifference, or with blame reproved; I knew they lived and moved Trick'd in disguises, alien to the rest Of men, and alien to themselves and yet The same heart beats in every human breast!
Matthew Arnold— "The Buried Life" (1852), st. 2.
Light is the left hand of darkness and darkness the right hand of light. Two are one, life and death, lying together like lovers in kemmer, like hands joined together, like the end and the way.
ursula k. le guin— Chapter 16 “Between Drumner and Dremegole” (p. 233)
The age-old faith of lovers and poets in the power of love, stronger than death, that Finis vitae sed non amoris , is a lie, useless and not even funny.
stanisław lem— Translation: Life ends but not love.Ch. 14: "The Old Mimoid", p. 204
Great lovers will always be unhappy, because, for them, love is of supreme importance. Consequently they demand of their beloved the same intensity of thought as they have for her, otherwise they feel betrayed.
cesare pavese— 1940-10-14
They say all lovers swear more performance than they are able, and yet reserve an ability that they never perform.
— Act III, scene 2, line 91.
Many variants on this exist, notably “Great lovers are made, not born.” and “(Great) leaders are made, not born.” A variant on “One is not born wise, but becomes wise” from Seneca On Anger 2.10.6; see: Christian and Pagan in the Roman Empire: the witness of Tertullian, by Tertullian, Robert Dick Sider, p. 38, footnote 79.
— Apologeticus, 39, describing how Christianity is mocked by its enemies.
Her blue eyes sought the west afar, for lovers love the western star.
walter scott— Walter Scott, The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805), Canto III, Stanza 24.
lovers to-day and for all time Preserve the meaning of my rhyme: Love is not kindly nor yet grim But does to you as you to him.
robert graves— "Advice To Lovers"
Hate and Fear are not wanted here, Nor Toys nor Country lovers, Everything they took from my new poem book But the flyleaf and the covers.
robert graves— "A First Review"
That subtle knot which makes us man: So must pure lovers' souls descend T' affections, and to faculties, Which sense may reach and apprehend, Else a great Prince in prison lies.
john donne— The Extasy, line 64.
It is the hour when from the boughs The nightingale's high note is heard; It is the hour when lovers' vows Seem sweet in every whispered word; And gentle winds, and waters near, Make music to the lonely ear. Each flower the dews have lightly wet, And in the sky the stars are met, And on the wave is deeper blue, And on the leaf a browner hue, And in the heaven that clear obscure, So softly dark, and darkly pure. Which follows the decline of day, As twilight melts beneath the moon away.
lord byron— Lord Byron, Parisina, Stanza 1.
