Love
‹ 1 · Outline · 3 ›
2.The power of love: its causes and effects
2a.Love as an irresistible god or fate
See also: God 11b
Homer, The OdysseyVol. 22
- p. 150–151Tyro loves the river Enipeus and is embraced by Poseidon disguised as him.read · scan
Sophocles, AntigoneVol. 8
- p. 276–281Chorus hymns Love as conqueror of gods and men, driving to madness and strife between kin.read · scan
Euripides, HippolytusVol. 8
- p. 304–307Hippolytus spurns Aphrodite and love, devoted to virginal Artemis.read · scan
- p. 321–323Nurse argues Cypris' power is irresistible and universal, even Zeus and Eos yielded; Phaedra should not struggle against love.read · scan
- p. 326–328Chorus hymns Eros as a piercing, blinding power whose shaft of desire burns beyond fire and stars, and who conquered the unyoked maid.read · scan
- p. 334–335She yields to the Cyprian, whose bitter love will quell her at last.read · scan
- p. 358–359Chorus hymns Eros/Cypris as mad, all-conquering power over gods, beasts and men; Phaedra's love was sent as fire.read · scan
- p. 362–365Artemis's enduring love for Hippolytus; Cypris's anger at his rejection of her.read · scan
Virgil, The AeneidVol. 13
- p. 93Venus plans to inflame Dido with love for her son's protection.read · scan
- p. 93Venus has Cupid disguised as Ascanius infuse love in Dido, a love no age can change nor art cure.read · scan
- p. 93Cupid, disguised, molds Dido's heart anew; she forgets her dead husband and Aeneas fills her mind.read · scan
- p. 152Dido consumed with love is the object of the goddesses' scheming.read · scan
The Story of the Volsungs and NiblungsVol. 49
- p. 299–300Brynhild gives Sigurd the drink of love.read · scan
Dante Alighieri, ParadiseVol. 20
- p. 314–315Pagans believed sensual love was shed on men by Venus's radiance; the spirits are full of loving readiness to serve Dante.read · scan
- p. 319–321Cunizza's amorous adventures and her four marriages, overcome by the influence of her star.read · scan
Geoffrey Chaucer, The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales; The Nun's Priest's TaleVol. 40
- p. 12Her brooch bears the motto Amor vincit omnia, love conquers all.read · scan
Miguel de Cervantes, The History of Don Quixote of the Mancha, Part IVol. 14
- p. 189–191The sonnet questions whether Love, if a god, can be cruel, lamenting a lover's torment.read · scan
- p. 332Leonela argues love strikes swiftly and irresistibly, using occasion as its minister, so Camilla's quick yielding to Lothario is no disgrace.read · scan
John Lyly, Cupid and Campaspe; Spring's WelcomeVol. 40
- p. 209Cupid loses at cards to Campaspe, even his eyes, and the lover wonders what becomes of him.read · scan
Thomas Lodge, Rosalind's Madrigal; Rosaline; PhillisVol. 40
- p. 214–216Love as a wanton bee-like boy Cupid who both sweetens and stings the lover.read · scan
Love Will Find Out the Way; Phillada Flouts MeVol. 40
- p. 379–381Love overcomes every obstacle and cannot be confined or stopped; a lover pines over Phillada's scorn.read · scan
Jean Racine, PhaedraVol. 26
- p. 137–138Theramenes argues Hippolytus's love for Aricia is guiltless and inevitable; even Hercules and his mother yielded to Venus.read · scan
- p. 165–166Venus's shafts have made her love hopelessly; Oenone asks if she still loves him.read · scan
William Collins, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 478–480Personifies Love dancing with Mirth to music, tresses loose, shaking odours from wings; love as mythic figure of pleasure.read · scan
Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6
- p. 180–181Nature, friendship and love felt mingled at Whitefoord's village; love's force outlasts life and Cupid still threatens hearts.read · scan
- p. 409–411Ramsay's sweet spell of witching love can move the sternestread · scan
Percy Bysshe Shelley, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 823–825Pan's pursuit of a maiden ends in a broken reed; love brings deluded sorrow to gods and men.read · scan
James Thomson (B.V.), PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1149A man given a girl to love has a heart great with the pulse of Fate.read · scan
2b.Love at first sight and the causes of love
See also: Beauty 5c
Homer, The OdysseyVol. 22
- p. 250The wooers' hearts are enchanted with love and each prays to share her bed.read · scan
Herodotus, An Account of EgyptVol. 33
- p. 89Amasis becomes greatly attached to Ladike; alliances and guest-friendship with Greeks.read · scan
Plato, PhaedoVol. 2
- p. 63–65Lovers' feeling on seeing the beloved's belongings serves as example of recollection.read · scan
Virgil, The AeneidVol. 13
- p. 91–93Dido is ravished by Aeneas's grace and admires the man.read · scan
- p. 99Dido drinks large draughts of love, questioning Aeneas about Troy.read · scan
Plutarch, CaesarVol. 12
- p. 304Caesar is captivated by Cleopatra's bold wit and charm, and reconciles her with her brother.read · scan
Pliny the Younger, Letters of PlinyVol. 9
- p. 275Fear of losing the beloved kindles affection; long attachment to Zosimus strengthened by his danger.read · scan
Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. AugustineVol. 7
- p. 55–56Love of an unseen orator is kindled by his commender: one who loves kindles love in another.read · scan
- p. 56–57He questions why he loves in another what he would hate to be; his love rested on the love of the man's commenders.read · scan
The Destruction of Dá Derga's HostelVol. 49
- p. 200–201Etain says she has loved Eochaid since childhood from tales of him; he pledges to forsake all other women.read · scan
Stories from the Thousand and One NightsVol. 16
- p. 21–22His heart moves with tenderness and he marries the maiden.read · scan
- p. 74The lady's company and sweet words awaken love in the prince's heart.read · scan
- p. 102His beauty draws sighs and kindles a fire in her heart.read · scan
- p. 107–108The young man is said to be inflamed with love, and her heart inclines to him.read · scan
- p. 123The narrator is captivated by the woman's beauty and voice, and love takes entire possession of his heart at first sight.read · scan
- p. 134–135The young merchant is captivated by the beautiful lady, and they exchange verses of mutual love.read · scan
- p. 144Narrator is seized by love for the beautiful damsel who visits him and takes his reason away.read · scan
- p. 150A young man who hated women is struck with sudden passion at seeing the Kadi's daughter at her window; hatred turns to love.read · scan
- p. 164The tailor is captivated by a woman at the window and neglects his work, gazing and exchanging signs with her.read · scan
- p. 196Enis-el-Jelis and the Wezir's son fall in love at first sight, each sighing at the other's beauty.read · scan
- p. 365Seeing the unveiled princess, Ala-ed-Din is overcome by love, falls into a dreamlike trance and cannot eat or speak.read · scan
- p. 394–395The princess sees Ala-ed-Din's horsemanship from her window and falls violently in love with him.read · scan
- p. 401–402The people love him for his bounty, and the princess's love grows as she watches him ride.read · scan
The Story of the Volsungs and NiblungsVol. 49
- p. 298–299Sigurd finds the sleeping shield-maiden and wakes her, the beginning of their meeting.read · scan
Miguel de Cervantes, The History of Don Quixote of the Mancha, Part IVol. 14
- p. 170Knight and princess imagined entangled in amorous net at first sight, each seeming an angel.read · scan
- p. 178Belief that potions make one love is called impossible.read · scan
- p. 220–221Quixote claims surpassing beauty and good name are what most incite love, and imagines Dulcinea surpassing Helen and Lucrece.read · scan
- p. 434Clara loves the disguised youth who follows her, without ever speaking to him; she cannot live without him.read · scan
- p. 500–501Leandra falls in love with the soldier through his gaudy attire and ballads and elopes with him before any suitor suspects.read · scan
Francis Bacon, Essays, Civil and MoralVol. 3
- p. 21–23Treats marriage and wives' affection, and compares love with envy as the two passions that fascinate or bewitch through the eye, with vehement wishes.read · scan
Christopher Marlowe, The Tragical History of Doctor FaustusVol. 19
- p. 244–247Faustus seeks Helen's kiss and vows to be her champion, saying heaven is in her lips.read · scan
William Shakespeare, Songs and SonnetsVol. 40
- p. 262–264Songs of lovers in spring; love is fleeting fancy born in the eyes, so seize the present and kiss while youth lasts.read · scan
- p. 264–266Love dwells in Silvia's eyes; also a lover's true-love mourned as dead.read · scan
William Shakespeare, The TempestVol. 46
- p. 413Miranda and Ferdinand fall in love at first sight; she calls him a thing divine, he takes her for a goddess.read · scan
- p. 432Ferdinand and Miranda fall in love; love makes his labour pleasant and she offers to bear his logs.read · scan
Ben Jonson, PoemsVol. 40
- p. 299–301The speaker lists desired qualities in a lover: fair, witty, proud yet pitiful, jealous, avoiding extremes.read · scan
Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, Philaster, or Love Lies A-BleedingVol. 47
- p. 671–677Philaster goes fearless to meet the princess who summoned him, danger only in a sweet face.read · scan
Thomas Hobbes, Of Man, Being the First Part of LeviathanVol. 34
- p. 371–372Benefits from a superior, or with hope of requital, incline to love and gratitude; from an equal, to secret hatred.read · scan
Izaak Walton, The Life of Dr. John DonneVol. 15
- p. 326Donne falls in love with Ellesmere's niece; love is a flattering mischief and blind passion that defeats wise foresight.read · scan
Izaak Walton, The Life of Mr. George HerbertVol. 15
- p. 392–393Jane Danvers falls in love with Herbert unseen; mutual affection seizes them like a conqueror and grows daily in their marriage.read · scan
Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Life Is a DreamVol. 26
- p. 43He praises Estrella's beauty as a moon and twin stars, and is drawn to her.read · scan
John Milton, Paradise LostVol. 4
- p. 90Thammuz's love-tale infects Sion's daughters with wanton passion.read · scan
- p. 249Adam's overjoyed love at seeing Eve, whose beauty infuses the spirit of love and amorous delight.read · scan
- p. 249Adam confesses passion for Eve exceeds all other delights and makes him feel weak against beauty.read · scan
- p. 331Godly men are caught by singing women, choose mates and hold marriage rites; Michael warns pleasure is not the measure of good.read · scan
Andrew Marvell, PoemsVol. 40
- p. 370–372The speaker parleys with her conquering eyes; her chaste laws will make Love fear.read · scan
- p. 377–379Lovers carve mistresses' names but the trees' beauty exceeds them; the gods pursued mortal beauty only to see it become a tree.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48
- p. 14We love the speaker who reveals our own riches.read · scan
- p. 50–51A man no longer loves the person of ten years ago because neither is the same.read · scan
- p. 62–63The cause of love is an unknown something with dreadful effects, agitating whole countries; Cleopatra's nose.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, Minor WorksVol. 48
- p. 417–418Aphorisms on love: hope, fear, conjecture, respect, veneration, and the persuasive power of silence and abashment.read · scan
Jean Racine, PhaedraVol. 26
- p. 135Hippolytus, long scornful of love, confesses he is smitten with Aricia and feels shame at yielding to passion.read · scan
- p. 149–150Aricia confesses her love for proud Hippolytus, admiring his virtue and the challenge of conquering a heart that scorned love.read · scan
Sir Charles Sedley, Chloris; CeliaVol. 40
- p. 383–384Love grew unperceived with the beloved's beauty, then a lover finds constancy in one woman.read · scan
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, A Discourse upon the Origin and the Foundation of the Inequality among MankindVol. 34
- p. 203Neighborhood produces durable attachments between youth of both sexes, turning into jealousy and fury.read · scan
Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and BeautifulVol. 24
- p. 78Poets describe love passionately without appeal to proportion of the beloved.read · scan
- p. 92Beautiful things excite the passion of love or a correspondent affection.read · scan
- p. 119Describes bodily effects of love and concludes the passion arises from relaxation of the system caused by beauty.read · scan
- p. 119–120Beauty relaxes the body and produces love; conversely love arising in the mind relaxes the organs.read · scan
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Minna von Barnhelm, or The Soldier's FortuneVol. 26
- p. 354–355Minna confesses she loved him before meeting him and resolved to win him.read · scan
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Tragedy of Faust, Part IVol. 19
- p. 104–106Faust is instantly inflamed by the vision and invokes Love to carry him to her.read · scan
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, EgmontVol. 19
- p. 293–294Egmont says love comes to those who do not seek it; Clara likens the Golden Fleece to his love, undeserved.read · scan
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Hermann and DorotheaVol. 19
- p. 386–387Hermann's vision of the maiden haunts him like the sun's afterimage; he meets her joyfully at the fountain.read · scan
Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for ScandalVol. 18
- p. 125–126Lady Sneerwell infers Maria's affection for Charles from her distress at hearing him slandered.read · scan
Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6
- p. 19–21The speaker loves Nell for modesty, innocence and reputation, not mere looks or dress; she reigns in his heart.read · scan
- p. 25–26Poet loves Jean, whose lasting charms of mind outlast fading physical beauty, but is too shy to say so.read · scan
- p. 56–58Poet's caught heart for a Mauchline lady; praise of his airy, gay girl and Armour as the jewel.read · scan
- p. 106–108Poet dazed with love and drink; Peggy's beauty praised in song.read · scan
- p. 220–222The poet's rapturous admiration for a fair maiden; he would gladly live humbly for her; also friendship for a past love.read · scan
- p. 283–285Bonie Mary's beauty prompts toasts and kisses; the merry drinking song is convivial.read · scan
- p. 285–287Admiration of blythe Phemie, fairest lass in Highland and Lowland.read · scan
- p. 307–309Playful praise of a friend's ardour for Anna and her charms.read · scan
- p. 528–530Praise of the lass's beauty and lasting fondness for her.read · scan
- p. 540–543Lover's devotion to a peerless lassie, and friendship's pledge to the lady called Chloris.read · scan
Friedrich Schiller, William TellVol. 26
- p. 411–412Attinghausen says Rudenz is bound not by oath but by love for Bertha of Bruneck, who draws him to court.read · scan
William Wordsworth, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 606–608A charming youth with tales of the wilderness is perilous to a maid's heart.read · scan
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Household TalesVol. 17
- p. 52The king finds her beautiful and takes her home.read · scan
- p. 57King fears his son will fall violently in love on seeing the princess's pictureread · scan
- p. 58–59The king falls in love with the portrait and vows to give his life to win the princessread · scan
- p. 152–153The prince cannot live without seeing Snow-white, and proposes marriage on her revival.read · scan
John Keats, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 884–885Madeline longs for love-visions; Porphyro, heart on fire, risks his life to gaze on her.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, BeautyVol. 5
- p. 301Love is blind yet the sharpest hunter for what he seeks; Beauty is the pilot of the young soul.read · scan
- p. 306–307Beauty does not inspire the deepest passion; love shows its force for the ill-favored.read · scan
Hans Christian Andersen, TalesVol. 17
- p. 243The sea-maid is captivated at first sight by the handsome young Prince.read · scan
- p. 293–294The one-legged Tin Soldier falls for the paper dancer, thinking her the wife for him, though she is grand.read · scan
- p. 326–327The Princess falls in love with the Shadow, dazzled by his dancing and supposed knowledge.read · scan
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 935–936His presence says all without words; she doubts his quickly-tied oath then recognizes great souls may love swiftly.read · scan
John Greenleaf Whittier, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1349–1351Judge and maid meet in the meadow with mutual attraction.read · scan
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 969–970Sight of Lancelot draws her from her loom, love/longing leading her to leave isolation.read · scan
- p. 1021–1022Her voice and touch stir a hopeful yet wary love, oscillating with fear that she is a coquette.read · scan
- p. 1022–1024The new strong wine of love makes him stammer at her hand, while distrust of her coquetry keeps him uncertain.read · scan
- p. 1024–1025Her shy blush in church and her waving farewell stir his heart, then leave him in darkness.read · scan
Ernest Renan, The Poetry of the Celtic RacesVol. 32
- p. 149–150Kilhwch falls violently in love with Olwen unseen and undertakes adventures to win her.read · scan
2c.Love as madness, wound and sickness
See also: Madness 7c · Emotion 11b
Euripides, HippolytusVol. 8
- p. 320–321Phaedra describes the first stab of love as a sickness she tried to hide and conquer.read · scan
- p. 323–326Phaedra's soul is overwhelmed by Love; Nurse offers love-philtres and a token from the beloved.read · scan
- p. 336–337Chorus attributes Phaedra's sick desires for forbidden things to a curse from the Cretan shore; suicide ends love and pain.read · scan
Virgil, The AeneidVol. 13
- p. 152Dido burns with secret passion for Aeneas, inflamed by his words, looks and worth; the book traces a neglected lover's passions.read · scan
- p. 152Dido, wounded by love like a stricken deer, roves the city, feeds on Aeneas's face and story; sacrifice cannot cure her passion.read · scan
- p. 167Dido seeks charms to unbind love or fix it, and plans burning the relics of her faithless lover.read · scan
- p. 167Sleepless Dido, torn by despair, rage and love, laments that love brought her ruin and she should have stayed free.read · scan
Plutarch, AntonyVol. 12
- p. 349Passion for Cleopatra robs Antony of control of his faculties, as if drugged or bewitched.read · scan
Stories from the Thousand and One NightsVol. 16
- p. 62–63Sung verses lament love that steals sleep and consumes the lover, causing the portress to swoon.read · scan
- p. 74–75Love for the lady seizes the prince and, overcome with passion, he rashly provokes the Jinni.read · scan
- p. 135He is intoxicated by his passion; he cannot eat or sleep, even though he fears being cheated.read · scan
- p. 137–138Love's intoxication leads him into peril and then ceases, replaced by reflection.read · scan
- p. 151Lovesickness worsens his illness; an old woman offers to broker an interview with the cloistered daughter of the Kadi.read · scan
- p. 366Ala-ed-Din avows violent ecstatic love for the princess and resolves to win her in lawful wedlock or die.read · scan
- p. 368Ala-ed-Din says love for Bedr-el-Budur has entered his heart's core and he cannot rest until he wins her.read · scan
- p. 372–373Ala-ed-Din glimpsed the princess and says he will die unless he weds her; his mother pleads his passion.read · scan
The Story of the Volsungs and NiblungsVol. 49
- p. 307–308Sigurd sees Brynhild and loses joy in his games, pining for her as his friends notice.read · scan
Geoffrey Chaucer, The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales; The Nun's Priest's TaleVol. 40
- p. 11–12The young Squire is a lover, so hot in love that he sleeps no more than a nightingale.read · scan
Traditional BalladsVol. 40
- p. 68–70Sir John dies of love for Barbara Allan, who scorns him then dies for grief; lovers exchange messages via bird.read · scan
Sir Thomas Malory, The Holy GrailVol. 35
- p. 168–169A lady who loves Bors would die if refused.read · scan
Benvenuto Cellini, The Autobiography of Benvenuto CelliniVol. 31
- p. 127Young Cellini's passion for a Sicilian girl drives him to near madness when her mother takes her away.read · scan
Miguel de Cervantes, The History of Don Quixote of the Mancha, Part IVol. 14
- p. 211–213Amadis does penance in despair when disdained by his lady, and Orlando goes mad from jealous grief; Don Quixote resolves to imitate such lovers' madness.read · scan
- p. 213Don Quixote will go mad for lady Dulcinea, saying real merit lies in madness without cause, to prove his loyalty.read · scan
- p. 215–216Don Quixote sets out on lover's penance; Sancho notes his ass was free of the passions of love and despair.read · scan
- p. 216Quixote plans tearing clothes and beating his head on rocks for his lady's sake.read · scan
- p. 226Quixote weighs imitating Orlando's furious madness or Amadis's melancholy, noting Orlando's madness sprang from jealousy over Angelica.read · scan
- p. 226–228Quixote imitates Amadis's lovesick retreat and weeping over a disdaining lady, though Dulcinea has not disdained him.read · scan
- p. 228–229Love is portrayed as a cruel whip wounding the loyal lover, robbing him of rest.read · scan
- p. 434Clara's love bewilders her; she doubts its origin and hopes distance will ease her pain.read · scan
Edmund Spenser, PoemsVol. 40
- p. 246–248Shepherd wounded by a maiden's glance; love is a cureless sorrow like an arrow lodged in the heart.read · scan
William Shakespeare, Songs and SonnetsVol. 40
- p. 281–282Love makes the poet's eyes see falsely and blinds him with tears to the beloved's faults.read · scan
William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of DenmarkVol. 46
- p. 120–123Polonius attributes Hamlet's madness to love for Ophelia rejected on his command.read · scan
- p. 129–131Polonius recalls suffering extremity for love in his youth and takes Hamlet's talk of his daughter as lovesick.read · scan
- p. 146–148Polonius attributes Hamlet's grief to neglected love; the King doubts it is love.read · scan
William Harvey, On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in AnimalsVol. 38
- p. 123–124Notes that love, grief, envy and anxiety act on the heart, causing emaciation and disease; physical effects of passion.read · scan
Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, Philaster, or Love Lies A-BleedingVol. 47
- p. 690–691Bellario describes Philaster's lovesickness (sighing, weeping, naming her between prayers); Arethusa prefers this welcome lie to any truth denying his love.read · scan
Pierre Corneille, PolyeucteVol. 26
- p. 84Love is both a wound and a blind foe; Pauline curses it while struggling to resist.read · scan
John Dryden, All for Love; or, The World Well LostVol. 18
- p. 29–38Cleopatra calls her love a noble madness beyond reason and cannot stop loving faithless Antony.read · scan
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Tragedy of Faust, Part IVol. 19
- p. 66–68Love's dream cursed as the first of joys.read · scan
Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6
- p. 177–179Youthful love was taught to be poured in song; passion led him astray by Fancy's light from Heaven.read · scan
- p. 327–329Consuming passion overwhelms laws, religion, conscience and reason; also love betrayed by a fickle woman.read · scan
- p. 331–332Love enslaves the man; gallants warned against Ann's charms.read · scan
Hans Christian Andersen, TalesVol. 17
- p. 250–251She endures pain and loss of home for the Prince's love; his marriage to another means her heart breaks and she dies.read · scan
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1017–1018The speaker tries to shrug off Maud, once a beloved child, yet her pale face haunts his sleepless night, betraying love against his will.read · scan
- p. 1019–1020He would flee the cruel madness of love, honey of poison-flowers, though he thinks of Maud.read · scan
Robert Browning, A Blot in the 'ScutcheonVol. 18
- p. 399–401Mildred speaks of Henry's love for her and of their love, ignorance, madness and despair.read · scan
2d.Love as ennobling and transforming
Dante Alighieri, PurgatoryVol. 20
- p. 234Virgil says virtue's flame kindles love in others, and his goodwill toward Statius has been steady since hearing of his affection.read · scan
Miguel de Cervantes, The History of Don Quixote of the Mancha, Part IVol. 14
- p. 78Quixote says chivalry, like love, makes all things equal, and seats Sancho beside him.read · scan
- p. 290Don Quixote idealizes Dulcinea, turning wheat she winnows into pearls, transforming a peasant girl through devoted romantic love.read · scan
Francis Bacon, Essays, Civil and MoralVol. 3
- p. 8–9Lists love among passions that master fear of death: 'love slights it'; Augustus's farewell to Livia recalls conjugal affection at death.read · scan
Thomas Dekker, The Shoemaker's HolidayVol. 47
- p. 479–480Lacy disguises himself as a Dutch shoemaker to be near Rose, marveling that love turns high birth to baseness.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, Minor WorksVol. 48
- p. 418–419Love forgets fortune and friends, transforms the miser into a liberal man, and is identical with reason rather than blind.read · scan
John Dryden, PoemsVol. 40
- p. 393–395Pity melts the mind to love; the vanquished victor sinks upon Thais's breast.read · scan
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Minna von Barnhelm, or The Soldier's FortuneVol. 26
- p. 368–370Equality is the sure bond of love; Minna will not owe her happiness to a man's blind tenderness.read · scan
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Hermann and DorotheaVol. 19
- p. 368Hermann's heart has chosen the stranger maiden; genuine love matures the youth into manhood in a moment.read · scan
Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6
- p. 259–260Praises woman as the balm of woe and heaven below, and chides those who slight women.read · scan
- p. 325–327Outcast speaker, forsaken by the world, rises above it on wings of love.read · scan
Friedrich von Schiller, Letters upon the Aesthetic Education of ManVol. 32
- p. 212Beauty and moral influence ennoble the natural impulse of love.read · scan
- p. 247–248When a person inspires both interest and esteem, constraints vanish and we love, that is, play.read · scan
William Wordsworth, Essay Supplementary to PrefaceVol. 39
- p. 311For the young of both sexes poetry is a passion, like love, a pleasing bondage.read · scan
Alessandro Manzoni, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed)Vol. 21
- p. 26–27Renzo comes gaily on his wedding day, having become thrifty since he set eyes on Lucia.read · scan
Percy Bysshe Shelley, A Defence of PoetryVol. 27
- p. 336–337The great secret of morals is love, a going out of ourselves to identify with the beautiful beyond us.read · scan
- p. 347–348Poets from Ariosto to Rousseau celebrated the dominion of love as victory over sensuality and force.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, CompensationVol. 5
- p. 101Love melts inequalities like sun on an iceberg; by loving, one makes another's grandeur and virtue one's own.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, GiftsVol. 5
- p. 220–221We can receive anything from love; a true gift is the flowing of giver to receiver, when the waters are at level.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, New England ReformersVol. 5
- p. 265–266Those who love us enlarge our life, but those who reject us as unworthy build a heaven before us.read · scan
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 925–926Love rescues the speaker from grief and death, making her life beat double with her beloved's and changing the world's face.read · scan
- p. 926–927Love, even from the lowly, is fire and glorifies the lover; God accepts meanest creatures who love.read · scan
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1035–1036Love is a pearl in a stormy gulf, a countercharm to the hollow sky; he would die to save her from shame.read · scan
Robert Browning, A Blot in the 'ScutcheonVol. 18
- p. 373Mertoun says the love of Mildred uplifts his heart through agony.read · scan
John Ruskin, Sesame and LiliesVol. 28
- p. 139Women's patient restrained affection forms and exalts unworthy lovers.read · scan
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