Love built on beauty, soon as beauty, dies.
John DonneRead
Dull sublunary lovers' love (Whose soul is sense) cannot admit Absence, because it doth remove Those things which elemented it.
Interpretation
The quote expresses that physical love is tied to presence and cannot endure absence.
In this quote, John Donne reflects on the nature of earthly, physical love, arguing that such love relies heavily on the physical presence of the beloved. He suggests that when lovers are apart, the essence of their connection diminishes, as their love is rooted in sensory experiences and tangible interaction, making absence detrimental to their bond.
In practice
Sharing this quote during a wedding speech to highlight the importance of presence in love.
Love built on beauty, soon as beauty, dies.
Reason is our soul's left hand, Faith her right, By these we reach divinity
All occasions invite His mercies, and all times are His seasons.
If poisonous minerals, and if that tree, Whose fruit threw death on else immortal us, If lecherous goats, if serpents envious Cannot be damned; alas; why should I be?
Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
I call not that virginity a virtue, which resideth onely in the bodies integrity; much less if it be with a purpose of perpetually keeping it: for then it is a most inhumane vice. - But I call that Virginity a virtue which is willing and desirous to yield it self upon honest and lawfull terms, when just reason requireth; and until then, is kept with a modest chastity of body and mind.
The knowledge that she could learn to love a man had always meant more to her than loving him effortlessly, more even than falling in love, and that was why she now felt that she was on the threshold of a new life, a happiness bound to endure for a very long time.
So sweet love seemed that April morn. When first we kissed beside the thorn, So strangely sweet, it was not strange We thought that love could never change.
No sacrifice which a lover would make for his beloved is too great for us to make for our enemy.
You are protected, in short, by your ability to love!
Go out into the world today and love the people you meet. Let your presence light new light in the hearts of people.
When someone you love dies, and you're not expecting it, you don't lose her all at once; you lose her in pieces over a long time—the way the mail stops coming, and her scent fades from the pillows and even from the clothes in her closet and drawers. Gradually, you accumulate the parts of her that are gone. Just when the day comes—when there's a particular missing part that overwhelms you with the feeling that she's gone, forever—there comes another day, and another specifically missing part.
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