Love is but the discovery of ourselves in others, and the delight in the recognition.
Interpretation
Love is about recognizing parts of ourselves in others and finding joy in that connection.
This quote suggests that love is not just an emotion but a profound experience of self-discovery through our relationships. When we love others, we often find reflections of our own identities and values in them, and this mutual recognition brings a sense of joy and fulfillment.
In practice
A couple celebrating their anniversary might share this quote to reflect on their journey together.
Looking forward into an empty year strikes one with a certain awe, because one finds therein no recognition. The years behind have a friendly aspect, and they are warmed by the fires we have kindled, and all their echoes are the echoes of our own voices.
My garden, with its silence and pulses of fragrance that come and go on the airy undulations, affects me like sweet music. Care stops at the gates, and gazes at me wistfully through the bars.
Fame is but an inscription on a grave, and glory the melancholy blazon on a coffin lid.
The world is not so much in need of new thoughts as that when thought grows old and worn with usage it should, like current coin, be called in, and, from the mint of genius, reissued fresh and new.
Books are a finer world within the world. (1863)
A man does not plant a tree for himself; he plants it for posterity.
How could she feel nostalgia when he was right in front of her? How can you suffer from the absence of a person who is present? You can suffer nostalgia in the presence of the beloved if you glimpse a future where the beloved is no more.
The first lover is kept a long while, when no offer is made of a second.
Confession is not betrayal. What you say or do doesn't matter; only feelings matter. If they could make me stop loving you-that would be the real betrayal.
Like everybody who is not in love, he thought one chose the person to be loved after endless deliberations and on the basis of particular qualities or advantages.
I used to look in the mirror and feel shame, I look in the mirror now and I absolutely love myself.
My brothers and sisters, may the spirit of love which comes at Christmastime fill our homes and our lives and linger there long after the tree is down and the lights are put away for another year.
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