To be in love is merely to be in a state of perceptual anesthesia - to mistake an ordinary young woman for a goddess.
Interpretation
Love can cloud our perception, making us idealize the person we are attracted to.
This quote by H. L. Mencken suggests that love can create a kind of blindness where we fail to see the reality of a person, seeing them instead as extraordinary or divine. It highlights the tendency of lovers to elevate their partners to a pedestal, obscuring their flaws and presenting them as idealized beings, which is often a temporary state caused by the intensity of romantic feelings.
In practice
This quote can be shared during a discussion about the nature of romantic relationships.
I know a good many men of great learning-that is, men born with an extraordinary eagerness and capacity to acquire knowledge. One and all, they tell me that they can't recall learning anything of any value in school. All that schoolmasters managed to accomplish with them was to test and determine the amount of knowledge that they had already acquired independently-and not infrequently the determination was made clumsily and inaccurately.
It takes a long while for a naturally trustful person to reconcile himself to the idea that after all God will not help him
It is the theory of all modern civilized governments that they protect and foster the liberty of the citizen; it is the practice of all of them to limit its exercise, and sometimes very narrowly.
The central belief of every moron is that he is the victim of a mysterious conspiracy against his common rights and true deserts.
The cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy.
It is my conviction that no normal man ever fell in love, within the ordinary meaning of the term, after the age of thirty.
If you are penitent, you love. And if you love you are of God. All things are atoned for, all things are saved by love. If I, a sinner even as you are, am tender with you and have pity on you, how much more will God have pity upon you. Love is such a priceless treasure that you can redeem the whole world by it, and cleanse not only your own sins but the sins of others.
My love is such that Rivers cannot quench, _x000D_ _x000D_ Nor ought but love from thee, give recompence. _x000D_ _x000D_ Thy love is such I can no way repay, _x000D_ _x000D_ The heavens reward thee manifold I pray.
In antiquity, a woman might be an object of worship or desire, but never of love.
I hate and love. You ask, perhaps, how can that be? I know not, but I feel the agony.
Like you and your woman ain't gettin' along and you're in love. You can't sleep at nights. Your mind is on her - on whatever. You know, that's the blues. You can't hug that money at night. You can't kiss it.
If you have ever gone into the woods with me, I must love you very much.
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