Short, Inspirational, Philosophical Love Quotes
Updated 14th February 2023, First Published: December 2019 / - When us mere mortals speak of love, words often fail. So for Valentine's Day we have compiled a collection of the finest philosophical love quotes and most beautiful definitions of unconditional love from some of the greatest minds, writers and philosophical thinkers that have ever lived.
These short, inspirational love quotes are perfect for marriage proposals, wedding vows, Valentine's Day, anniversaries and birthdays. But they are also great for every day use too! What better way to say "I love you" or to let your better half know just how much they mean to you!
"In love, one and one are one."
Jean-Paul Sartre, French philosopher
"The greatest pleasure in life is love.”
Euripides, Ancient Greek writer
"At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet."
Plato, Greek philosopher
"One word frees us of all the weight and pain in life. That word is Love."
Socrates, Greek philosopher
"Love is the beauty of the soul."
Saint Augustine, Roman African Theologian
"Love is a canvas furnished by nature and embroidered by imagination."
Voltaire, French philosopher & writer
"The only way of knowing a person is to love them without hope."
Walter Benjamin, German Jewish philosopher
"In true love it is the soul that envelops the body.”
Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher
"Love must be as much a light as it is a flame.”
Henry David Thoreau, American philosopher and poet
"Two souls with but a single thought, two hearts that beat as one."
John Keats, English Romantic poet
"In dreams and in love there are no impossibilities."
Janos Arany, Hungarian poet
"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage."
Lao Tzu, Chinese philosopher
"Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies."
Aristotle, Greek philosopher
"Love grants in a moment what toil can hardly achieve in an age."
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German novelist & poet
"Love is the irresistible desire to be desired irresistibly."
Louis Ginzberg, Jewish American writer
"Where there is love there is life."
Mahatma Gandhi, Indian activist
"It is love that asks, that seeks, that knocks, that finds, and that is faithful to what it finds."
St. Augustine, Roman African Theologian
"There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness."
Frederiche Nietzsche, German philosopher
"Love is space and time measured with the heart."
Marcel Proust, French novelist
"The love we give away is the only love we keep."
Elbert Hubbard, American writer & philosopher
"Love does not alter the beloved, it alters itself."
Søren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher
"The madness of love the greatest of heaven’s blessings."
Plato, Greek philosopher
"The moment you have in your heart this extraordinary thing called love and feel the depth, the delight, the ecstasy of it, you will discover that for you the world is transformed."
Jiddu Krishnamurti, Indian philosopher
"Life without love is like a tree without blossoms or fruit."
Khalil Gibran, Lebanese American poet
"Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.”
Lao Tzu, Chinese philosopher
"Every heart sings a song incomplete until another heart whispers back.”
Plato, Greek philosopher
"Fortune and love favour the brave."
Ovid, Roman poet
"True love cannot be found where it does not exist, nor can be denied where it does."
Torquato Tasso, Italian poet
"Who would give a law to lovers? Love is unto itself a higher law. "
Boethius, Roman philosopher
"This fire that we call Loving is too strong for human minds. But just right for human souls."
Aberjhani, African American writer
"Perhaps the feelings that we experience when we are in love represent a normal state. Being in love shows a person who he should be."
Anton Chekhov, Russian playwright
"Find the person who will love you because of your differences and not in spite of them and you have found a lover for life."
Leo Buscaglia, American writer
"The first duty of love is to listen."
Paul Tillich, German-American philosopher & theologian
"Life is the flower for which love is the honey."
Victor Hugo, French novelist & poet
"Soul meets soul on lover’s lips."
Percy Bysshe Shelly, English Romantic poet
"When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love…"
Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor & philosopher
"To write a good love letter, you ought to begin without knowing what you mean to say, and to finish without knowing what you have written.”
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Italian philosopher
"What greater thing is there for two human souls than to feel that they are joined to strengthen each other and to be at one with each other in silent unspeakable memories".
George Eliot, English novelist & poet
"Rules for happiness: something to do, someone to love, something to hope for."
Immanuel Kant, German philosopher
"And think not that you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course."
Khalil Gibran, Lebanese American poet
"Two hearts in love need no words."
Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, French poet
"What will survive of us is love."
Philip Larkin , English Poet
"We are asleep until we fall in love!”
Leo Tolstoy, from War and Peace
"'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.”
Alfred Tennyson, British poet
"Love conquers all things, so we too shall yield to love.”
Virgil, Roman poet
"To love and be loved is the most natural expression of our being.”
Deepak Chopra, Indian-American author
"Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind.”
William Shakespeare, English playwright and poet
"Love will find a way through paths where wolves fear to prey.”
Lord Byron, English poet
"Love is the ultimate truth at the heart of the universe and transcends all boundaries.”
Deepak Chopra, Indian-American author
"Love is the whole thing. We are only pieces."
Rumi, Persian poet and theologian
"The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves"
Victor Hugo, French novelist and playwright
"The smile is the beginning of love."
Mother Teresa, Indian-Albanian Catholic saint
"Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same."
Emily Brontë, English novelist and poet
"Passion makes the world go 'round. Love just makes it a safer place."
Ice-T, American rapper
"Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own."
Robert A. Heinlein, American author
"Love isn't something natural. Rather it requires discipline, concentration, patience, faith, and the overcoming of narcissism. It isn't a feeling, it is a practice."
Eric Fromm, German psychologist, sociologist & philosopher
"Love does not dominate; it cultivates."
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German poet & playwright
"Love is born into every human being; it calls back the halves of our original nature together; it tries to make one out of two and heal the wound of human nature."
Plato, Greek philosopher
"Love loves to love love."
James Joyce, Irish writer
We sincerely hope you find the words you seek to convey your feelings to your other half! And if you subsequently get engaged and need help planning your wedding, you know who to call!