"Si vis amari ama."
--Seneca
Lovers think the world was made for them.--And so perhaps it was.
* * *
To each other, lovers are the most interesting personages alive; but
onlookers regard them partly with amusement, partly with pity, partly
with compassion--in the etymological sense of that word.
* * *
The first wonder of every accepted lover is that he should be the
accepted lover of such a woman. --What the woman thinks . . . what the
woman thinks, probably not even she herself knows. Probably each woman
thinks her own thoughts.
To doubt whether one is in love is to prove oneself out of it.
* * *
To impress upon the lover the still-existing necessity of refining gold
or painting the lily is out of the question. Yet every woman attempts
it.
* * *
If there is one proverb more distasteful than another to a
hot-headed lover, it is that half a loaf is better than no bread.
* * *
Children, dogs, and old people are difficult to deceive. Lovers who have
to use circumspection should remember this.
* * *
A doubting lover should mark how, and for whom, his woman dresses.
* * *
To die for a woman would perhaps, to a young and ardent lover, not be
difficult; to wage incessant warfare with the world for her, that perhaps
is not so easy. But it is the better test of love; and perhaps also the
better preserver and replenisher of love. For
Little as people seem to be aware of it, love requires constant
replenishing: no flame can burn without a feeding oil, no pool overflow
with out a purling brook. Yet
The first ecstasies of love often blind both lover and lass to the care
necessary for the nurture of love. Indeed,
To many treat love as if it were a passing whim; whereas in sober reality
it is (or should be) a lasting emotion.
* * *