For some, February 14th may just be a day like any other day. For others, it’s a day to celebrate L-O-V-E! It’s safe to say that celebrating Valentine’s Day isn’t for everyone, nevertheless, we all share one common denominator –and that’s love. As human beings, we have all witnessed, felt or even lost love. We know what it feels like to love someone unconditionally, whether it be your mother, your sister, your dog, or your best friend. In honor of that feeling, here are some quotes from some our (and hopefully now yours, too) favorite authors on love:
1. “There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature.” ― Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey
2. “I loved you like a man loves a woman he never touches, only writes to, keeps little photographs of.” ― Charles Bukowski, Love is a Dog from Hell
3. “I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you simply, without problems or pride: I love you in this way because I do not know any other way of loving but this, in which there is no I or you, so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand, so intimate that when I fall asleep your eyes close.” ― Pablo Neruda, 100 Love Sonnets
4. “As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.” ― John Green, The Fault in Our Stars
5. “Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn’t it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up.” – Neil Gaiman, The Sandman, Vol. 9: The Kindly Ones
6. “There is never a time or place for true love. It happens accidentally, in a heartbeat, in a single flashing, throbbing moment.” ― Sarah Dessen, The Truth About Forever
7. “To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.” ― Oscar Wilde, An Ideal Husband
8. “I am nothing special, of this I am sure. I am a common man with common thoughts and I’ve led a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten, but I’ve loved another with all my heart and soul, and to me, this has always been enough…” ― Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook
9. “I’m in love with you, and I’m not in the business of denying myself the simple pleasure of saying true things. I’m in love with you, and I know that love is just a shout into the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that we’re all doomed and that there will come a day when all our labor has been returned to dust, and I know the sun will swallow the only earth we’ll ever have, and I am in love with you.” ― John Green, The Fault in Our Stars
10. “One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving.” ― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
11. “If you remember me, then I don’t care if everyone else forgets.” ― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
12. “I fell in love with her courage, her sincerity, and her flaming self respect. And it’s these things I’d believe in, even if the whole world indulged in wild suspicions that she wasn’t all she should be. I love her and it is the beginning of everything.” ― F. Scott Fitzgerald
13. “HAPPINESS [is] ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED” ― Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild
14. “Lost love is still love. It takes a different form, that’s all. You can’t see their smile or bring them food or tousle their hair or move them around a dance floor. But when those senses weaken another heightens. Memory. Memory becomes your partner. You nurture it. You hold it. You dance with it.” ― Mitch Albom