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Love the true meaning


What Is True Love? A Therapist Explains | Michael W. Regier, PhD

Many people find themselves disappointed when what they thought was true love goes wrong.

You may have been through a series of relationships you thought would last forever, only to see each of them end in a matter of months.

Once you've been deceived by what you thought was the real deal, with someone who seemed to meet all of the criteria on your checklist, you may find yourself wondering not only why finding and keeping true love is so difficult, but what true love even means.

What is 'true love'?

True love means loving someone without having expectations or limiting beliefs. It means caring for someone, putting their needs before your own, and having a genuine desire for their happiness.

Sadly, most people have been devastated and deceived by pop culture's definition of "true love."

RELATED: What Does Love Feel Like? 15 Men Explain Their Feelings

If you're ready to get serious about loving someone and allowing yourself to be loved in return, you need to begin by figuring out which definition of love rings true for you.

You must be ready to understand love's meaning, how to recognize it when you find love, and how to make finding and keeping it your highest pursuit.

Here are 8 things to know about the real meaning of true love.

1. True love is not new — it is lasting.

It's true that all love starts out as new love. but new love is easy. It’s expansive and romantic. In a sense, it’s what the hippie generation used to call "free love."

Everyone feels these emotions in new romantic relationships. It’s just the way our brains are wired. Meanwhile, true lasting love is earned love. It takes intentionality.

You have to decide: do you want to spend time and effort to achieve lasting love, or do you want to live in the fantasy that true love is simply going to happen to you?

2. True love means being emotionally connected.

Research has shown that emotional connection is the single most important factor for creating true, lasting love. It’s the glue that binds relationships together. You can have great conversations about life, politics, sports, or goals, but if there is no emotional connection, there will be no sustainable attraction.

What does love mean in a relationship? Well, emotions are the glue that bond relationships together. They are the primary way we express our deepest joy and fear. Love in a relationship means expressing these emotions in a way that connects you, and responding to your partner’s feelings with support, trust and respect.

Though emotions aren’t a love language, they are the language of love. They make you trust and believe in the sincerity of your partner’s love. They tell you that your partner cares about you, even when you hurt.

RELATED: What Unconditional Love Really Looks Like In Healthy Relationships

3. True love is accessible.

You need to know that your partner is available to you when you need them. What good is it having a Lancelot if he doesn't rescue you when the dragon comes When we bond as a pair, we expect our partner to be the first responder when we are afraid.

When the World Trade Center was burning, the lion’s share of the calls going out were expressions of love to husbands and wives. Being able to connect with the person you love the most when you need them the most calms your emotions and makes you feel safer, even in the face of the worst kinds of danger.

When a husband is not accessible to his wife in labor with their baby, it’s one of the biggest pain points she can experience. If she goes through that pain without him present, she will resent him for years to come, losing her ability to trust him to be there when she needs him in the future.

True lovers are on call for each other 24/7. They are accessible to their partners whether they are in distress or wanting to share in celebrations.

Do you want your partner to celebrate with you on your birthday, when you get that job promotion, or graduate from school? Absolutely. Sharing the good times together strengthens your bond with each other.

But sharing the good and bad times requires more than accessibility alone.

4. True love is responsive.

If your partner is in the room with you, you expect them to respond to you when you are trying to talk to them. If you hand them the ball and they drop it, you will be angry.

Most men tend to emotionally withdraw in the times when their partners need them the most. They struggle with handling heightened emotions in themselves or in others. From the time they were young, they learned to stuff their emotions and not feel them.

Meanwhile, most women do the opposite. When they are emotionally distressed, they put it all out there. They express their emotions and expect someone to be there for them.

If your guy is in the room and is acting like a dead fish while you're expressing yourself to him, you don't feel his love. Because of this, you'll ask yourself where your Romeo went. He was so responsive and thoughtful when you were dating. During that time he was amazing. What's happening now? Are you not attractive enough to hold his attention any longer?

You will naturally interpret his non-responsiveness as a sign that he’s no longer attracted to you or in love with you and that he just doesn't care. However, that's not necessarily true.

During the new love phase of relationships, you have the advantage of the powerful neurochemical known as dopamine. The brain produces a lot of dopamine during the early stages of a new relationship, helping even the most withdrawn men to be more emotionally expressive than they normally would be.

True lovers learn how to work through "the pursue/withdraw phase" of the relationship that occurs once newness wears off and the dopamine tapers off. So, don't attack your partner when he's struggling to not shut down when you're expressing your strongest emotions. He demonstrates his loving feelings for you by telling you how scary it is to feel his emotions and yours at the same time.

In time, you will feel good about being safe with each other and respond naturally.

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5. True love is engaged.

You can be accessible and responsive to your partner but still be tuned out if you aren't engaged with them. Engagement is all about paying attention and being present.

In our current age of smartphone information access, how many times have you been in a restaurant and noticed both members of a couple searching their cell phones during dinner? They should be together during quality time, right? Your social media, your game, or news searching must take a back seat to engagement with your partner.

This isn't easy. Companies invest a lot of money to psychologically manipulate you to engage with them. And, of course, pictures of your friends can be quite engaging.

True love means being able to let go of other distractions like the phone or the TV or anything else that gets in the way of you listening when your partner is talking. You need to know that your words are important.

6. True love is always growing.

My parents have been married for 65 years. They both say that they love each other now more than ever. Watching them together, I believe that is real love.

True love grows until the end of life. Everyone agrees that life is difficult. Things happen that are hard to deal with, and no matter how old we are, we struggle with getting older. When a couple is there for each other during life's challenges and through the process of aging, they grow closer.

Knowing that you can depend on your partner to meet your needs makes you love him or her more and more. This is really important to understand if you're in a new relationship. What you thought attracted you to each other early on in your relationship becomes less and less important over time.

You're going to become fat and wrinkled, but if you have the money for cosmetic procedures and treatments, you can prolong your youthful appearance. And, yes, exercise will help you keep the weight off.

But, over time, how you both look on the outside becomes less and less important than your growing love for each other on the inside. Your memories of sharing life’s most important times together will be irreplaceable.

True love is a journey together through mountains and valleys. There's nothing more bonding than helping each other through life’s challenges. This often requires that you let go of ego and what you think is most important to you. Couples who grow and survive life’s challenges learn to do what’s best for the relationship.

RELATED: What It Means When Someone Says 'Love You' Instead Of 'I Love You’

7. True love is faithful.

For starters, couples need to have faith in their relationship, which really means having faith that the other person will be someone you can trust as the years go by. Trust is the key to success and foundation of every lifelong healthy love relationship.

When you say "I do," you are putting your future and well-being in the hands of another person. That may sound contradictory to the modern perspective on relationships, but think about it. You will share a house, friends, family, money, and emotions.

You may even share your DNA, from which you'll make the babies that will belong to both of you. With the exception of your jobs, everything that matters to both of you will likely be shared.

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So, there's a lot that you need to trust your partner with, and you need to have faith that your partner will be a good parent, housekeeper, friend, and co-provider.

Another part of faithful love is what we normally think of as "fidelity" — not having emotional or sexual affairs. You must protect each other’s hearts by not opening up your emotions or sexual needs to others.

There are other notions out there that say long-term relationships can work while having multiple partners. But in my 30 years of practice, I have never seen it not damage a relationship.

True love means your primary relationship is primary, which relates to the attachment theory of relationships. Science supports the theory that an infant forms a primary bond with one other person who is its primary caretaker. The infant’s security depends on the health of the nurture and support of that relationship. Neuroscience teaches that our brains are wired to make this two-person connection.

More recent research has found that adults bond the same way that infants do. So, we call the infant-mother bond a primary relationship. The adult lifetime couple bond, forming a primary relationship as well.

How do you know if you are in love with someone? You’ll know you are in love with someone when you have faith in your relationship, and in each other. Having secure true love requires you to make your primary relationship a priority. Both partners need to feel that they are more important to each other than other people, places, or things.

You put each other first, above anything else. If you feel this way about someone, whether you just started dating them or have been married for years, there should be no doubt in your mind that you really, truly are in love with them.

8. True love is transparent.

Intimacy has been defined as "into me, see." You need to be open and transparent with your partner for them to see and respond to your deepest needs and desires. When there’s distance in the relationship, it's probably not about your waistline, but more to do with unmet needs that are not being expressed.

There’s nothing more precious to offer to your partner than your deepest needs, fears, and desires. In her book, "The Power of Vulnerability," Brené Brown talks about the importance of transparency in relationships. And to feel safe enough to be vulnerable and transparent, you need to work on everything you just learned above.

What is the best definition of love? The best definition of love is having a deep bond based in commitment, respect, trust, and acceptance. Love means being dedicated to someone else’s well-being, holding their desires and dreams in high esteem, accepting them for who they are without judgment, and trusting them to do the same for you.

Though many tend to think of love as just being selfless and having a deep devotion to your partner, anything less than lasting and affirming love is not true love. If love hurts you or prevents you from becoming the best version of yourself, then it really isn't true love.

RELATED: The Difference Between Loving Someone And Being In Love

More for You:

Michael W. Regier, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist and certified emotionally focused couples therapist and EFT supervisor. He and his wife Paula are authors of the book "Emotional Connection: The Story & Science of Preventing Conflict & Creating Lifetime Love."

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What Is Love?

In This Article

A relationship is composed of friendship, sexual attraction, intellectual compatibility, and, of course, love. Love is the glue that keeps a relationship strong and solid. It is deeply biological. But what is love, and how do you know if you are truly in love? 

It is difficult to define love because everyone’s perception of real love can be dramatically different. People often get confused between lust, attraction, and companionship. Hence, there is no one best definition of love.     

However, love can be summarized as an intense feeling of euphoria and deep affection for someone or something. This love definition or love meaning might not encompass all the emotions that comprise how it feels when you are in love.      

Is love an emotion? Yes. 

Can abstract emotions such as love be defined in specific terms? Maybe not. 

However, there are certain words and actions that fall in the realm of love, while others do not. 

Some gestures can be termed love. On the other hand, some other emotions and feelings can be confused for love, but people soon realize that they are not true love. Here is to understanding more about love and the feeling.

Related Reading: What Does Love Feel Like?

What exactly is love?

If you want to define love in one sentence, love is one of the most profound emotions humans experience. It is a combination of attraction and closeness. The person we feel attracted or close to is the person we are, usually, in love with.            

Such a person can be a friend, parent, siblings, or even our pet. Such love is based on a feeling of attraction or affection.

Related Reading: How to Determine Your Definition of Love

Defining different definitions of love?

Love can be defined in different ways because there are different types of love. The answer to the question, “What is love for you?” can differ for everyone, depending on the relationship in context. 

As per the Cambridge dictionary, love is defined as liking another adult very much and being romantically and sexually attracted to them or having strong feelings of liking a friend or person in your family.

While this is a more literal definition of the word, love can be defined in many other ways.

How to describe love? 

Feelings of love can be defined as an amalgamation of various other emotions. Love is caring, compassion, patience, not being jealous, not having expectations, giving yourself and other people a chance, and not rushing. 

What is love, then? You ask. Love has most often been used as a noun, but in practice, love is a verb. It is about what we do for others and the many ways we make other people feel loved and cared for.

Also Try: What Is The Definition Of Love Quiz?

What is the true meaning of love, according to the Bible

 As per John 15:9-10, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you: continue you in my love. If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.”

If you set boundaries and abide by them, there is nothing purer and holier than love. Like God had made certain rules to adhere to, if we do, he loves us absolutely, completely. This is the meaning of ‘what is love.’ According to the Bible,  love is pristine and sanctimonious.

However, the first love mentioned in the Bible is not romantic, but paternal love (Genesis 22.) It refers to the unconditional actions that a mother or father is willing to perform for their child. This is also where the idea of love being an action comes into play.

Related Reading: Bible Verses About Love Mention 4 Ways to Understand What Love Is

History of love           

              

Just like most things around the world, love has also seen a transformation over the years and centuries. Love was not always the way we know it now. 

Back in the day, love was secondary or not even under consideration when it came to a union between two people. Marriages, which in some cultures and parts of the world are known as the ultimate goal of a romantic relationship, were mostly transactional. 

People married based on whether or not the marriage would bring them any benefits in terms of wealth and power.

However, if we look at forms of art such as poetry, it seems that love is an old emotion – something people have been experiencing for a long time. 

Related Reading: What is the Difference Between Emotional Love and Physical Love?

Elements of love

Love is a holistic feeling. It involves many elements, words,, and actions which define love. “What is love, and what isn’t?” is a very common question we can find ourselves asking. 

Many people may wonder what is the meaning of love in a relationship. The answer lies in the elements of love.

1. Care

Care is one of the primary elements of love. 

If we love someone, we care about them, their feelings, and their well-being. We may go out of our way to make sure they are okay, and even compromise and sacrifice our needs and wants to give them what they need.

Related Reading: Simple Steps to Take Care of Your Relationships 

2. Admiration

Admiration is very crucial in love and relationships. 

Admiration can be for their physicality or even for their mind and personality. Liking someone for their external and internal self and respecting their thoughts is an essential element of love.

Related Reading: Admiration Is an Essential Part of a Relationship 

3. Desire

Desire is both sexual and physical and mental. 

Just wanting to spend more time with someone, being around them, and wanting them – are all parts of the desire you feel when you are in love with someone. 

Related Reading: Is Love a Choice or Is It a Feeling?

What love is not

As we discuss the elements of love and what is love, it is also important to know what love is not. 

We can often confuse some other emotions or feelings for love, but sooner or later, we realize that what we feel for a certain person is not love.

  • Love is not lust

Despite the phrase “it was love at first sight,” love is not something we feel right away. 

That strong feeling of attraction, like a magnet pulling you towards that person you’ve just met? That’s infatuation and sexual chemistry.

Mother nature gives us a big dose of infatuation to get us together initially. 

Love does include sexual chemistry, but it differs because it is an emotion that takes time to build. Lust can appear in an instant; love evolves over a period of time as you get to know the other person inside and out.

You may be immensely sexually attracted to your partner, but that does not mean you understand the true definition of love.

If you haven’t developed a base of loving feelings with your partner, you will become bored once the sexual spark dies down. 

  • Love is not instant

How to explain love and relationship?

A loving relationship is not built in a day. The threads of love take time to weave together to form a strong bond.

It is only as you and your partner share your thoughts, fears, dreams, and hopes that love takes root. So trust the process and don’t rush love. It has its own timetable that needs to be respected and not hurried.

  • The one true love

We talk about soul mates, but humans are built with the capacity to love over and over again. Thankfully so, or we would never recover from our high school crush or losing a partner to divorce or death.  

12 signs of love

Love is an emotion, but people do show signs of being in love. You can tell if someone is in love with you by the things they do for you, or the words they say, and how they behave with you.

1. Love is generous

In a truly loving relationship, we give to the other without an expectation of return. We don’t keep an account of who did what for the other. Giving pleasure to our partner gives us pleasure, too.

2. We feel what our partner feels

The true meaning of love is to feel a sense of joy when we see our partner happy. When we see that they are sad or depressed, we feel their blue mood, too. With love comes empathy for the other person’s emotional state.

3. Love means compromise

The real meaning of love in a relationship is to willfully compromise your needs to accommodate your partner’s needs or desires.

But we don’t sacrifice our self in doing this, nor should the other person require us to sacrifice our self for their gain. That’s not what love is all about in a relationship; that’s control and abuse.

4. Respect and kindness

What is true love?

Well, when we love, we act respectfully and kindly towards each other.

We do not intentionally hurt or denigrate our partners. When we talk about them in their absence, it is with such warmth that the listeners can hear the love in our words. We do not criticize our partners behind their backs.

5. We act with ethics and morals

Our love for the other person enables us to act morally and ethically, both with them and in our community. Their presence in our life makes us want to be better people so that they will continue to admire us.

6. We guard each other’s solitude

With love, we never feel lonely, even when alone. The very thought of the other person makes us feel as if we have a guardian angel with us at all times.

7. Their success is yours as well

What is true love in a relationship?

When our partner succeeds at something after a long effort, we beam with joy as if we were the winner, too. There is no feeling of jealousy or competition, just pure pleasure at seeing our beloved’s success.

8. They are always on our mind

Even when separated for work, travel, or other commitments, our thoughts drift towards them and what they might be doing “right now.”

9. Sexual intimacy deepens

With love, sex becomes sacred. Different from the early days, our lovemaking now is deep and holy, a true joining of bodies and minds.

10. We feel safe

The presence of love in the relationship allows us to feel protected and safe as if the other person is a safe harbor for us to come home to. With them, we feel a sense of security and stability.

11. We feel seen and heard

Our partner sees us for who we are and still loves us. We can show all our sides, positive and negative, and receive their love unconditionally.

They know who we are at our core. Love allows us to bare our souls and feel grace in return.

12. Love helps fight without fear

What is love all about? It is a sense of security.

If we are secure in our love relationship, we know we can argue and that it will not break us apart. We agree to disagree, and we don’t hold grudges for too long because we don’t like to hold bad feelings towards our partner.

Related Reading: How Do You Know If You Love Someone

8 types of love

There are eight different types of love, according to Greek mythology. These include –

1. Family love or Storgy

This refers to the type of love we share with our family – parents, grandparents, siblings, cousins, and others.

2. Marital love or Eros

This is the type of romantic love we feel with a partner who we wish to marry or have already married. 

3. Love by the principle – Agape

This love is not based on emotions but principles. It is referred to as the love for people we do not like, the love for the unlovable.

4. Brotherly love – Phileo/Philia

As the name suggests, Brotherly love is love for our close ones, who we hold as dear as family. These people, however, are not our family by blood.

5. Obsessive Love – Mania

Obsessive love, also known as Mania, is an obsession with one particular person or a certain way of loving them. Such love hinders your growth and can interfere with your regular personal and professional life.

Also Try: Do You Have an Obsessive Love Disorder Quiz

6. Enduring love – Pragma

Enduring love is the kind of deep, true love that people in long, meaningful relationships experience.

7. Playful love – Ludus

Playful love, also called young love, is what you feel when you think the whole world has conspired for the two of you to be together. This love, however, comes with an expiry date and might die down with time.

8. Self love – Philautia

This is the type of love that has been talked about quite a bit, especially recently. It talks about appreciation and care for yourself before you set out to give it to someone else.

Related Reading: What Is the Shape of Love Like?

Impact of being in love

Love is a very powerful emotion. Therefore, it can have both positive and negative impacts on us. These effects of love can range from physical, emotional, and even psychological. True feelings of love can really change us.

The positive impact of love

Love is known to have a very positive impact on our well-being, body, and mind. Some positive impacts of love include –

  • Reduced risk of heart diseases
  • Less fatality risk due to heart attacks
  • Healthy habits
  • Increased chances of a long and healthy life
  • Lower stress levels
  • Reduced risk of mental health issues like depression.

The negative impact of love

Unhealthy, unrequited love and bad relationships can negatively impact your body, mind, and well-being. 

The negative impacts of love can be as follows.

  • Increased risk of heart diseases
  • Spiked risk of heart attacks
  • High levels of stress
  • Slower disease recovery
  • Poor mental health
Related Reading: What Passionate Love Really Means

Love and mental health

As mentioned in the impacts of love, love can have both a positive and negative impact on people’s mental health.

The feelings of unconditional love, non-judgment, independence, and security that come with a healthy relationship can boost self-esteem and confidence. It also reduces stress, which is a common denominator for various mental health conditions such as anxiety or depression. 

On the flip side, bad relationships that are toxic from the beginning or turn toxic with time can lead to insecurities that develop deeper than just the relationship and affect a person’s mental health and future relationships. 

The feelings of not being good enough, not doing things right, being unable to meet expectations can make one feel less of themselves. People leaving without explanations, cheating, and lying can give rise to abandonment issues that last longer than just the relationship. 

To further understand the difference between healthy and unhealthy love, watch this video.

How to practice love

As mentioned above, love is an amalgamation of various factors and feelings. To practice love healthily and make the people in our lives feel loved, we have to be open to love. 

Having said that, there is no sure-shot step-by-step guide on how to practice love, but these points may help.

  • Be more compassionate, take care of the people you love
  • Be vulnerable, let your guard down and open up to your partner/parent/sibling
  • Be willing to accept your flaws
  • Accept your mistakes and realize how they affect the other person
  • Apologize
  • Forgive the people you love when you can tell they are genuinely sorry
  • Listen to your loved ones
  • Prioritize your time with them
  • Make sure you are there for the big days
  • Reciprocate their words, gestures, and feelings
  • Show affection
  • Appreciate them
Related Reading: Ways of Nurturing Relationships

How to nurture love

As much as love is an emotion, a feeling, and happens to evolve naturally, people in relationships must work towards nurturing love.  

What is love all about in a relationship? 

It is a mix of compassion, care, understanding, and various other factors, which need to be developed over time. 

Here are some tips on cultivating love in relationships:

1. Practice love-kindness meditation

Love-kindness meditation is a technique used to improve interpersonal relationships. 

The premise of the practice is to think about your loved ones while meditating, focusing on warm feelings, and wishing for their well-being and happiness.

Related Reading: How Meditation Affects Relationships 

2. Communication

Communication is one of the key factors in a healthy relationship. Healthy communication, where you listen to your partner, and speak about your needs and wants can help you go a long way. 

With communication, the risk of misunderstandings is drastically reduced. It also avoids unrealistic and unmet expectations, which can sometimes be the root cause of a relationship ending.  

Related Reading: Effective Communication Skills in Relationships

3. Conflict resolution

Fights among couples, or any people who love each other, are almost inevitable. However, how we resolve these fights and conflicts reflects your willingness to nurture love in your relationship. 

When people say mean, hurtful things to each other during a fight or do not respect each other when they disagree with them, it could mean that they are not in love.

Also Try: Love Style Quiz - How We Love?

The love style – What is yours?

The different styles of love have been coined by psychologist John Lee. 

According to the theory, there are three styles of love. These styles of love also align with the types of love mentioned in the article before. 

The three styles of love are:

1. Eros

Eros is the style of love that has a lot to do with physicality. It is based on attraction and sexual intimacy. People develop deeper feelings and passion for each other.

2. Ludus

This style of love is described as being emotionally distant, playing games, and not committing to one relationship. People who follow such a style of love are less likely to commit to one person and can quickly end things with their current partner. 

They may also enter new relationships easily and quickly, even before ending the current one.

3. Storge

Storge is known as the family kind of love. It is the type of love that is mature and based on trust. It is not based on physical attraction.

A mixed style of love

Most people often see themselves in more than one style of love, which is normal. People may also see themselves practicing a mix of all three styles of love.

Related Reading: How to Love Someone Deeply – Ways to Love

Why do you love the way you do?

The answer to that question is quite complex. However, the most suitable answers to “Why do we love the way we do?” are listed below.

1. Personality

Everyone is unique and has a way they live their lives. This comprises their personalities. Some people love too deeply, are sensitive to other people’s needs, and always put their hearts over their heads. 

Other people, however, may be practical and rational. For them, unconditional love might be tricky to understand.

2. Life experiences

The way we love can be majorly impacted by our life experiences. People who have seen sour relationships may love too much or maybe too guarded because they do not want to be hurt. How dear someone holds people can depend on their childhood, family, and other experiences while growing up.

For more insights into why we love the way we do, check out this collection of essays by Preeti Shenoy, an Indian writer who shares modern love and dating insights. 

Related Reading: Love and Marriage - How Love Changes over Time 

How does love change over time?

Many times, we feel that people around us do not love us the way they used to. We can also wonder if they love us at all, as their expression of love changes drastically. 

According to studies, as people fall in love with each other and spend more time together, they can fall into a routine. This can lead to reduced passion in love and even the frequency of sexual activity. 

Some people may also “grow out of love” with each other over time. 

This can happen when people and their personalities change drastically over time or when people mistake infatuation or initial attraction for love, only to find out later that love is much deeper than these feelings.

Related Reading: Love vs in Love - What Is the Difference

The bottom line

If you have often asked yourself, “What is the meaning of love in a relationship?”, this article may have given you some insights. 

The bottom line is that certain feelings such as care, patience, respect, and others are what is love all about in a relationship.  

Factors such as wanting and needing love, how we love, and the importance of love are essential to understand when answering the question “What is love?”

Love is a complex emotion and can differ from person to person. Even if you feel confused about what is love and what it’s like to be in love, you will most likely figure it out with time. 

Quotes about the meaning of love

Love is one of the most powerful feelings in this world... Or maybe it's not just a feeling? We decided to pick up quotes about love that define its true meaning.

Love is the answer to the problem of human existence.

Erich Fromm

Love will give you the first proof that life is not meaningless. People who say that life is meaningless have not known love. They are simply saying that there was a lack of love in their lives.

Osho

People give flowers because flowers contain the true meaning of love. Anyone who tries to take possession of a flower will see how its beauty fades. But the one who will simply look at the flower in his field will always be with him. Because it will merge with the evening, with the sunset, with the smell of damp earth and clouds on the horizon.

Paulo Coelho

Love is the beginning and end of our existence. Without love there is no life. That is why love is what the wise man bows before.

Confucius

The truth is that in one moment of true love, in the heart of any person - both the noblest of all and the most lost - is enclosed, like in a lotus cup, all life, all its meaning, content and purpose.

Gregory David Roberts

The meaning and dignity of love as a feeling lies in the fact that it makes us really, with our whole being, recognize for the other that unconditional central significance, which, due to selfishness, we feel only in ourselves. Love is important not as one of our feelings, but as a transfer of all our vital interest from ourselves to another, as a rearrangement of the very center of our personal life.

Vladimir Solovyov

If you think about it, love has no purpose - this is what makes it so majestic.

Stephen Fry

The wise men claim that there is absolutely no meaning to love. Maybe so. But it gives meaning to everything else. Ordinary days, household chores, breakfast in the morning, waiting for a call, talking about nothing.

Tatyana Polyakova

Does a person need love? And if needed, then what, then, is its meaning? These questions are eternal. And they worry, probably, almost every person. You definitely care, since you came here looking for quotes. But finding the answer to these questions is not as easy as it seems. This is because for each individual person there is an answer to what love is and what is the meaning of it. We hope that quotes about the meaning of love will help you find your answer to this question.

Any reasoning about love is a repetition of reasoning from the eternal and the crippled. What is the point of looking for any meaning in what is most irrational of all, in what we call the heart. How will reason judge the desire of the heart to lead blood - a ship right aground, where it will invariably be wrecked?

Julio Cortazar

Love is a life-giving fire in the soul of man, and everything created by man under the influence of this feeling is marked with the seal of life and poetry.

Taras Shevchenko

Life is easier without love. But without it there is no point.

Leo Tolstoy

The meaning of love is not to own someone's body. The meaning of love is the freedom to wander through the heart and mind of the beloved.

Colin McCullough

We were created for love while we are alone life is meaningless, meaning is born when there is another.

Arthur Conan Doyle

The eternal meaning of love lies precisely in the fact that lovers are, as it were, born for each other at the very moment of their love.

Soren Kierkegaard

Life has no meaning. Meaning is always lack of freedom, meaning is a rigid framework into which we drive each other. We say - the meaning of money. We say - the meaning of love. We say the meaning is in faith. But all this is just a framework. There is no meaning in life - and this is its highest meaning and highest value. There is no final in life that you must come to - and this is more important than a thousand invented meanings.

Sergei Lukyanenko

There is only one color in our life, just like on the artist's palette, which gives meaning to life and art. This is the color of love.

Marc Chagall

You need to understand that there are no patterns in love, so quotes about the meaning of love can only prompt you to answer what this feeling is for you personally. All thoughts and words come from the heart, so in this matter it is better to rely on your own feelings. After all, even the famous humanist psychologist Erich Fromm wrote that when one person says to another "I love you", both have the illusion of understanding this expression, although each may mean something completely different.

Without love the soul is empty. Without it, poems are not created, a song does not sound, beauty does not exist. Without love, the very concept of being has no meaning. Love is the beginning of all beginnings, the source of all the best.

Tatyana Ustimenko

Men, women, constantly born for love, declare your feelings in full voice, shout: “I love you”, despite all the suffering, curses, contempt of cattle, blasphemy of moralists. Shout it in spite of all the vicissitudes, losses, in spite of death itself... To love is the only meaning of life. And the meaning of meanings, the meaning of happiness.

Paul Verlaine

Love is a state in which a person is able to feel and experience his absolute irreplaceability. In love, a person can feel the meaning of his existence for the other and the meaning of the existence of the other for himself. Love helps a person to manifest itself, revealing, increasing, developing the good, positive, valuable in him. This is the highest synthesis of the meaning of human existence. Only by loving, giving myself to another and penetrating into him, I find myself, I open myself, I open both of us, I open a person.

Erich Fromm

Love... It seems to be such a simple concept, familiar from childhood. And at the same time, it is difficult to find in Russian (yes, I think, in all other languages ​​of the world) another word that will contain so many different meanings, so many mysteries and mysteries. As long as a person lives on Earth, so many poets and philosophers, psychologists and linguists, artists and lovers themselves are trying to understand and explain the meaning of this word. And so far, no one has succeeded in doing so. After all, how many people - so many types of love. And even more than that - the same person experiences this feeling differently each time during his life.

Oleg Roy

In the arithmetic of love, one plus one equals everything, and two minus one equals nothing.

Minion McLaughlin

Love has nothing to do with possession. Its highest manifestation is to grant freedom.

Jean-Paul Sartre

Why do we love?..
True, a strange question. It seems ridiculous, even absurd. But why? Why don't we ever think about it? Why don't we ask ourselves: “Why do you love? What's the point of this?"
Everything in this world has some meaning. There is nothing useless or random about it. This means that love must also have such a goal ... but we do not know it.
The pragmatist will say that love is just physiology. He will say that love is needed for procreation. But is physical attraction not enough to procreate? And how then to be with love for your parents, for loved ones, for God, finally? Why does this feeling arise? Is it not enough affection, respect, admiration? Why love?
Love brings suffering to a person, but there must be some meaning in this too. It cannot be that both spiritual work and the suffering of a lover are devoid of any meaning! But it turns out so . .. Everyone knows this from their own experience.
Painful, exhausting running in a circle: emptiness - love - torment - again emptiness and again love. And now we are overcome by the only desire - to hide, to leave, to forget, not to think. A person who knows pain experiences fear. He is afraid of repeating this torment. He does not want love, does not want to fall into its sinister, alluring whirlpool again.
Fear of love haunts a person. After all, falling in love means losing yourself, losing a sense of support. The lover renounces his "I", entrusts himself into the hands of the beloved. It's like jumping from a skyscraper - it frightens and fascinates. Fascinating horror - that's what love is.
Two things - love and death - a great secret hidden under the covers of fear. We cannot penetrate the essence of these mysteries. They remain for us an eternal mystery - not clarified, hidden, forbidden.
Heaven sends us love, Heaven dooms us to death, not asking about our readiness or our desire. Both of them - love and death, like Fate, like the finger of Fate, command our lives. But we don't know them, we can't understand them, and we don't even see the meaning in them...

Angel de Coitiers

Quotes about the meaning of love can take a long time to find an answer. But it seems that the simplest answer would be a simple at first glance statement: the meaning of love is in itself . No wonder they say that without love life is faceless and limited, without it it is impossible to know the fullness and beauty of life. And it is also worth remembering that love is not money, it cannot be gained or lost. It is the feeling of free mature personalities. Remember this and be happy!

Well, if these statements are not enough for you, then we have more quotes about the love of great people.

A little more about love:

About winter and love quotes

Differences for self-development

Love does not depend on the season.

Thinking about a loved one relieves stress

Health without drugs

People in happy relationships are generally healthier.

Rules of eternal love

Differences for self-development

How to maintain and strengthen love in the family. Advice for married couples.

Valentines - pictures for Valentine's Day

Interesting pictures

Delicate and beautiful pictures for lovers.

Love does not give back

Sifted wise parables

A parable about love, betrayal and greed.

Beautiful pictures about love

Interesting pictures

Romantic cards with meaning.

Google has announced the most popular romantic searches

Fascinating news, stories and facts

Google analyzed search engine data and ranked the most popular romantic queries.

About the meaning of love in quotes

Differences for self-development

Sayings, quotes and phrases.

"I love you" - to speak or not?

Here we, people, very often say words without delving into their true meaning. Some say nice words just to please, some say harsh words just to offend a person. Some use some words out of habit, this is their manner of communication. Others, on the other hand, burn any words out of frivolity, not realizing their meaning, being careless about the consequences of these spoken words.

Grade

- 4.5 out of 5 possible based on 2 votes dear”, “dear”, etc., but at the same time, without understanding the meaning of these words.

After all, how can a person be nice to you if you don't know him? How can he be native to you if you just, a little higher, read his comment and already called him native? He called me dear, although you cannot give an objective assessment to this person.

And you need to speak from the heart, to a person who is very, very close to you, and not to scatter these words. You need to invest in the meaning of each word, what you want to convey to the interlocutor. So that he understands, feels his importance to you.

It is worth considering, if a person at every step, to everyone he meets, will say such words, then how will he express his special feelings, special sympathy for a special person, saying the usual hackneyed word? The meaning, the effect of what we would like to no longer be.

And saying “I love!” - love!
Saying, dear (th) - feel his mercy.
Speaking, dear (oh) - rate the person, understand how dear he is to you.
And yet, the word "Mas" always worries me - it's such insanity! We don't have normal Russian or Ukrainian words???

And the advice to all is this: people don't scatter words!

How often should I say "I love you"?

How often do we need to say the words "I love you" if we really love, and how often do we put the true meaning into these words?

Indeed, why don't we say every day how much we love each other, because this, it would seem, would make the world a happier place. But sometimes you realize that some exploit this topic so much that they don’t care what and to whom to say, and the “I love you” said goodbye does not mean anything at all. Meanwhile, these are sacred words that do not need to be handed out right and left.

What we say in everyday life

In general, it is worth paying more attention not only to declarations of love, but also to what we say in everyday life. Our psychological state depends on how seriously we take words. It has long been found out that negatively colored vocabulary can cause serious harm. So think a hundred times before calling a person even the word he deserves. Everything that we hear and say is deposited in our subconscious, and, depending on what meaning it carries in itself, it works for us or against us, and without our consent.

Loss of interest?

But as for words about love, there is a trap hidden here: the more often we hear them, the less we are ready to perceive them. If we often repeat "I love you" and hear it from others, we will quickly lose interest in these words and stop understanding their meaning. So what, after all, will remain so important that we all dream of experiencing and hearing from the dearest person in the world and what to say ourselves in response to such recognition?

The word is not a sparrow

Maybe you should not say such words in response at all if you are not sure of your feelings. And if you choose between speaking or not, then it is better to prove it with deeds, and not with empty words. There are men who do not consider it necessary to show their love, because they believe that women should be happy simply because they are. But sometimes women just need to have some kind of "confirmation" of words, and even if not in the form of "a million scarlet roses", but in the form of care. After all, it's not so difficult to call your beloved woman in the middle of the day and ask what her mood is today, or meet her after work and take her to a cafe.

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