Alright, everybody, here we go. In thinking about our relationships, I have found it is usually quite beneficial to go to sources wiser than myself. Here are quotes and thoughts I have collected from various places; many of them I was able to find on GoodReads.com. I am highly appreciative of the Internet Age, in which you are able to check sources and find digital copies of virtually anything. I hope that these can inspire you to think about your own relationships. They come from a variety of places--from authors to rhetoricians to spiritual leaders to pop artists to scripture--but that just goes to show how universal love really is.
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| The great philosopher Charlie Brown put it so well: “Nothing takes the taste out of peanut butter quite like unrequited love.” |
“It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.”
“I finally understood what true love meant...love meant that you care for another person's happiness more than your own, no matter how painful the choices you face might be.”
“Prayer is a relationship; half the job is mine. If I want transformation, but can't even be bothered to articulate what, exactly, I'm aiming for, how will it ever occur? Half the benefit of prayer is in the asking itself, in the offering of a clearly posed and well-considered intention. If you don't have this, all your pleas and desires are boneless, floppy, inert; they swirl at your feet in a cold fog and never lift.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love
"The Gospel and Romantic Love," Bruce C. Hafen
| "Love is never wasted, for its value does not rest upon reciprocity." |
| Neal A. Maxwell - Press Forward, p37. |
“It is better to be hated for what you are than loved for what you are not.”
― André Gide
“Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.”
― Dalai Lama XIV
“To be fully seen by somebody, then, and be loved anyhow - this is a human offering that can border on miraculous.”
“Indifference and neglect often do much more damage than outright dislike.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
“I've been making a list of the things they don't teach you at school. They don't teach you how to love somebody. They don't teach you how to be famous. They don't teach you how to be rich or how to be poor. They don't teach you how to walk away from someone you don't love any longer. They don't teach you how to know what's going on in someone else's mind. They don't teach you what to say to someone who's dying. They don't teach you anything worth knowing.”
“Well, it seems to me that the best relationships - the ones that last - are frequently the ones that are rooted in friendship. You know, one day you look at the person and you see something more than you did the night before. Like a switch has been flicked somewhere. And the person who was just a friend is... suddenly the only person you can ever imagine yourself with.”
― Gillian Anderson
“When I say, 'I love you,' it's not because I want you or because I can't have you. It has nothing to do with me. I love what you are, what you do, how you try. I've seen your kindness and your strength. I've seen the best and the worst of you. And I understand with perfect clarity exactly what you are.”
― Joss Whedon
| "True love is not so much a matter of romance as it is a matter of anxious concern for the well being of ones companion." |
| Gordon B. Hinckley - Quote Book
“You can't live your life for other people. You've got to do what's right for you, even if it hurts some people you love.”
― Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook
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“Forgiveness is not about forgetting. It is about letting go of another person's throat......Forgiveness does not create a relationship. Unless people speak the truth about what they have done and change their mind and behavior, a relationship of trust is not possible. When you forgive someone you certainly release them from judgment, but without true change, no real relationship can be established.........Forgiveness in no way requires that you trust the one you forgive. But should they finally confess and repent, you will discover a miracle in your own heart that allows you to reach out and begin to build between you a bridge of reconciliation.........Forgiveness does not excuse anything.........You may have to declare your forgiveness a hundred times the first day and the second day, but the third day will be less and each day after, until one day you will realize that you have forgiven completely. And then one day you will pray for his wholeness......”
― William P. Young, The Shack
| "The companionship of Christlike friends deeply touches and changes our lives. We should well remember that the Lord often sends 'blessings from above, thru words and deeds of those who love'...Love is the very essence of the gospel of Christ. In this church, prayers for help are often answered by the Lord through the simple, daily service of caring brothers and sisters. In the goodness of genuine friends, I have seen the reflected mercy of the Lord Himself. I have always been humbled by the knowledge that the Savior regards us as His friends when we choose to follow Him and Keep His commandments." |
| Joseph B. Wirthlin - General Conference. Oct. 1997 |
“A guy and a girl can be just friends, but at one point or another, they will fall for each other...Maybe temporarily, maybe at the wrong time, maybe too late, or maybe forever.”
― Dave Matthews Band
“When you stop expecting people to be perfect, you can like them for who they are.”
― Donald Miller, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life
| "Love can never express itself by imposing sufferings on others. It can only express itself by self-suffering, by self-purification. The law of love knows no bounds of space or time. Where love is, there God is also. The only way love punishes is by suffering. " |
| --Gandhi |
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”
― Martin Luther King Jr., A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches
| "Every noble impulse, every unselfish expression of love; every brave suffering for the right; every surrender of self to something higher than self; every loyalty to an ideal; every unselfish devotion to principle; every helpfulness to humanity; every act of self-control; every fine courage of the soul, undefeated by pretense or policy, but by being, doing, and living of good for the very good’s sake—that is spirituality." |
| David O. McKay - Teachings of the Presidents of the Church |
“The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.”
“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.”
― Lao Tzu
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”
― Holy Bible: New International Version
Never underestimate the power of true love, for it knows no barriers. --John Groberg
And, in closing:
“Lucky Charms are like the vampires of breakfast cereal. They're magical, they're delicious, they're a little bit dangerous and bad for you. They initially make you feel great, but then over time you realize that maybe your relationship with Lucky Charms is just a little bit unhealthy and you start to think, 'Maybe I don't want to be in a long-term relationship with a breakfast cereal that tastes delicious but damages my health.' But then the Lucky Charms gets all stalker on you and for some reason you kind of like that. It makes you feel special. So yeah, you spend your life with Lucky Charms. That's awesome. That's a great way to... get diabetes.”
Further Reading:
1 comment:
haha i thoroughly enjoyed this post.
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