Love part 2

Since my friend's question set me thinking, i searched for what others have said about the misterious word 'LOVE". I searched the net, looked into a few books...and compiled a few quotes. It makes an interesting read. It seems people were as confused centuries ago abt love as they are now. Perhaps That is the reason philosophers and thinkers like Sophocles, Rumi and Khalil Gilbran had to come to their rescue to make some sense of this magic word.

The Greeks defined love in four categories:

1.      Agape love is unconditional love. It is love by "choice" even if you are not pleased. A good example is "God loves us with our faults."

2.    Phi Leo love is the love of "attraction" guided by our likes or our healthy or unhealthy needs and desires.

3.    Storge is the word for family love and the physical show of "affection" the need for physical touch. Sometimes friendship that becomes physical love.

4. Eros is the physical "sexual" desire, intercourse. It is the root word of erotic, and eroticism.

Below are some of the quotes which I found most interesting:

"Your task is not to seek for love, But merely to seek and find All the barriers within yourself That you have built against it." Rumi

"The most difficult thing to explain in life is the simplest truth called love." Ramanathan Srinivasan

"The greatest pleasure is love". William Temple

"One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life; that word is love". Sophocles

"Because when we love, we always strive to become better than we are." Paulo Coelho in The Alchemist

"Love is that enviable state that knows no envy or vanity, only empathy and a longing to be greater than oneself." Joe McMahon

"And think not, you can direct the course of love; for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course". Khalil Gibran

"Love is the most beautiful of dreams and the worst of nightmares." William Shakespeare

"Love is like a spice. It can sweeten your life - however, it can spoil it, too". Confucius

"I have never met a person whose greatest need was anything other than real, unconditional love. You can find it in a simple act of kindness toward someone who needs help. There is no mistaking love. You feel it in your heart. It is the common fiber of life, the flame that heals our soul, energizes our spirit and supplies passion to our lives. It is our connection to God and to each other."Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

"There will be a moment when you're eyes meet and everything in the world is simple again." [Michael Edwards]

"You don't get to choose. You just fall".Anonymous

"In dreams and in love there are no impossibilities." Janos Arany