Love’s magic can strike at any point in our lives. Thus, whether you’re amid a newfound romance, or just want to tell your long-term partner that you love him / her, I believe these best quotes about love will inspire you to express how you feel with the beauty of timeless words.
I’ve pulled together this list of inspirational love quotes from a variety of sources. This includes famous authors, philosophers, celebrities, artists, or even regular persons like you and me.
In addition, I’ve included my own reflections on just why these quotes about love are so meaningful. Just to add that personal touch!
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The best quotes about love to inspire you
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1. Love as maturity.
“Immature love says: ‘I love you because I need you.’ Mature love says ‘I need you because I love you.”
Erich Fromm
Some people feel they need someone to love in order to feel ‘complete’ in their lives. Thus, romantic partners are used to help fill in a lack of self-love.
Fromm calls the above ‘immature love’ (i.e. “I love you because I need you”) since it is, in essence, a kind of conditional self-esteem crutch.
By contrast, mature love is “I need you because I love you”. That is to say, the desire to be with someone comes first from learning to love him / her for who they are.
Above all, I think Fromm gives us one of the best quotes about love. It inspires us to prioritize a partner’s true uniqueness – rather than treat them as a short-sighted fix to feel good about ourselves.
By the way, Fromm’s quote comes from his all-time classic, The Art of Loving, where he speaks specifically on the topic of love. It’s a great read!
2. Love makes you stronger.
“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.”
Lao Tzu
Both being loved and acts of loving help to bring out the best in us, inspiring us to be more resilient persons in the face of life’s challenges.
I think Lao Tzu summed up this simple truth up beautifully with one of the best quotes about love ever!
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Aronson, B.C. (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
3. Love as a precious constant.
“The best thing to hold onto in life is each other.”
Audrey Hepburn
Many things come and go in life.
However, the most precious part we should try to hold onto is the irreplaceable love we share with our special someone.
When everything else seems fleeting, love can be our grounding force amid a shifting sea of time.
Above all, I think Audrey Hepburn has shared one of the most succinct yet best quotes about love said by a celebrity.
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4. Love is imperfection.
“You come to love not by finding the perfect person, but by seeing an imperfect person perfectly.”
Sam Keen
Some folks dream about falling in love with the ‘perfect’ someone.
Yet, the truth is we all have flaws. Thus, it’s literally impossible to find the ‘perfect’ person to love.
However, in one of the best quotes about love, Sam Keen reminds us that true love is actually more about learning to see – and appreciate – our partners’ imperfections, just as they do for us.
After all, it is our flaws – and not illusions of perfection – that make each of us unique.
5. Love is reciprocity.
“And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.”
John Lennon and Paul McCartney
This is among my favorite lyrics from the Beatles – and one of the best quotes about love ever!
True love shouldn’t be about ‘me, me, me’. Instead, how much loving we receive really depends on what we’re willing to give.
In other words, as with most healthy relationships, love is a two-way street.
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Prefontaine, M (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
6. Love enlivens our souls.
“Love always brings difficulties, that is true, but the good side of it is that it gives energy.”
Vincent van Gogh
His own tragic love story aside, Vincent van Gogh does offer us one of the most inspirational love quotes around.
Let’s face it. No relationship is perfect. Couples argue, lovers fight.
However, at the end of the day, truly loving someone gives us far more positive value than it takes away. It ignites our zest for life – and thus, also empowers us to love better.
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7. Love keeps us young.
“Age does not protect you from love. But love, to some extent, protects you from age.”
Anais Nin
True love can happen at any age, whether you’re 16 or 60.
And, no matter when, it has the power to make our hearts feel lighter, keep our spirits young – even as our bodies grow older.
8. Love means the world.
“To the world you may be one person, but to one person you are the world.”
Bill Wilson
I absolutely love this inspirational love quote!
The fact is there are billions of people on Earth. We can’t possibly know everyone, and vice versa.
However, above all, what really matters is mattering to the ones we truly care for. Life is all the more meaningful when we mean the world to someone special.
That is the enduring impact of true love.
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- TheQuoteWell (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
9. Love is a verb.
“Love is not only something you feel, it is something you do.”
David Wilkerson
I don’t think it’s enough to simply say “I love you”. Words are easy.
Instead, love is also about what you do for your beloved. It is about your actions, and the sacrifices you make. In other words, true love is a verb, not a noun.
Wilkerson sums all of this up in one of the best quotes about love I’ve seen.
10. Love lets you be who you really are.
“Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.”
James Baldwin
In life, we often put on different ‘faces’ – at work, with most acquaintances, even with friends.
However, when you’re with someone you truly love – and who truly loves you – you soon find yourself free to be who you really are, quirks and all.
As James Baldwin says, love is about learning to let go of our masks – and realizing that there is no better way to be.
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11. Love rises from friendship.
“Love is a friendship set to music.”
Joseph Campbell
Friendship is the glue that holds true love together.
Being friends with your partner means talking with him / her, sharing a good laugh, or just showing interest in each others’ lives. The way friends do!
In other words, the sweet song of romance comes from a beautiful melody of friendship.
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Chapman, Gary (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
12. Love is acceptance.
“The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.”
Victor Hugo
Most of us want to feel accepted. Not just on a superficial level, but as who we really are, including our imperfections.
Thus, beyond just letting our guards down, feeling truly loved has the power to affirm our very existence. It lets us know that who we are is more than good enough in the seeing eyes of our beloved.
That is the path that leads to happiness.
13. Love is a life of cherished memories.
“You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments when you have truly lived are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love.”
Henry Drummond
In life, it’s easy to get distracted by social pressures to succeed at work or make a name for ourselves.
However, we often realize that our most cherished memories in life involve our acts of love.
Above all, we tend to remember more clearly the times where we show care and empathy for our partners – far more often than our pursuits of material goals!
I believe Henry Drummond captures this idea beautifully in one of the best quotes about love I’ve read.
14. Love is a shared union.
“Love does not consist of gazing at each other, but in looking together in the same direction.”
Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Romantic love is much more than just gazing lovingly into each other’s eyes, like a Hollywood movie.
True love involves entering an agreed union with someone else. It is a shift from “you and me” into a shared “us”.
Above all, a loving relationship is a symbiotic journey through life; a co-experiencing of moments, together.
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15. Love is the beauty of small actions.
“But love, I’ve come to understand, is more than three words mumbled before bedtime. Love is sustained by action, a pattern of devotion in the things we do for each other every day.”
Nicholas Sparks
We often treat love as this grandiose ideal, this lofty aspiration to reach.
However, as one of the best quotes about love reminds us, true love is really about learning to cherish the more routine acts of affection.
Whether it’s cooking a good meal for him / her, or just listening to them talk about their day, true love really lies in the quiet beauty of everyday moments.
- Dylanna Press (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 83 Pages - 01/19/2020 (Publication Date) - Dylanna Publishing (Publisher)
16. Love is worth the effort.
“I’m not telling you it is going to be easy- I am telling you it is going to be worth it.”
Art Williams
Let’s admit it: real life gets messy. No romance is 100% perfect. Couples fight, they argue.
However, as many long-term happy partners can attest to, putting in the effort to stay in love is almost always worth the while.
Nurturing true love means pushing through together, despite the challenges that come up along the way. Learning to work things out gives strength to a relationship.
17. Love is a choice.
“Real love isn’t just a euphoric, spontaneous feeling – it’s a deliberate choice; a plan to love each other for better and worse, for richer and poorer, in sickness and in health.”
Seth Adam Smith
While initial attraction can happen quickly, staying in love is always a decision. It is a choice to commit to someone.
True love doesn’t spring forth out of thin air. Instead, it is about making a conscious effort to experience life together, keeping each other’s hearts open.
I believe all of this is perfectly expressed by Smith, who has given us one of the best quotes about love ever.
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18. Love transcends distance.
“Distance means so little when someone means so much.”
Tom McNeal
We can’t always be physically close to our loved ones.
However, no matter the distance, the ones we truly love are always on our minds and in our hearts.
Love keeps us near, never apart.
19. To love is to protect.
“I realized love was this. This deep, intense caring about someone’s well-being. About wanting that person to be okay no matter what happens to yourself.”
Love, Life, and the List by Kasie West
We get lost in our own heads sometimes.
However, true love teaches us to turn our focus outwards, giving our attention to the person we truly care for. It means looking out for their interests, and always wanting the best for him / her.
Above all, to love somebody is to go that extra mile for them, to protect their happiness.
- Prefontaine, M (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 442 Pages - 10/19/2015 (Publication Date) - CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (Publisher)
20. Love comes from letting go.
“I refuse to let what happened to me make me bitter. I still completely believe in love and I’m open to anything that will happen to me.”
Nicole Kidman
Despite our best efforts, not all romances work out.
And when things fall apart, it’s tempting to carry that bitter disappointment in our hearts as time goes by.
However, doing this can actually blind us from the joy of finding true love again. We may meet someone right for us – yet never realize it!
Above all, Nicole Kidman reminds us why we should learn to let go of the past and not let it define our future. Love deserves a second chance, and while nothing is guaranteed, it is the act of trying that could lead to happiness.
I see this as one of the best quotes about love that truly inspires me to do the same.
21. Love is a person, not a thing.
“It’s not being in love that makes me happy. It is the person that I am in love with that does.”
Unknown
We tend to refer to love as an abstract, transcendental ‘thing’.
However, in reality, love is always grounded in our affections for specific persons.
In other words, we should try not to ‘be in love with love’ (i.e. as an ideal) – but instead, feel blessed to be in love with a one-of-a-kind beloved.
This is what makes each experience of true love unique in its own right.