Nothing can cure the soul but the senses

Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.
Oscar Wilde

Love is all, it gives all, and it takes all

Love is all, it gives all, and it takes all.
Soren Kierkegaard

Love does not alter the beloved, it alters itself

Love does not alter the beloved, it alters itself.
Soren Kierkegaard

Πιστεύω πως χωρίς έρωτα ο άνθρωπος μπορεί να ζήσει μια χαρά

Πιστεύω πως χωρίς έρωτα ο άνθρωπος μπορεί να ζήσει μια χαρά. Ιδίως αν έχει δοκιμάσει την απάτη, μπορεί να μην αισθάνεται καθόλου την έλλειψή του. Αλλά χωρίς στοργή τα πράγματα είναι δύσκολα και ο κόσμος άδειος. Όταν υπάρχει στοργή, μπορεί να μην υπάρχει έρωτας - σου φαίνεται πως τίποτα δεν λείπει. Αν μάλιστα απ' αυτό κινδυνεύει η στοργή επιβάλλεται έρωτας να μην υπάρχει. Πάντως το ίδιο πρόσωπο για να χαρίζει και τα δυο, μάλλον αποκλείεται. Γι' αυτό συνήθως η στοργή αναπτύσσεται ανάμεσα σε πρόσωπα του ίδιου φύλου ή συγγενικά, όπου δεν ξεφυτρώνει κάθε τόσο το ερωτικό εμπόδιο. Εξάλλου, ούτε και συ ο ίδιος μπορείς να χαρίζεις και στοργή και έρωτα στο ίδιο πρόσωπο. Αν συμβαίνει να το νομίζεις αυτό, απλώς τυφλώνεσαι απ' την επιθυμία και ξεγελάς τον εαυτό σου. Ίσως όμως να μην μπορούν να συνυπάρξουν μέσα σου, ούτε και στην περίπτωση που προέρχονται από διαφορετικά πρόσωπα. Ο έρωτας είναι ή μάλλον έχει καταντήσει καθαρή ιδιοτέλεια, ενώ η στοργή δεν αποβλέπει σε τίποτε τέτοιο.

Γιώργος Ιωάννου, Ώρα για το κουκούλι
Από τη συλλογή πεζογραφημάτων, Για ένα φιλότιμο (1964)

Cause you never really know what you got, until it's gone

Hold the person that you love closely if they're next to you
The one you love, not the person that'll simply have sex with you
Appreciate them to the fullest extent, and then beyond
'Cause you never really know what you got, until it's gone.
Immortal Technique, You Never Know

We are each of us angels with only one wing

We are each of us angels with only one wing. And we can only fly embracing each other.
Luciano De Crescenzo

Nunc scio, quid sit Amor (Now I know what love is)

Nunc scio, quid sit Amor
(Now I know what love is)
Vergil, Eclogues, poem 8, line 43

Love expects nothing

Well, what does work then? The only thing that works (if we really practice) is a desire not to have something for myself but to support all life, including individual relationships. Now you may say, "Well, that sounds nice, I'll do that!" But nobody really wants to do that. We don't want to support others. To truly support somebody means that you give them everything and expect nothing. You might give them your time, your work, your money, anything. "If you need it, I'll give it to you."Love expects nothing. Instead of that we have these games: "I am going to communicate so our relationship will be better," which really means, "I'm going to communicate so you'll see what I want." The underlying expectation we bring to those games insures that relationships won't work. If we really see that, then a few of us will begin to understand the next step, of seeing another way of being. We may get a glimpse of it now and then: "Yes, I can do this for you, I can support your life and I expect nothing. Nothing."

Relationships Don't Work - from Everyday Zen: Love & Work by Charlotte Joko Beck from Amazon com

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
Saint Francis of Assisi

I have spread my dreams under your feet

Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

W.B. Yeats