Love is an emotion that binds us, uplifts us, and makes us human. Yearning for love is something many of us can relate to deeply. It’s a desire that transcends age, culture, and time.
In this article, we explore quotes that speak to the heart’s longing for love. These words capture the hope, the dreams, and sometimes the heartbreak that comes with wanting love. They remind us that we are not alone in our search for that special connection.
Classic Quotes on Longing for Love
“Love, that ever thou art now at the height of thy power, and ready to have thy rewards taken from thee.” – William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra
“Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.” – Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights
“Come live in my heart and pay no rent.” – Samuel Lover
“I look at you and see the rest of my life in front of my eyes.” – Unknown
“I love her and that’s the beginning and end of everything.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dear Scott, Dearest Zelda
“To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides.” – David Viscott
“Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.” – Aristotle
“I miss you even more than I could have believed; and I was prepared to miss you a good deal.” – Vita Sackville-West
“I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun.” – Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
“Love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.” – Kahlil Gibran
“If I had a flower for every time I thought of you, I could walk through my garden forever.” – Alfred Tennyson
“I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.” – John Green, The Fault in Our Stars
“Her absence is like the sky, spread over everything.” – C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed
“Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs.” – William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
“Waiting is painful. Forgetting is painful. But not knowing which to do is the worst kind of suffering.” – Paulo Coelho
“I will never be perfect for you, but I will always imperfectly try to be.” – Atticus
“In dreams and in love there are no impossibilities.” – János Arany
“The heart was made to be broken.” – Oscar Wilde
“If I know what love is, it is because of you.” – Hermann Hesse
“The very essence of romance is uncertainty.” – Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest
“It’s you. It’s always been you.” – Unknown
“Love will find a way through paths where wolves fear to prey.” – Lord Byron
“To love is to burn, to be on fire.” – Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility
“Every atom of your flesh is as dear to me as my own: in pain and sickness it would still be dear.” – Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
“Somewhere between all our laughs, long talks, stupid little fights, and all our jokes, I fell in love.” – Unknown
“True love cannot be found where it does not exist, nor can it be denied where it does.” – Torquato Tasso
Modern Takes on Wanting Love
“We accept the love we think we deserve.” – Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower
“You don’t love someone because they’re perfect, you love them in spite of the fact that they’re not.” – Jodi Picoult, My Sister’s Keeper
“Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.” – Aristotle
“The heart has its reasons which reason knows not.” – Blaise Pascal
“To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides.” – David Viscott
“We are all born for love. It is the principle of existence and its only end.” – Benjamin Disraeli
“You can’t blame gravity for falling in love.” – Albert Einstein
“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.” – William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream
“And the love you take is equal to the love you make.” – The Beatles
“The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is to love and be loved in return.” – Moulin Rouge
“Love is like the wind, you can’t see it but you can feel it.” – Nicholas Sparks, A Walk to Remember
“The need for love lies at the very foundation of human existence.” – Dalai Lama
“Loving someone and having them love you back is the most precious thing in the world.” – Nicholas Sparks
“I am in you and you in me, mutual in divine love.” – William Blake
“Love is not only something you feel, it is something you do.” – David Wilkerson
“The best thing to hold onto in life is each other.” – Audrey Hepburn
“There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
“Love liberates. It doesn’t just hold—that’s ego. Love liberates.” – Maya Angelou
“True love stories never have endings.” – Richard Bach
“When we embrace love, we see the truth within it. Love is not a feeling but a state of being.” – Me
“We can only learn to love by loving.” – Iris Murdoch
“To love is to receive a glimpse of heaven.” – Karen Sunde
“The giving of love is an education in itself.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
“Love is a better teacher than duty.” – Albert Einstein
“Love is an endless act of forgiveness. Forgiveness is the key to action and freedom.” – Maya Angelou
“The strongest love is the love that can demonstrate its fragility.” – Paulo Coelho
Inspirational Quotes for Seeking Love
“The minute I heard my first love story, I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere. They’re in each other all along.” — Rumi
“In dreams and in love, there are no impossibilities.” — János Arany
“Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.” — Aristotle
“To love another person is to see the face of God.” — Victor Hugo, Les Misérables
“I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be.” — Charles Dickens, Great Expectations
“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” — Lao Tzu
“You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.” — Dr. Seuss
“Love is a promise; love is a souvenir, once given never forgotten, never let it disappear.” — John Lennon
“Love is the voice under all silences, the hope which has no opposite in fear; the strength so strong mere force is feebleness: the truth more first than sun, more last than star.” — E.E. Cummings
“Who, being loved, is poor?” — Oscar Wilde
“Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds, or bends with the remover to remove: O no! it is an ever-fixed mark that looks on tempests and is never shaken.” — William Shakespeare, Sonnet 116
“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give it to no one, not even an animal.” — C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves
“The heart wants what it wants. There’s no logic to these things. You meet someone and you fall in love and that’s that.” — Woody Allen
“Love is the only reality, and it is not a mere sentiment. It is the ultimate truth that lies at the heart of creation.” — Rabindranath Tagore
“And, the love you take is equal to the love you make.” — Paul McCartney, The Beatles
“I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the Heart’s affections and the truth of the Imagination.” — John Keats
“We accept the love we think we deserve.” — Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower
“There is only one happiness in this life, to love and be loved.” — George Sand
“The best thing to hold onto in life is each other.” — Audrey Hepburn
“And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.” — Khalil Gibran, The Prophet
“True love is eternal, infinite, and always like itself. It is equal and pure, without violent demonstrations: it is seen with white hairs and is always young in the heart.” — Honore de Balzac
“The very essence of romance is uncertainty.” — Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest
“Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired.” — Robert Frost
“Love is like the wind, you can’t see it but you can feel it.” — Nicholas Sparks, A Walk to Remember
“When we love, we always strive to become better than we are. When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.” — Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
“Love, having no geography, knows no boundaries.” — Truman Capote
Poetic Expressions About Desiring Love
“I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.” – W.B. Yeats
“Love sought is good, but given unsought, is better.” – William Shakespeare
“In your light, I learn how to love. In your beauty, how to make poems. You dance inside my chest, where no one sees you, but sometimes I do, and that sight becomes this art.” – Rumi
“I seem to have loved you in numberless forms, numberless times, in life after life, in age after age forever.” – Rabindranath Tagore
“Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired.” – Robert Frost
“I would rather spend one lifetime with you, than face all the ages of this world alone.” – J.R.R. Tolkien
“I was born with an enormous need for affection, and a terrible need to give it.” – Audrey Hepburn
“If I had a flower for every time I thought of you, I could walk through my garden forever.” – Alfred Tennyson
“Love does not consist of gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
“We loved with a love that was more than love.” – Edgar Allan Poe
“Somewhere I have never travelled, gladly beyond any experience, your eyes have their silence.” – E.E. Cummings
“When I saw you I fell in love, and you smiled because you knew.” – Arrigo Boito
“I exist in two places, here and where you are.” – Margaret Atwood
“To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides.” – David Viscott
“To me, you are perfect.” – Mark (Love Actually)
“The desire to love someone always exceeds the desire to be loved by someone.” – Criss Jami
“I crave your mouth, your voice, your hair. Silent and starving, I prowl through the streets.” – Pablo Neruda
“Love is like the wind, you can’t see it but you can feel it.” – Nicholas Sparks
“And if I am pressed to say why I loved him, I feel it can only be explained by replying: ‘Because it was he; because it was I’.” – Michel de Montaigne
“When love beckons to you, follow him, though his ways are hard and steep.” – Khalil Gibran
“You must love in such a way that the person you love feels free.” – Thich Nhat Hanh
“I want to be the reason you look down at your phone and smile. Then walk into a pole.” – Thao Nguyen
“The heart wants what it wants. There’s no logic to these things.” – Woody Allen
“To burn with desire and keep quiet about it is the greatest punishment we can bring on ourselves.” – Federico García Lorca
“To love is to recognize yourself in another.” – Eckhart Tolle
“Longing is the agony of the nearness of the distant.” – Martin Heidegger
Funny Quotes on the Quest for Love
“Love is like pizza: When it’s good, it’s really good. And when it’s bad, it’s still pretty good.” – Unknown
“I recently read that love is entirely a matter of chemistry. That must be why my wife treats me like toxic waste.” – David Bissonnette
“Love is an electric blanket with somebody else in control of the switch.” – Cathy Carlyle
“If love is the answer, could you rephrase the question?” – Lily Tomlin
“Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love.” – Albert Einstein
“I love you no matter what you do, but do you have to do so much of it?” – Jean Illsley Clarke
“If you text ‘I love you’ to a person and the person writes back an emoji – no matter what that emoji is, they don’t love you back.” – Chelsea Peretti
“Love is sharing your popcorn.” – Charles Schultz
“Love is the only kind of fire which is never covered by insurance.” – Unknown
“Love is like war: easy to begin but very hard to stop.” – H. L. Mencken
“Love is being stupid together.” – Paul Valery
“You can’t put a price tag on love. But if you could, I’d wait for it to go on sale.” – Hussein Nishah
“Love is a lot like a backache: it doesn’t show up on X-rays, but you know it’s there.” – George Burns
“I love you, not only for what you are but for what I am when I am with you.” – Roy Croft
“All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.” – Charles Schulz
“Love is a grave mental disease.” – Plato
“Love is like a virus. It can happen to anybody at any time.” – Maya Angelou
“Love is the same as like except you feel sexier.” – Judith Viorst
“I was nauseous and tingly all over. I was either in love or I had smallpox.” – Woody Allen
“Love is like a game of chess. One false move and you’re mated.” – Unknown
“Marry a man your own age; as your beauty fades, so will his eyesight.” – Phyllis Diller
“A guy knows he’s in love when he loses interest in his car for a couple of days.” – Tim Allen
“Love is telling someone their hair extensions are showing.” – Natasha Leggero
“Falling in love consists merely in uncorking the imagination and bottling the common sense.” – Helen Rowland
“Forget love, I’d rather fall in chocolate.” – Unknown
“Love is a two-way street constantly under construction.” – Carroll Bryant
“Love is the answer, but while you’re waiting for the answer, sex raises some pretty interesting questions.” – Woody Allen
To Wrap Things Up
Love is a universal feeling that touches everyone at some point. The quotes we shared remind us of the deep desire for connection and the warmth that love brings. They speak to our hearts, offering comfort, hope, and sometimes a bit of wisdom.
Whether you’re searching for love or cherishing the love you already have, these quotes can inspire and uplift you. Let them serve as gentle reminders that love, in all its forms, is worth seeking and celebrating. Use these words to reflect on your own experiences and to appreciate the love that adds meaning to your life.
