Undoubtedly there are ancient cave drawings that try to make sense out of love. Folks have been trying to fathom the unfathomable, to explain it, to define it, to embrace or reject it, since the dawn of time, and it has become variously the subject, the theme, the conflict, the climax or the resolution of literature’s greatest stories down through the ages.
Because love is so subjective, individuals respond to epigrams and advice about love with varying degrees of acceptance. (Personally, I’ve never thought that “Love means never having to say you’re sorry” made any sense whatsoever!)
Here are a curated collection of literary aphorisms that speak to me; perhaps you’ll enjoy them for Valentine’s day as well.
You don’t love because: you love despite; not for the virtues, but despite the
faults. —William Faulkner
It doesn’t matter who you are or what you look like, so long as somebody loves you.—Roald Dahl, The Witches
The desire to get married is a basic and primal instinct in women. It’s followed by another basic and primal instinct: the desire to be single again. —Nora Ephron
I have learned not to worry about love; but to honor its coming with all my heart. — Alice Walker
I was about half in love with her by the time we sat down. That’s the thing about girls. Every time they do something pretty…you fall half in love with them, and then you never know where the hell you are. — J. D. Salinger
Love is like the wind; you can’t see it but you can feel it. — Nicholas Sparks
To get the full value of a joy you must have somebody to divide it with. — Mark Twain
Who, being loved, is poor? — Oscar Wilde
You can’t blame gravity for falling in love. —Albert Einstein
The best thing to hold on to in life is each other. —Audrey Hepburn
Keep love in our heart. Life without it is like a sunless garden where the flowers are dead. —Oscar Wilde 
Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired. —Oscar Wilde
Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage. —Lau Tzu
Love doesn’t make the world go round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile —Franklin Jones
All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt. —Charles Schultz
Love is but the discovery of ourselves in others, and the delight in the recognition.
―Alexander Smith
It is better to love wisely, no doubt: but to love foolishly is better than not to be able to love at all. — William Makepeace Thackeray
We’re all a little weird, and life’s a little weird. And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love.— Dr. Seuss
The opposite of love is not hate; it’s indifference. — Elie Wiesel
Love is of all passions the strongest, for it attacks simultaneously the head, the heart, and the senses.— Lao Tzu
There is no remedy for love but to love more. —Henry David Thoreau
Love is a serious mental disease. — Plato
Love is like a friendship caught on fire. In the beginning a flame, very pretty, often hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. As love grows older, our hearts mature and our love becomes as coals, deep-burning and unquenchable. — Bruce Lee
Love is the greatest refreshment in life. — Pablo Picasso
Love is not measured by how many times you touch each other, but by how many times you reach each other. — Unknown