Jan

6

Many things that have been said about love apply to the markets.

From The Merchant of Venice:For I am much ashamed of my exchange:/ But love is blind and lovers cannot see/ The pretty follies that themselves commit;

Erich Fromm: Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence.

Kahlil Gibran: Love has no desire but to fulfill itself. To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night. To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving.

Proverb: Love is a sweet tyranny, because the lover endureth his torments willingly.

Albert Ellis: The art of love… is largely the art of persistence.

Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy, A.D. 524: Who would give a law to lovers? Love is unto itself a higher law.

Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic’s Notebook, 1960: The hardest-learned lesson: that people have only their kind of love to give, not our kind.

Bill Balance: When a man is in love or in debt, someone else has the advantage.

Rose Franken: Anyone can be passionate, but it takes real lovers to be silly.

Ben Hecht: Love is the magician that pulls man out of his own hat.

Phillip Pulfrey: Love is no respecter of age or practicality/ Neither morality: unabashed/ She enters where she will/ Unheeding that her immortal fires Burn up human hearts…

Lord Dewar: Love is an ocean of emotions entirely surrounded by expenses. Rabindranath Tagore: Only in love are unity and duality not in conflict.

Ursula K. LeGuin: Love doesn’t sit there like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; remade all of the time, made new.

Robert Browning: Take away love and our earth is a tomb.

Tom Masson: The love game is never called off on account of darkness.

Percy Bysshe Shelley: Love withers under constraints: its very essence is liberty: it is compatible neither with obedience, jealousy, nor fear: it is there most pure, perfect, and unlimited where its votaries live in confidence, equality and unreserve.

Fyodor Dostoevski: Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared with love in dreams.

Charles du Bois: Love does not care to define and is never in a hurry to do so.

William Carlos Williams: What “love” is I don’t know if it’s not the response of our deepest natures to one another.

Jareb Teague: Love floods us with hope.


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4 Comments so far

  1. Steve Leslie on January 6, 2009 4:14 pm

    Here are they lyrics to a song by Barry White that encapsulates the completeness of love.

    Can't Get Enough of Your Love Baby

    I’ve heard people say that
    Too much of anything
    Is not good for you baby
    But… I don’t know about that
    …as many times as we’ve loved
    Shared love and made love
    It doesn’t… seem to me
    Like it’s ever, ever enough
    It’s just not enough

    […]

    read more I can't get enough of your love

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXvHRnGe940

  2. George Parkanyi on January 6, 2009 7:37 pm

    That’s a lot of definitions. Seems like love means a different thing to each person.

    So - simple village-idiot question: What IS love?

  3. Anatoly Veltman on January 7, 2009 12:11 am

    Anyone else find “diversification” mantra (in Madoff thread) tiresome? As in “thoroughly spread your love around” = key to happy end

  4. Gary Rogan on January 7, 2009 3:07 pm

    George, “love” is a score of zero in tennis.

    But seriously, since the ancient Greeks gave it a lot of thought early on this from Wikipidia may help:

    There are a number of different Greek words for love, as the Greek language distinguishes how the word is used. Ancient Greek has three distinct words for love: eros, philia, and agape. However, as with other languages, it has been historically difficult to separate the meanings of these words. Nonetheless, the senses in which these words were generally used are given below.

    * Eros (ἔρως érōs) is passionate love, with sensual desire and longing. The Modern Greek word “erotas” means “(romantic) love”. However, eros does not have to be sexual in nature. Eros can be interpreted as a love for someone whom you love more than the philia love of friendship. It can also apply to dating relationships as well as marriage. Plato refined his own definition. Although eros is initially felt for a person, with contemplation it becomes an appreciation of the beauty within that person, or even becomes appreciation of beauty itself. It should be noted Plato does not talk of physical attraction as a necessary part of love, hence the use of the word platonic to mean, “without physical attraction”. Plato also said eros helps the soul recall knowledge of beauty, and contributes to an understanding of spiritual truth. Lovers and philosophers are all inspired to seek truth by eros. The most famous ancient work on the subject of eros is Plato’s Symposium, which is a discussion among the students of Socrates on the nature of eros.

    * Philia (φιλία philía), which means friendship in modern Greek, a dispassionate virtuous love, was a concept developed by Aristotle. It includes loyalty to friends, family, and community, and requires virtue, equality and familiarity. In ancient texts, philia denoted a general type of love, used for love between family, between friends, a desire or enjoyment of an activity, as well as between lovers. This is the only other word for “love” used in the ancient text of the New Testament besides agape, but even then it is used substantially less frequently.

    * Agapē (ἀγάπη agápē) means “love” in modern day Greek, such as in the term s’agapo (Σ’αγαπώ), which means”I love you”. In Ancient Greek it often refers to a general affection rather than the attraction suggested by “eros”; agape is used in ancient texts to denote feelings for a good meal, one’s children, and the feelings for a spouse. It can be described as the feeling of being content or holding one in high regard. The verb appears in the New Testament describing, amongst other things, the relationship between Jesus and the beloved disciple. In biblical literature, its meaning and usage is illustrated by self-sacrificing, giving love to all–both friend and enemy. It is used in Matthew 22:39, “Love your neighbour as yourself,” and in John 15:12, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you,” and in 1 John 4:8, “God is love.” However, the word “agape” is not always used in the New Testament in a positive sense. II Timothy 4:10 uses the word in a negative sense. The Apostle Paul writes,”For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved (agapo) this present world….” Thus the word “agape” is not always used of a divine love or the love of God. The Christian sense of the term expands the original Greek sense and encompasses a total commitment or self-sacrificial love for the thing loved. A great deal of Christian theology is indebted to the frequency of this word and its interpretation in the New Testament.

    * Storge (στοργή storgē) means “affection” in modern Greek; it is natural affection, like that felt by parents for offspring. Rarely used in ancient works, and then almost exclusively as a descriptor of relationships within the family.

    * Thelema (θέλημα thélēma) means “desire” in modern Greek; it is the desire to do something, to be occupied, to be in prominence.

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