...baby don't hurt me...

I will start by saying i see love as the release of oxytocin and dopamine in the brain.

For me this defines the feeling of beeing enamored. The "butterflies in my stomach" feeling. But not love.

Kind of a "The only thing keeping you from having it, is thinking you don't have it" type thing?

"The will to extend one's self for the purpose of nurturing one's own or another's spiritual growth."

"The common tendency to confuse love with the feeling of love allows people all manner of self-deception. An alcoholic man, whose wife and children are desperately in need of his attention at that very moment, may be sitting in a bar with tears in his eyes, telling the bartender, "I really love my family." People who neglect their children in the grossest of ways more often than not will consider themselves the most loving of parents. It is clear that there may be a self-serving quality in this tendency to confuse love with the feeling of love; it is easy and not at all unpleasant to find evidence of love in one's feelings. It may be difficult and painful to search for evidence of love in one's actions. But because true love is an act of will that often transcends ephemeral feelings of love or cathexis, it is correct to say, "Love is as love does." Love and non-love, as good and evil, are objective and not purely subjective phenomena."

"Our use of the word 'love' is so generalized and unspecific as to severely interfere with our understanding of love. I have no great expectation that the language will change in this respect. Yet as long as we continue to use the word 'love' to describe our relationship with anything that is important to us, anything we cathect, without regard for the quality of that relationship, we will continue to have difficulty discerning the difference between the wise and the foolish, the good and the bad, the noble and ignoble."



"Love is too large, too deep ever to be truly understood or measured or limited within the framework of words."

Is love something completely independent from affection or desire?

I think Pitubo brought a good point with his idea, but i find it difficult to understand interest without self-centeredness. I would think it is impossible to consider your interests without considering yourself first.[

"Where there is love, God is within us. Wherever we see
something beautiful. God is there. God made all that is
beautiful; it is man who makes ugliness. Real love does not
stop at a person or an object; if it is real it goes on to God.
Nothing real ever disappears. If it disappears it is not real.
What is not true always disappears for it has never been"


"Where there is pardon there is love. Forgiveness is humility.
Where there is humility there is love. Where there is love
there is no condemning, because we feel there is nothing to
forgive"

"Remorse and love are the same. Remorse is real love, or
rather love is the pleasure, remorse the pain. If we are really
awake we feel remorse in proportion to the injury we have
done others; it is payment. "

"We can collect material things, but we cannot collect
love. If we receive it we have to give it again"

"When we demand we do not love. "

". The
divine in us realizes itself in wanting to help others, and this
is love. "


"Love is everything; it is understanding. We do not love
other people for their virtues; how can we tell if a person
does something right for vanity? We cannot judge, so we
cannot know. We love people for their failings. We love one
person because he is vain and needs taking down, another
because he is weak and needs confidence. We love people
for their needs. We must find the qualities of others and
cover their defects with our sins. In this way we can learn
not to judge. "

"Love is not voluntary; it is a grace. He who has received
the grace to pray has received no small mercy from God."

"There is no love
that is not a grace - love of flowers, love of animals, love of
people - all love is a grace. The greater the soul the more
God's love can be transformed."

"A good thought sent direct to someone
helps him in proportion to the strength of the irradiations
of our love for him; the same thought sent to God is
intensified much as the rays of the sun are intensified by a
burning-glass. Prayers are our highest irradiations magnified
by God. That is why prayer is so powerful."