Valentine's Day Quotes: Religion Weighs In On Love

Valentine's Day, Feb. 14, can be a day of love or dread because of its emphasis on roses, chocolate, candlelight and expensive dates. However, it can also simply be about taking special care to show your love and appreciation for the people who are special to you. Many great religious thinkers and spiritual texts have offered thoughts on the power of love, from the Hebrew Bible to the Christian New Testament, Lao Tzu to Mother Teresa. In the name of deepening the meaning of this day, HuffPost Religion has compiled some of the most loving wisdom.

A bowl of vegetables with someone you love is better than steak with someone you hate. -- Proverbs 15:17 (NLT)

Smile at each other, smile at your wife, smile at your husband, smile at your children, smile at each other -- it doesn't matter who it is -- and that will help you to grow up in greater love for each other. -- Mother Teresa

Love is a consistent passion to give, not a meek persistent hope to receive. The only demand of life is the privilege to love all. -- Swami Chinmayananda

Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. -- Song of Solomon 8:6 (NIV)

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage. -- Lao Tzu

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. -- 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 (NIV)

Love is not affectionate feeling, but a steady wish for the loved person's ultimate good as far as it can be obtained. -- C.S. Lewis

A life devoid of love is a flower blooming in the wilderness,
With nobody to enjoy its fragrance. -- Kabir Ji, Gauri Rag (Sikh)

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails... -- 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a (NIV)

A family is a place where minds come in contact with one another. If these minds love one another, the home will be as beautiful as a flower garden. But if these minds get out of harmony with one another it is like a storm that plays havoc with the garden. -- Saying Traditionally Attributed to the Buddha

Entreat me not to leave you, or to turn back from following you; For wherever you go, I will go; And wherever you lodge, I will lodge; Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, and there will I be buried. The LORD do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts you and me." -- Ruth 1:16-17 (NKJV)

We cannot love unless we have accepted forgiveness, and the deeper our experience of forgiveness is, the greater is our love. -- Paul Tillich

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.
-- From Essential Rumi translated by Coleman Barks

Comments

[wolfiegirl]

10:33 PM on 02/14/2011

If you love something, set it free. If it doesn't come back, hunt it down and k i l l it.

[randy of the netses]

12:21 PM on 02/16/2011

Wouldn't it be easier to just keep love tied up in the basement so it can't escape? It avoids the whole hunt-it-down and kill-it scenario. Call me lazy, but I just don't want the hassle of having to put on orange reflective gear, purchasing the hunting license, etc.

[bbertaud]

10:30 PM on 02/14/2011

Love is nature's way of tricking people into reproducing

[Gnanam Nalliah]

12:43 AM on 02/16/2011

Well Said. Also it is one most powerful and potent ways that nature has set.

[PMJ79]

12:55 PM on 02/21/2011

"Love is nature's way of tricking people into reproducin­g"

The most blackly cynical statement I've read all morning.

[StarDagger]

09:59 PM on 02/14/2011

"Love is an angel disguised as LUST!" 10,000 Maniacs.

Go out and have sex with strangers!­! Enjoy life!! Be wild and let your body do the talking!!
Slap a condom on that beast and let it roar!!

Learn a new sexual position or technique today LIVE!!!!
.
.

[wolfiegirl]

10:34 PM on 02/14/2011

Love is a stranger in an open car, to tempt you in and drive you far away --

Annie Lennox

[PMJ79]

12:56 PM on 02/21/2011

It's possible to enjoy life without mindless nymphomaniacal rutting.

[StarDagger]

02:20 PM on 02/21/2011

Life without sex is a poor shadow of living.

Expand and free your mind (and body?)
.
.
.

[Numberwang]

09:38 PM on 02/14/2011

I see when men love women. They give them but a little of their lives. But women when they love give everything.
Oscar Wilde

[Numberwang]

09:38 PM on 02/14/2011

Women love us for our defects. If we have enough of them, they will forgive us everything, even our gigantic intellects.
Oscar Wilde

[Numberwang]

09:37 PM on 02/14/2011

One certainly doesn't need religion to be romantic.

If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you.
A. A. Milne

[ShinjiIkari]

11:09 PM on 02/14/2011

Scene: After a seven year courtship, college student Yusaku Godai has finally proposed to his landlady, the pretty young widow Kyoko Otonashi:

Kyoko: I know this will distress you, but promise me something. I want you to outlive me, even if only by one day. Because, after everything that's happened, I couldn't bear to be alone again.

from "Maison Ikkoku", a comic book by Rumiko Takahashi

[Mag7]

07:23 PM on 02/14/2011

How about "how was your day"? It can be said without $30.00 worth of flowers and a cheesy card.

BTW.... my day was pretty good -yours?

[eileenflemingWAWA]

05:39 PM on 02/14/2011

On the 14th day of February in 1776, Thomas Paine published "COMMON SENSE" which ignited the first American Revolution:

"Soon after I had published the pamphlet 'Common Sense' in America, I saw the exceeding probability that a revolution in the system of government would be followed by a revolution in the system of religion...The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion." Thomas Paine

On with THAT REVOLUTION of LOVE @
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wd6Ua5oAZSs

[StarDagger]

05:25 PM on 02/14/2011

"Love is an angel disguised as LUST!" 10,000 Maniacs.

Go out and have sex with strangers!! Enjoy life!! Be wild and let your body do the talking!!
Slap a condom on that beast and let it roar!!

Learn a new sexual position or technique today LIVE!!!!

.

.

[altoplano]

01:18 PM on 02/14/2011

That picture blows my mind.

[WilsonWilson]

12:49 PM on 02/14/2011

Let's get some more balanced perspective on Valentine's day and Islamic culture:

*Confessed Pakistani assassin gets Valentine's love
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110214/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan

*Valentine's Day Gifts, Banned: Where's the Love Iran?
http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/01/19/valentines-day-banned-iran/#ixzz1DxMiW8D9

*Malaysian states plan Valentine's Day crackdown
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j6M0sZ21MDSUVipeFjbBXxnD4BRQ?docId=CNG.b0bd9634a7d95d37ca7220a20828e2b0.5d1

*Indonesia's MUI says Valentine's Day is 'haram'
http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/SEAsia/Story/STIStory_633337.html

*Florists told to avoid red as Valentine's Day approaches
http://www.sauditelegraph.com/news/newsfull.php?newid=471496

JEDDAH: Flower shops and gift shops have been asked to remove all red items and heart-shaped gifts until after Valentine's Day by the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Haia).

Celebration of the so-called day of love is frowned upon by authorities in the Kingdom.

Every year, Haia officials visit the shops a few days before Valentine's Day, giving them instructions to remove all goods that have even the slightest hint of red, including roses, chocolate, wrapping paper and stuffed animals.

You see, this is more accurate than the politically correct nonsense that HP pushes.

[ShinjiIkari]

11:14 PM on 02/14/2011

And if Sears or Wal-Mart started having Ramadan special sales, Baggerz like Angle and Brewer would condemn them as trying to create Sharia shopping.

[WilsonWilson]

09:32 AM on 02/15/2011

Not analagous and not likely. But thanks for playing.

[PedroLeon]

12:35 PM on 02/14/2011

"All you need is love."

-- Bigger than Jesus

[StarDagger]

05:26 PM on 02/14/2011

But lust will do if you cant find some love, lol

[papau]

12:32 PM on 02/14/2011

Wonderful quotes that deserve more comments!

[Marioam]

12:23 PM on 02/14/2011

As a woman, and let's put aside relgion, I would like Valentines day done away with.
It is a commercial bully and has no true point to it.
Yes, I am married but we dont clelebrate it.
If you can not let the people you love know it all year long, then one stupid day wont matter.
I will not held hostage to it and neither will my husband or family.
Want to do something nice? Go on a picnic or a hike or cook and share dinner toether.
It's more fun, costs a whole lot less.

[MathIsTruth]

08:15 PM on 02/14/2011

So, because you don't like it, NO ONE should get to have some fun on Valentine's Day?

Your comment that people should express their love all year long and not need a holiday is true, but it's similarly true for all holidays, right?  Don' t just love freedom on July 4, don't just appreciate vets on Nov 11, don't just be thankful on the fourth thursday in November, etc.

That's a good sentiment, but it's based on an unrealistic model of human nature.  People take things for granted, and it's good to set aside certain times to be reminded that they shouldn't.  People also ENJOY a lot of the celebrations.  And marking the passage of time is something that people do.

[mike3]

06:26 PM on 02/17/2011

That doesn't mean it should be _limited_ to special days either. One should be able to love whenever one wants to. If that means one needs a holiday, then they should use that. If they can do it any day, then they shold do that! Now, FORCING people to do it on other days is silly, but if you CAN do it on another day, why NOT do it then? It's up to you.

You make it sound like they must limit it, but that's as bad as saying they must force it every day. Neither is good, unless one or the other works for that individual. It's all up to the individual.

[LearnMe]

12:22 PM on 02/14/2011

A piece of my own, written for my two son's,
"Be mindful of the motions of grace, fight the hardness in your heart; do not allow yourself to be overwhelmed by external circumstances. May these efforts lead you to seek, and find, goodness— in yourself, in others in the world at large— and may they help you become more whole and more holy.
http://learnmeproject.com/2010/12/27/all-faith-is-autopsy/