Robert A. Heinlein Quotes

We really have to understand the person we want to love. If our love is only a will to possess, it is not love. If we only think of ourselves, if we know only our own needs and ignore the needs of the other person, we cannot love.

The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.

There are no rules for friendship. It must be left to itself. We cannot force it any more than love.

Love does not claim possession, but gives freedom.

There's that thing that if you want to have any kind of lasting love, I think you have to love the whole person and not just the parts of them that you choose.

Being in love is all about the ability to give rather than take. It is not easy, but if you can accept this, then you will experience love.

In real love you want the other person's good. In romantic love you want the other person.

Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow. Don't walk behind me, I may not lead. There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved.

Love is very dangerous if you just have love and don't have the ability to be lovable.

Friendship is a strong and habitual inclination in two persons to promote the good and happiness of one another.

I'm not jealous, and I'm not possessive, and I'm not controlling.

If a person loves only one other person and is indifferent to all others, his love is not love but a symbiotic attachment, or an enlarged egotism.

I think the perfection of love is that it's not perfect.

Love is when the other person's happiness is more important than your own.

Love is taking a few steps backward, maybe even more…to give way to the happiness of the person you love.

When you love someone, you don't try to change them.

What I cannot love, I overlook. Is that real friendship?

Respect your partner. Be happy in your partner's happiness.

I think it's very important for young women, young people and older people as well, to know that love is important, but it's also important to find a partner who respects you and loves you the way you deserve to be treated.

I realize that I'm one of those guys that if I'm not with you, you hate me. But when I'm with you, you understand who I am and what I'm about and love me.

Love does not cause suffering: what causes it is the sense of ownership, which is love's opposite.

Learning unconditional love helped me have healthier relationships, including my current marriage.

Oh, the miraculous energy that flows between two people who care enough to get beyond surfaces and games, who are willing to take the risks of being totally open, of listening, of responding with the whole heart. How much we can do for each other.

Love is an attempt at penetrating another being, but it can only succeed if the surrender is mutual.

For me, romance isn't an over-the-top act. It's someone offering to help and to support me. Or if that person thinks I'm making the wrong decision, he'll tell me. I want him to be honest, because being that honest takes a lot of guts.