Pope Francis Quotes

So the divine love is sacrificial love. Love does not mean to have and to own and to possess. It means to be had and to be owned and to be possessed. It is not a circle circumscribed by self, it is arms outstretched to embrace all humanity within its grasp.

If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.

You know it's love when all you want is that person to be happy, even if you're not part of their happiness.

Let grace and goodness be the principal loadstone of thy affections. For love which hath ends, will have an end; whereas that which is founded on true virtue, will always continue.

Love is always bestowed as a gift - freely, willingly and without expectation. We don't love to be loved; we love to love.

Love seeks one thing only: the good of the one loved. It leaves all the other secondary effects to take care of themselves. Love, therefore, is its own reward.

Could it be that to truly love a thing is not to desire it, but to desire happiness for it?

Love delights and glorifies in giving, not receiving.

That is salvation. To give of love inside. To keep love of life, no matter what, and give to others. Generously.

True love begins when nothing is looked for in return.

True love is selfless. It is prepared to sacrifice.

To love is to will the good of the other.

In the Christian sense, love is not primarily an emotion but an act of the will. When Jesus tells us to love our neighbors, he is not telling us to love them in the sense of responding to them with a cozy emotional feeling. You can as well produce a cozy emotional feeling as you can a cough or sneeze. On the contrary, he is telling us to love our neighbors in the sense of being willing to work for their well-being even if it means sacrificing our well-being to that end.

True love, unlike popular sentimental substitutes, is willing to suffer. Love is not "luv." Love is the cross. Our problem at first, the sheer problem of suffering, was a cross without Christ. We must never fall into the opposite and equal trap of a Christ without a cross.

The exercise of benevolence is joy to loving hearts: the more pain it costs, the more joy it is. Kind actions make us happy, and in such joy we find communion with the great heart of Jesus.

Love consists in giving without getting in return; in giving what is not owed, what is not due the other. That's why true love is never based, as associations for utility or pleasure are, on a fair exchange.

The Dalai Lama said that he thinks mother's love is the best symbol for love and compassion, because it is totally disinterested.

True love is selfless. It is prepared to sacrifice.

The best portion of a good man's life is his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love.

The true power of love is found in selfless attitudes and actions that seek the best for another person without expecting anything in return. When we act in that way, the feeling of love follows close behind.

Love is in the giver, not the gift.

Love is not getting, but giving. Not a wild dream of pleasure and madness of desire - oh, no - love is not that! It is goodness and honor and peace and pure living - yes, love is that and it is the best thing in the world and the thing that lives the longest.

That is love, to give away everything, to sacrifice everything, without the slightest desire to get anything in return.3

Love is that which exists to do good, not merely to get good.