Jonathan Franzen Quotes

It is by loving, and not by being loved, that one can come nearest the soul of another; yea, that, where two love, it is the loving of each other, that originates and perfects and assures their blessedness. I knew that love gives to him that loveth, power over any soul beloved, even if that soul know him not, bringing him inwardly close to that spirit; a power that cannot be but for good; for in proportion as selfishness intrudes, the love ceases, and the power which springs therefrom dies. Yet all love will, one day, meet with its return.

Anyone who loves in the expectation of being loved in return is wasting their time.

Love insists the loved loves back

One can love a child, perhaps, more deeply than one can love another adult, but it is rash to assume that the child feels any love in return.

You can't love someone unless they love you back.

My love is not measured in reciprocity. That's not the way I learned love.

She never imagined a scenario in which her love was not returned with the same depth of feeling, for to her it was impossible to believe that a love of such magnitude could have stunned only her. The most elementary logic and justice indicated that somewhere in the city he was suffering the same delicious torment.

You would give your life for your little baby. It's not the same when you are in a sexual relationship unless you feel that you are loved as you love.

And you can't love, not fully, unless you are loved in return.

Remember that the most important thing is to try and love other people as much as they love you.

Friendship often ends in love; but love in friendship - never.

We are afraid to care too much, for fear that the other person does not care at all.

I can only give away the love that I have received.

I think romantic passion is wanting a little something in return.

That on a romantic level, if you feel it about somebody and it's pure, it means that they do too.

Talk not of wasted affection - affection never was wasted.

We are nearer loving those who hate us than those who love us more than we wish.

That's the definition of love, that going out in spirit to a separate and other soul and being received similarly.

It's easy to love people who love you.

I love you enough for the both of us. And there must be something about me worth loving. If you would just try.

Love is never wasted, even if it is not reciprocated.

If you want to love a parent you have to understand the incredible investment he or she has in you. If you are a parent, and you want to be loved, you have to deserve it.

Why should you love him whom the world hates so? Because he love me more than all the world.

If anyone conceives that he is loved by another, and believes that he has given no cause for such love, he will love that other in return.

Unconditional love. That’s what he wants to give her and what he wants from her. People should give without wanting anything in return. All other giving is selfish. But he is being selfish a little, isn’t he, by wanting her to love him in return? He hopes that she loves him in return. Is it possible for a person to love without wanting love back? Is anything so pure? Or is love, by its nature, a reciprocity, like oceans and clouds, an evaporating of seawater and a replenishing of rain?