“I concluded….that all those virtuous human emotion need not be freely given. Respect is commanded or demanded. Admiration is won sometimes against the will. It is impossible to admire someone we dislike. Loyalty and trust we entice or win from others. A sense of awe or adoration for God descends upon us from realisation. Certainly all these emotions may be present in love but they are not love itself. Love is freely given. It is a matter of choice. Love is wanting what is best for the other person, even if what is best for them is not going to suit the lover. Love is totally selfless and it is an act, not an emotion. We often mistake it for emotion because it is usually contained in strong emotions. But love is not an emotion…. love is creative action. It is the most creative act in the universe”.
—- From “Ordinary Insanity” by Emma Pierce
In other words love is an act not a feeling. It is when we do something for others regardless of the opinion of the self and feelings. Love is not something we can achieve on our own and requires that we love something, or rather, do things for others, often at a cost to us, or a bad feeling. There is something beyond and greater than feelings at work here. It is not feelings which move us to love – true love that is.
This is a very fascinating quote!
By: Den Relojo on September 10, 2008
at 12:56 am
Awesome! Love has no synonym!
By: iluv2worship1 on September 12, 2008
at 3:26 am
Loving someone that you dislike is the hardest test on your soul.
You have a wonderfulblog, so deep and reflective and very uncharacteristic of todays society – I can hear the first birdcalls of the day, I wonder what they say…
By: patienceperseverance on September 12, 2008
at 6:28 am
the best way to understand the word love is to understand art. art has no actual classification, it is the process by which we choose to put in or take out of whats within and without. love is much the same. unfortunately what most people put into the word love is self serving crap. to love only what serves yourself is no love at all. to give all the qualities that you possess for the sake of it whilst neither seeking or expecting reward is the choice that i have made. in tough times i found the kindness in complete strangers who had given themselves at their expense to my needs with no expectations, their emotions did not come into play it was their choice to stick to a set of principles too which they had the strength to live by. this is what i choose love to be, my emotions are distractions that i had opened my eyes to and learn from. emotions serve the self and thus are devoid of love. for all those who feel like submitting to the self destructive will of the blind masses realize you are not alone and stay true to your path or drown in the endless seas of ignorance and idiocy.
By: dom on October 21, 2009
at 12:37 pm
Love must not be confused with movements that are internal and personal to the self.
Love is not a “feeling.” Feelings are experiential movements contained completely within the bounds of our consciousness. Feelings may be a response to Love, but that response is not Love, in the same way that one’s visual image of a tree is not a tree.
Love is not an “idea.” Ideas like thoughts and beliefs are mental processes completely contained within the brain. One may have “ideas” about Love, but those ideas are not Love, in the same way that the idea of a sunset is not a sunset.
Love is not an emotion for the same reasons as the listed above. Emotions are movements occuring and contained entirely within that area we call our consciousness. Love transcends consciousness.
Love is not an experience, again, because experience is a movement or a recognition of a movement occuring within the limited sphere of consciousness.
Love IS! It is not bound in time, not limited in space, It is untouched by feelings, ideas, emotions and experience. It IS where the feelings, ideas, emotions and experience of “self” are still. It IS the eternally ongoing, creative action in which we live, breathe and have our being.
By: Don Thomann on November 17, 2009
at 6:10 am
love is the name human beings have given to an evolutionary behavioural response. Love stems from a desire to protect those things which will ensure the survival of an animal’s genetic legacy. Therefore love is merely a selfish act to propegate the species by adding our own genes to the mix. One could argue then that when an animal kills young fathered by an individual other than itself, to bring a potential mate into being receptive for fertilization that that act of violence is ‘love’. furthermore all emotion i simply an evolutionary response, a temporary neuro-chemical imbalance triggered by various stimuli.
By: anne hedonia on November 6, 2010
at 2:59 am
you are a fool.
By: gebs on November 11, 2010
at 8:00 pm
You’re good! To succinctly sum me up AND say so much about yourself with only 4 words, Fabulous!
By: Don Thomann on November 13, 2010
at 12:29 am
love is to thing about somebody else you love more times you thing about your self
By: ROBINSON BWAMBALE on May 3, 2011
at 8:16 pm