Life, Love, Sex and Friendship…

For a couples game which we developed, we assembled about 125 quotes about life, love, sex and friendship. The game has been sold out for a while now and we have gone onto other things, but here are the quotes we had curated and used. We think there are some unusual gems here which are food for thought. Or dessert…

“When shall we live, if not now?” — Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 B.C. — 65 A.D)

“Full nakedness! All joys are due to thee; As souls unbodied, bodies unclothed must be, to taste whole joys.” ~ John Donne, 1572–1631

“I lose my respect for the man who can make the mystery of sex the subject of a coarse jest, yet when you speak earnestly and seriously on the subject, is silent.” — Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

“Love lessens woman’s delicacy and increases man’s.” — Jean Paul Richter — (1763–1825)

“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.” — Philo of Alexandria — (20 B.C. — 50 A.D.)

“If you want to make sure of keeping your heart intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket of your selfishness. But in that casket — safe, dark, motionless, airless — it will change. It will not be broken — it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The only place outside of Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from the dangers of love is Hell. — C.S. Lewis (1898–1963)

“The sexual embrace can only be compared with music and with prayer.” — Marcus Aurelius, AD 121–180

“There is a private spring to everyone’s affection; if you can find that, and touch it, the door will fly open, tho’ it was a miser’s heart.” — T. C. Haliburton (1796–1865)

“There is no greater nor keener pleasure than that of bodily love… and none which is more irrational.” ~ Plato; The Republic, 427–347 B.C.

“To take a wife merely as an agreeable and rational companion, will commonly be found to be a grand mistake.” ~ Lord Chesterfield, 1694–1773

“A woman’s charm is her strength just as strength is a man’s charm.” — Havelock Ellis — (1859–1939)

“As selfishness and complaint pervert and cloud the mind, so sex with its joys clears and sharpens the vision.” — Helen Keller — (1880–1968)

“That is what marriage really means: helping one another to reach the full status of being persons, responsible and autonomous beings who do not run away from life.” — Paul Tournier — (1898–1986)

“Now, with God’s help, I shall become myself.” — Soren Kierkegaard — (1813–1855)

“Let your fountain be blessed, and take pleasure in the wife of your youth; let her breasts always satisfy you; be lost in her love forever.” — Proverbs; King Solomon — (circa 950 B.C.)

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.” — Paul of Tarsus — (circa 3–65)

“‘Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” — Alfred Lord Tennyson — (1809–1892)

“The nakedness of woman is the work of God.” — William Blake — (1757–1827)

“The sum which two married people owe to one another defies calculation. It is an infinite debt, which can only be discharged through all eternity.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe — (1749–1832)

“Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. Those who wish to sing always find a song. At the touch of a lover, everyone becomes a poet.” — Plato (427–347 B.C)

“What a woman says to her ardent lover should be written in the wind and running water.” — Gaius Valerius Catullus — (84 BC — 54 BC)

“See that you act in full union with each other; this is of the utmost consequence. Not only let there be no bitterness or anger, but no shyness or coldness between you.” — John Wesley — (1703–1791)

“…that delicious, thrilling, health-restoring sensation called vibration. It makes you fairly tingle with the joy of living!” — early 1900’s ad for vibrators

“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage. ” — Lao Tzu — (6th Century B.C.)

“Sex pleasure in woman is a kind of magic spell; it demands complete abandon; if words or movements oppose the magic of caresses, the spell is broken.” — Simone De Beauvoir — (1908–1986)

“A lover without indiscretion is no lover at all!” ~ Thomas Hardy — (1840–1928)

“…a woman who goes to bed with a man ought to lay aside her modesty with her skirt, and put it on again with her petticoat.” ~ Michel de Montaigne — (1533–1592)

“Ultimately, the bond of all companionship, whether in marriage or friendship, is conversation.” — Oscar Wilde — 1854–1900

“The true man wants two things; danger and play. For that reason he wants a woman, as the most dangerous plaything.” ~ Friedrich W. Nietzsche — (1844–1900)

“With ripening age comes an appetite for indecency.” ~ Anonymous

“Without passion man is a mere latent force and possibility, like the flint which awaits the shock of the iron before it can give forth its spark.” — Henri-Frederic Amiel — (1821–1881)

“The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.” — from “Nature Boy” — Eden Ahbez — (1908–1995)

“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 — (1910–1997)

“Take away leisure and Cupid’s bow is broken.” ~ Ovid — (43 B.C. — 17 A.D.)

“The course of true love never did run smooth.” ~ A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 1, Scene 1, Shakespeare — (1564–1616)

“For a woman to know true sexual pleasure, a spell must be woven; a fragile enchantment easily broken by a careless word or caress.” ~ Anonymous

“Littleness is easily provoked, quick to anger, ever ready to resign in a huff.” — John N. Gladstone — (1921–2005)

“Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator, but among those whom I love, I can: all of them make me laugh.” — W. H. Auden — (1907–1973)

“Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.” — Bertrand Russell — (1872–1970)

“The first duty of love is to listen.” — Paul Tillich — (1886–1965)

“The art of love … is largely the art of persistence.” — Albert Ellis — (1913–2007)

“Beware you be not swallowed up in books! An ounce of love is worth a pound of knowledge.” — John Wesley — (1703–1791)

“Without passion man is a mere latent force and possibility, like the flint which awaits the shock of the iron before it can give forth its spark.” — Henri-Frederic Amiel — (1821–1881)

“Soul meets soul on lovers’ lips.” — Percy Bysshe Shelley — (1792–1822)

“Love does not dominate; it cultivates.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe — (1749–1832)

“Depth of friendship does not depend on length of acquaintance.” — Sir Rabindranath Tagore — (1861–1941)

“In the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.” — Leo Tolstoy — (1828–1910)

“I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams. “ — William Butler Yeats — (1865–1939)

“Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. Those who wish to sing always find a song. At the touch of a lover, everyone becomes a poet.” — Plato — (427–347 B.C)

“Age does not protect you from love but love to some extent protects you from age.” — Jeanne Moreau — (born 1928)

“Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit.” — Peter Ustinov (1921–2004)

“You have to see the sex act comically, as a child.” — W. H. Auden — (1907–1973)

“A man is seduced by what he sees, a woman by what she hears.” — Anonymous

“Curve: The loveliest distance between two points.” — Mae West — (1893–1980)

“I’m suggesting we call sex something else, and it should include everything from kissing to sitting close together.” — Shere Hite (born 1942)

“Who, being loved, is poor?” ~ Oscar Wilde — (1854–1900)

“The older one grows, the more one likes indecency.” — Virginia Woolf — (1882–1941)

“The prettiest dresses are worn to be taken off.” — Jean Cocteau — (1889–1963)

“Love begins with love; and the warmest friendship cannot change even to the coldest love.” ~ La Bruyere, (1645–1696)

“Those who restrain desire do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained.” — William Blake — (1757–1827)

“Kindness in women, not their beautious looks, shall win my love.” — Shakespeare — (1564–1616)

“It is an irony, appreciated only by the French, that good manners are the basis of very good sex. In bed, the two most erotic words in any language, are ‘thank you’ and ‘please.’” — Hubert Downs; character in National Lampoon’s movie “Class Reunion” (1982)

“For flavour, instant sex will never supersede the stuff you have to peel and cook.” — Quentin Crisp — (1908–1999)

“In men desire begets love, and in women love begets desire.” — Jonathan Swift — (1667–1745)

“Who loves not women, wine and song remains a fool his whole life long.” — Martin Luther — (1483–1546)

“The essential elements… of the romantic spirit are curiosity and the love of beauty.” — Walter Pater — (1839–1894)

“Unless a woman has an amorous heart, she is a dull companion.” — Samuel Johnson — (1709–1784)

“They do not love that do not show their love.” — “Two Gentlemen from Verona” — William Shakespeare — (1564–1616)

“Absence diminishes mediocre passions and increases great ones, as the wind extinguishes candles and fans fires.” — Francois de La Rochefoucauld — (1613–1680)

“The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost.” — G. K. Chesterton — (1874–1936)

“I like not only to be loved, but also to be told that I am loved.” — George Eliot — (1819–1880)

“He who loves without jealousy does not truly love.” ~ The Zohar, 13th Century

“There is room in the smallest cottage for a happy loving pair.” — Friedrich von Schiller — (1759–1805)

“Give me another naughty naughty kiss before we part!” (Da savium etiam prius quam abis). — Titus Maccius Plautus — (c. 254–184 BC)

“…Paul Tournier wrote that life, in order to be life, must necessarily be dialogue. No one can find life in any real sense of the term in isolation. He must find it in contact, in dialogue with others…” — William Barclay — (1907–1978)

“I clasp thy waist, I feel they bosom’s beat. O, kiss me into faintness, sweet and dim.” — Scottish Poet, Alexander Smith — (1830–1867)

“A woman without the vanity which delights in her power of attracting would be by that very fact without power to attract.” ~ Coventry Patmore, 1823–1896

“Grow old with me! The best is yet to be.” — Robert Browning — (1812–1889)

“All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost…” J. R. R. Tolkien — (1892–1973)

“It is unfortunately true, that without leisure love becomes merely a common man’s debauch. Instead of burning or dreamy caprice, it becomes a repulsive utility.” — Charles Baudelaire — (1821–1867)

“Life is the finest of the fine arts. It has to be learned with lifelong patience…” — Henry Drummond — (1851–1897)

“No woman so naked as one you can see to be naked underneath her clothes.” ~ Michael Frayn, (born 1933)

“Sudden love takes the longest time to be cured.” — La Bruyere, (1645–1696)

“Love, like fire, cannot survive without continual movement, and it ceases to live as soon as it ceases to hope or fear.’ — La Rochefoucauld, (1613–1680)

“‘To take a wife merely as an agreeable and rational companion, will commonly be found to be a grand mistake.” — Lord Chesterfield, (1694–1773)

“Women deprived of the company of men pine, men deprived of the company of women become stupid.” — Anton Chekhov, (1860–1904)

“…the beautiful answer is always preceded by the more beautiful question.” — E. E. Cummings, (1894–1962)

“Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. — Berthold Auerbach, (1812–1882)

“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, (1910–1997)

“They own things together rather than fuck. This is their form of sex.” — ‘Any Woman’s Blues;’ Erica Jong, (born 1942)

“Do not swear — not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. Let your ‘Yes’ be yes, and your ‘No,’ no…” — James 5:12 (died 44 A.D.)

“‘There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven… a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing…” — King Solomon, (935 B.C.)

“She (Grace Kelly) just adored sex. She made no bones about it. We were lying on the bed one day, and I said something about sex, and she said, ‘It’s heaven!’ — Gwen Robyns, from ‘Princess Grace,’ — 1976

“My wife said her wildest sexual fantasy would be if I got my own apartment.” — Rodney Dangerfield, (1921–2004)

“A woman, I always say, should be like a good suspense movie: The more left to the imagination, the more excitement there is. This should be her aim — to create suspense, to let a man discover things about her without her having to tell him.” — Alfred Hitchcock, (1899–1980)

“‘The secret of every being is the divine care and concern that are invested in it. Something sacred is at stake in every event.” — Abraham Joshua Herschel, (1907–1972)

“Writing is seduction. Good talk is part of seduction. If not so, why do so many couples who start the evening at dinner wind up in bed?” — Stephen King, (born 1947)

“There are three things that are too amazing for me, four that I do not understand: the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a snake on a rock, the way of a ship on the high seas, and the way of a man with a maiden.” — King Solomon, (935 B.C.)

“Your stature is like that of the palm, and your breasts like clusters of fruit.’ I said, ‘I will climb the palm tree; I will take hold of its fruit.’ May your breasts be like the clusters of the vine… your mouth like the best wine.” — Song of Songs; King Solomon — circa 940 B.C.

“We are so incurably sexual.” — Ronald Rolheiser, from ‘Forgotten Among the Lillies’ — 2005

“Our erotic impulses are God’s lure in us. They are our spirit! We experience them precisely as ‘spirit,’ as soul, as that which makes us more than mere animals… our soul is our eros, our minds and hearts in their deep restlessness.’ — Ronald Rolheiser, from ‘Forgotten Among the Lillies’ — 2005

“Be patient; most of us spend a life-time learning how to be truly good friends and spouses.” — Robert M. Sapolsky in ‘Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers‘

“…while friendship has been by far the chief source of my happiness, acquaintance or general society has always meant little to me, and I cannot quite understand why a man should wish to know more people than he can make real friends of.” — C. S. Lewis — (1898–1963)

“A relationship is like a long trip. There’s bound to be some dull long stretches. Don’t travel with someone who expects you to be exciting all the time!” — Daniel Berrigan — (born 1921)

“We are born for love. It is the principle of existence, and its only end.” — Benjamin Disraeli — (1804–1881)

“Trust only movement. Life happens at the level of events, not of words. Trust movement.” — Alfred Adler — (1870–1937)

“What a man desires is unfailing love.” — King Solomon — 935 B.C. Edit Delete

“…I realized that I am an incurable aesthete. Unless I enjoy a thing I cannot understand it.” — Sir Kenneth Clark, (1903–1983); from “The Other Half: A Self Portrait“

“Men have succeeded in accumulating a greater mass of objects, but the joy in the world has grown less.” — Fyodor Dostoyevsky, (1821–1881)

“Boredom ought to be one of the seven deadly sins.”- Frederick Buechner, (born 1926)

“I go around doing nothing but persuading both young and old not to care for your body or your wealth in preference to your soul.” — Socrates, (469–399 BC)

“All men want, not something to do with, but something to be.”- Henry David Thoreau, (1817–1862)

“Sex, love and money are the dynamics of any marriage, rich or poor…” — Ginie Sayles, (born 1944)

“Often the difference between a successful marriage and a mediocre one consists of leaving about three or fourth things a day unsaid.” — Harlan Miller, (born 1964)

“…her friendly bust gives promise of pneumatic bliss.” — T.S. Eliot, (1888–1965)

“The peace of God came into my life when I wedded her.” — Alfred Lord Tennyson, (1809–1892)

“You can bear your own faults, and why not a fault in your wife?”– Benjamin Franklin, (1706–1790)

“I know of only one duty, and this is to love.” — Albert Camus, (1913–1960)

“Brevity: the soul of lingerie.” — Dorothy Parker, (1893–1967)

“Let me take you a button-hole lower.”- William Shakespeare, (1564–1616)

“We indulged in some foreplay, some during-play, and sometimes even some afterplay.” — Isaac Bashevis Singer, (1902–1991)

“After the ecstasy, go do the laundry!” — 99 percent of life is doing the laundry and waiting for the ecstasy — and that is ok. — Chinese Axiom; reference — Ronald Rolheiser