Love 101 taught by the greats

Last Valentine's Day I was in the Peru MTC--honestly I don't remember much of anything exciting happening--the missionary schedule doesn't allow for much variation. It was a good day, but definitely not your typical Valentine's Day. The year before was the most awful Valentine's Day I've experienced times 50. But I'm grateful (okay, not entirely, but somewhat so) for that one, too, since it makes any other Valentine's Day seem beautiful and lovely in comparison. Cheers to adversity for the perspective and contrast it provides.
Valentine's Day is focused more on romantic love, I guess, but, in the absence of that, my mind is on love in the more general sense. From my treasure trove of quotes that I peruse at least a few times a week, I'm going to share some favorites that shed some light on love in its various forms.

"They do not love that do not show their love." William Shakespeare

“Love sought is good, but given unsought, is better.” William Shakespeare

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.  -William Shakespeare

To love and win is the best thing. To love and lose, the next best. William Makepeace Thackeray

"Love is something more stern and splendid than mere kindness." CS Lewis

"Knowledge can last, principles can last, habits can last; but feelings come and go... But, of course, ceasing to be 'in love' need not mean ceasing to love. Love in this second sense — love as distinct from 'being in love' — is not merely a feeling. It is a deep unity, maintained by the will and deliberately strengthened by habit; reinforced by (in Christian marriage) the grace which both partners ask, and receive, from God... 'Being in love' first moved them to promise fidelity: this quieter love enables them to keep the promise. It is on this love that the engine of marriage is run: being in love was the explosion that started it."  CS Lewis

"Do not waste time bothering whether you ‘love’ your neighbor; act as if you did. As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him." CS Lewis

"The promise, made when I am in love and because I am in love, to be true to the beloved as long as I live, commits me to being true even if I cease to be in love. A promise must be about things that I can do, about actions: no one can promise to go on feeling in a certain way. He might as well promise to never have a headache or always to feel hungry." CS Lewis

"Love may, indeed, love the beloved when her beauty is lost: but not because it is lost. Love may forgive all infirmities and love still in spite of them: but Love cannot cease to will their removal. Love is more sensitive than hatred itself to every blemish in the beloved… Of all powers he forgives most, but he condones least: he is pleased with little, but demands all." CS Lewis

"Most people live for love and admiration. But it is by love and admiration that we should live." Oscar Wilde

Let no one who loves be unhappy... even love unreturned has its rainbow.  ~James Matthew Barrie

“God the Eternal Father did not give that first great commandment because He needs us to love Him. His power and glory are not diminished should we disregard, deny, or even defile His name. His influence and dominion extend through time and space independent of our acceptance, approval, or admiration. No, God does not need us to love Him. But oh, how we need to love God!” President Uchtdorf

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

"Since love grows within you, so beauty grows. For love is the beauty of the soul." - Saint Augustine of Hippo

"Absence sharpens love, presence strengthens it." - Thomas Fuller 

 "The most powerful symptom of love is a tenderness which becomes at times almost insupportable." - Victor Hugo

"Love means to commit oneself without guarantee, to give oneself completely in the hope that our love will produce love in the lovedperson. Love is an act of faith, and whoever is of little faith is also of little love." - Erich Fromm 

"Love grows by giving. The love we give away is the only love we keep. The only way to retain love is to give it away." - Elbert Green Hubbard

Thanks to all of these lovely people for providing a course in Love 101.