#Love

Love Begins by Letting Others Be

At its core, Thomas Merton’s statement reframes love as an act of reverence rather than possession. To love someone ‘perfectly themselves’ means resisting the urge to edit their character, ambitions, or temperament until they mirror our preferences. In this sense, love begins not with shaping another person, but with seeing them clearly and welcoming what is already there. This idea matters because affection often arrives tangled with expectation. We may imagine that devotion gives us the right to improve, correct, or refine the beloved. Merton gently overturns that assumption: the first duty of love is not transformation, but recognition. Only then can a relationship grow without becoming a subtle form of domination. [...]

Arthur Ashe’s Simple Formula for a Long Life

If purpose organizes the present and love enriches it, then “something to look forward to” opens the future. This final element may be the most quietly profound, because hope often sustains people through monotony, pain, and uncertainty. Anticipation creates momentum; even a modest expectation—a visit, a season, a goal, a reunion—can pull a person forward when the present feels heavy. Consequently, Ashe reminds us that long life is not only about memory but also about expectation. This insight aligns with modern research on optimism and resilience, including work summarized by psychologist Charles Snyder in The Psychology of Hope (1994), where hope is framed as a practical mental resource. People live more fully when tomorrow contains a reason to arrive. [...]

Why Family and Love Matter Most

John Wooden’s quote distills a large philosophy into a few plain words: amid achievement, wealth, and recognition, family and love remain the true center of life. At first glance, the statement seems obvious, yet its force lies in what it quietly rejects—the idea that success alone can satisfy the human spirit. In Wooden’s view, what matters most is not what we accumulate, but whom we cherish and how we care for them. [...]

Love as Lubricant, Bond, and Harmony

Next, “cement” shifts the focus from momentary conflict to lasting structure. Love binds people closer through shared commitments—showing up, keeping promises, and choosing the relationship even when emotion fluctuates. Burrows implies that affection becomes durable when it is reinforced by steady actions. Here the metaphor also suggests time: cement sets gradually. In real life, couples often describe pivotal moments—caring for a partner during illness, supporting a career change, raising children—as experiences that quietly harden devotion into something reliable. Transitioning from oil to cement, Burrows moves from easing tension to forming a foundation. [...]

When Love Guides Work, Excellence Follows

Blake’s sentence compresses a large claim: the quality of an act rises with the quality of its love. In this view, love is not a mere feeling but a way of attending—giving full presence, patience, and respect to the task or person before us. When our motive is care rather than vanity or haste, we notice details others overlook and accept the discipline required to do something properly. Seen this way, the goodness of an outcome cannot be separated from the spirit that produced it. This emphasis on intention does not excuse sloppy results; rather, it explains why diligence becomes sustainable. Love steadies the hand, anchors the conscience, and, as we will see, aligns craft, ethics, and even performance science toward the same destination: doing well. [...]

When Love Reigns, The World Will Transform into a Paradise - Friedrich Schiller

Friedrich Schiller was an 18th-century German poet, philosopher, and playwright. His works often explored deep philosophical ideas, social reform, and the pursuit of higher ideals, reflecting the intellectual currents of his time. [...]

Love Is Like the Wind, You Can't See It but You Can Feel It

The analogy to the wind suggests that love, like the wind, is a universal phenomenon experienced by everyone, transcending boundaries and cultures. [...]