Ralph Waldo Emerson was a celebrated American essayist, lecturer, and poet who lived in the 19th century. His Victorian-era thoughts and ideas continue to inspire people, and his quotes are widely used and recognized. Here are some of Emerson’s most prized love quotes, which offer wisdom and insight into the complexities of love, relationships, and the human experience.
be yourself
I appeal from your customs. I must be myself. I cannot break myself any longer for you, or you. If you can love me for what I am, we shall be happier. If you cannot, I will still seek to deserve that you should. I must be myself. I will not hide my tastes or aversions.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays “Self Reliance” (1841)
sweet torment
Thou art to me a delicious torment.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays “Friendship” (1841)
love fulfilled
Marriage is the perfection which love aimed at, ignorant of what it sought.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1820-1872
listen closely
Give all to love; Obey thy heart.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Ralph Waldo Emerson: The Major Poetry
love endures
In the sublimest flights of the soul, rectitude is never surmounted, love is never outgrown.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance, the Over-Soul, and Other Essays
Hidden Heartache
If with love thy heart has burned; If thy love is unreturned; Hide thy grief within thy breast, Though it tear thee unexpressed.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, “To Rhea.” Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson
Karma
Love, and you shall be loved.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Top Essays
Rejection’s Gift
Dear to us are those who love us… but dearer are those who reject us as unworthy, for they add another life; they build a heaven before us whereof we had not dreamed.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson
Otherness
Love is the bright foreigner, the foreign self.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson
Drawn to Love
All mankind love a lover.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays “Love” (1841)
Aspiration
The reason why all men honor love is because it looks up, and not down; aspires and not despairs.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Prose Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson
Love Says Yes
The affirmative of affirmatives… is love.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emersons
Joy
The effect of the indulgence of human affection is a certain cordial exhilaration.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays “Friendship” (1841)
Seeing Anew
He who is in love is wise and is becoming wiser, sees newly every time he looks at the object beloved, drawing from it with his eyes and his mind those virtues which it possesses.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, A Year with Emerson: A Daybook
Love Unabound
No love can be bound by oath or covenant to secure it against a higher love.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays and Lectures
