Mortimer Adler Quotes on Love (18 Quotes)

Love consists in giving without getting in return; in giving what is not owed, what is not due the other. That's why true love is never based, as associations for utility or pleasure are, on a fair exchange.

I wonder if most people ever ask themselves why love is connected with reproduction. And if they do ask themselves about this, I wonder what answer they give.

There is only one situation I can think of in which men and women make an effort to read better than they usually do. It is when they are in love and reading a love letter.

Love without conversation is impossible.

Ultimately, we wish the joy of perfect union with the person we love.

Aristotle uses a mother's love for her child as the prime example of love or friendship.

Freud's view is that all love is sexual in its origin or its basis. Even those loves which do not appear to be sexual or erotic have a sexual root or core. They are all sublimations of the sexual instinct.

Conjugal love, or the friendship of spouses, can persist even after sexual desires have weakened, withered, and disappeared.

Love can be unselfish, in the sense of being benevolent and generous, without being selfless.

We love even when our love is not requited.

Erotic or sexual love can truly be love if it is not selfishly sexual or lustful.

In English we must use adjectives to distinguish the different kinds of love for which the ancients had distinct names.

The love which moves the world, according to common Christian belief, is God's love and the love of God.

Theories of love are found in the works of scientists, philosophers, and theologians.

When we ask for love, we don't ask others to be fair to us-but rather to care for us, to be considerate of us. There is a world of difference here between demanding justice... and begging or pleading for love.

Love wishes to perpetuate itself. Love wishes for immortality.

If one wants another only for some self-satisfaction, usually in the form of sensual pleasure, that wrong desire takes the form of lust rather than love.

Think how different human societies would be if they were based on love rather than justice. But no such societies have ever existed on earth.