There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) was a German philosopher and classical philologist, appointed professor at Basel at twenty-four. He wrote aphoristically, in fragments, and put nearly everything his age took for granted under attack — morality, religion, the idea of truth. He spent his last eleven years in mental collapse, unable to work.
About this theme: Love
The Greeks had several words for what we cover with one: eros for desire, philia for the affection between friends, storge for family attachment, agape for the kind that asks nothing back. Translate all of that into a single word and the distinctions vanish — yet the distinctions are what most quotes about love are actually about.
More by Friedrich Nietzsche
More on Love
- No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.— Charles Dickens
- A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you.— Elbert Hubbard
- The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched — they must be felt with the heart.— Helen Keller
- One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: that word is love.— Sophocles
- Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.— Mother Teresa