45 Classic, Modern & Timeless Long Love Quotes to Inspire and Enthuse

Love has captivated artists, writers, and thinkers for centuries. Explore their most inspiring long love quotes that still touch our hearts today.

What do Renaissance painters, Greek philosophers, and country artists all have in common? An obsession with the subject of love and writing long love quotes, of course. Throughout centuries of human existence, it has been at the center of our attention and thoughts. You only have to take a look at the music charts at any given moment to see how often musicians praise the word “love”.

Here are some of the most beautiful and heart-touching love quotes to get your heart fluttering and your hopes rising.

[Read: 40 romantic movie quotes about love and relationships]

The Psychology of the “L” Word

Language is our trusty sidekick in the game of love. When you use a long love quote, it’s like hitting the jackpot on the slot machine of emotions. It’s like being in a rom-com and delivering that killer line that leaves everyone saying “aww.” [Read: 69 best and most romantic movies that are a must-watch in 2024]

But it’s not all about the wow factor, there’s real psychology at play here. Sharing these longer quotes does wonders for strengthening your bond.

Throwing out a few short words can be seen by your partner as thoughtless. But long love quotes, ones that take the time to explain just how deep your love is, scream sincerity. You’re showing that you’re not afraid to go deep with your feelings, which has been found to boost relationship satisfaction.

And let’s not forget, pouring your heart out is pretty therapeutic. Telling your partner exactly how you feel for them is like unloading your emotional backpack after a long hike. And the cool thing is, this works both ways. When you share a long love quote, you’re not just giving a gift of words; you’re opening up a two-way street of empathy and understanding. Everyone likes to hear nice things about themself, after all.

Love experts back this up all the time. They encourage us to ditch the small talk and really dive deep with our words. In our fast-paced world, taking the time to craft a heartfelt, long love quote is like a breath of fresh air. [Read: How to be vulnerable in a relationship, open up, and 28 secrets to grow closer]

Classic Literary Long Love Quotes

Where’s the best place to find long, heartfelt expressions of love? Look no further than the pages of classic literature. These novels have stood the test of time, not just for their compelling narratives or complex characters, but also for their rich, deeply moving portrayals of love.

Here are some of the most beautiful, paragraph-long love quotes from these timeless works, capturing the essence of love in its many forms.

1. From “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Brontë

“Do you think I can stay to become nothing to you? Do you think I am an automaton?—a machine without feelings? and can bear to have my morsel of bread snatched from my lips, and my drop of living water dashed from my cup? Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong!—I have as much soul as you—and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I could make it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you. I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh;—it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God’s feet, equal—as we are!”

2. From “Gone with the Wind” by Margaret Mitchell

“I loved something I made up, something that’s just as dead as Melly is. I made a pretty suit of clothes and fell in love with it. And when I saw that it was just a suit of clothes and couldn’t love me back, it was as though I found it out for the first time. I saw then that I’d never really loved Ashley. […] I loved you but I was going to try my best to let you go back to her because I thought I was about your happiness even though it meant breaking my heart. But you were so nasty and so mean that night, so dirty, that I’ve never been able to forget it.”

[Read: Unrequited love – 58 signs, types, and steps to get out of unreciprocated love]

3. From “Anna Karenina” by Leo Tolstoy

“He felt now that he was not simply close to her, but that he did not know where he ended and she began. He felt this from the agonizing sensation of division that he experienced at that instant. He was offended, but instantly felt that he could not be offended by her, that she was him. For the first time now, with his whole being, he experienced that previously unknown feeling of inner, spiritual tenderness, and did not know what to say to her.”

4. From “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Brontë

“I cannot express it; but surely you and everybody have a notion that there is or should be an existence of yours beyond you. What were the use of my creation, if I were entirely contained here? My great miseries in this world have been Heathcliff’s miseries, and I watched and felt each from the beginning: my great thought in living is himself. If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger.”

5. From “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald

“He smiled understandingly-much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced—or seemed to face—the whole eternal world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just so far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey.”

[Read: Dating a bookworm like you’re in a romance novel]

6. From “A Room with a View” by E.M. Forster

“You and I are what we are, and will be what we will be. As for the future, our task is not to foresee it, but to enable it. My attitude towards you is the result of reflection upon the mirror of my soul, and I know that your attitude towards me is the same. I do not want to foresee you. I am filled with a desire for certainty, and with a desire that you should see me as I really am. I hate the thought of a life that drifts along in the stream of time, without a firm and definite aim. I hate the thought of anything that takes away from me the freedom of my soul.”

7. From “Middlemarch” by George Eliot

“What greater thing is there for two human souls, than to feel that they are joined for life—to strengthen each other in all labor, to rest on each other in all sorrow, to minister to each other in all pain, to be one with each other in silent unspeakable memories at the moment of the last parting?”

8. From “Tess of the d’Urbervilles” by Thomas Hardy

“Love was once offered to me in a form too difficult for me to accept. It was not attached to conditions, but my very acceptance was a kind of condition. I was to renounce the world for it, to give up all the hopes that had been instilled into me, to forget ambitions, to forget my kin, to forget all loves but one. Every effort of loyalty within me recoiled from the sacrifice.”

9. From “The Brothers Karamazov” by Fyodor Dostoevsky

“Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared to love in dreams. Love in dreams is greedy for immediate action, rapidly performed and in the sight of all. Men will even give their lives if only the ordeal does not last long but is soon over, with all looking on and applauding as though on the stage. But active love is labor and fortitude, and for some people too, perhaps, a complete science.”

10. From “To the Lighthouse” by Virginia Woolf

“What is the meaning of life? That was all- a simple question; one that tended to close in on one with years, the great revelation had never come. The great revelation perhaps never did come. Instead, there were little daily miracles, illuminations, matches struck unexpectedly in the dark; here was one.” [Read: When will I find love? 25 secrets what will help you find the one]

11. From “Moby-Dick” by Herman Melville

“Talk not to me of blasphemy, man; I’d strike the sun if it insulted me. For could the sun do that, then could I do the other; since there is ever a sort of fair play… I’d strike the sun if it insulted me. Aye, and I’d chase it round Good Hope, and round the Horn, and round the Norway Maelstrom, and round perdition’s flames before I’d let it go. And this is what ye have shipped for, men! to chase that white whale on both sides of land, and over all sides of earth, till he spouts black blood and rolls fin out.”

12. From “David Copperfield” by Charles Dickens

“It is a curious thing that I felt angry with my wife; I cannot account for it, but my impotent desire to reach her, and my powerless state, made me almost frantic. It is a curious thing, too, that I felt no tenderness towards her; I felt only such anger as I have never felt before, and have never felt since. It must have been the sense of the desertion of me that inspired this resentment. What had she ever done for me but follow my path, and then leave me? But the power of her love was still upon me, and it was stronger than my own will.”

[Read: Relationship arguments – 38 tips and ways to fight fair and grow closer in love]

13. From “The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne

“We have wronged each other; mine was the first wrong, when I betrayed thy budding youth into a false and unnatural relation with my decay. Therefore, as a man who has not thought and philosophized in vain, I seek no vengeance, plot no evil against thee. Between thee and me, the scale hangs fairly balanced. But Hester, the man lives who has wronged us both! Who is he?”

14. From “Little Women” by Louisa May Alcott

“I can’t help loving you more than is good for me; I shall do it all my life, and no man can do it half as well, for no man can love you as I did, if you’ll pardon the conceit. Nothing shall hurt you, I’ll keep them away, I’ll stand between you and trouble, as I’d try to keep death away from you if I could… I don’t think I shall ever be afraid of anything again.”

15. From “Les Misérables” by Victor Hugo

“Do I belong to myself any longer? No, that is past. You belong to yourself and I belong to you. In that lies my torment and my happiness. It is the divine law; let there be a being in whom I exist, a dependence in which I lose myself, a possible loss of myself, a perpetual danger of bankruptcy. That is love, love, love, cursed love, that is the life of man. It is the love that makes and unmakes; it is the love that comes and goes; it is the love that arrives and departs.”

[Read: Why am I codependent? 37 reasons and signs you overstep boundaries in love]

Modern Musings

For those seeking a more contemporary take on the language of love, modern literature and popular culture offer a fresh, relatable perspective. Today’s authors and creators approach love with a blend of realism, wit, and emotional depth that resonates with our current experiences.

16. From “The Time Traveler’s Wife” by Audrey Niffenegger

“I place my hands over her ears and tip her head back, and kiss her, and try to put my heart into hers, for safekeeping, in case I lose it again. I kiss her and kiss her and kiss her. I try to think of it as an old-fashioned cure for amnesia. I am kissing her to save my life, to bring myself back into being.”

[Read: 29 sensual, romantic secrets to kiss someone passionately and deeply]

17. From “Normal People” by Sally Rooney

“At times he believed that he would never love anyone as he loved her; that the only thing worth thinking about was when he would see her next; that all his future happiness was bound up in her existence. He felt that he had been alone for years, for his whole life, and that she had come to save him from that condition.”

18. From “The Night Circus” by Erin Morgenstern

“I am not sure I can adequately describe the feeling of being recognized by someone who has seen you only in their dreams. It is something like finding a part of yourself you never knew was missing, and then suddenly you meet this person and you are whole.”

19. From “Call Me By Your Name” by André Aciman

“I’m like you,’ he said. ‘I remember everything.’ I stopped for a second. If you remember everything, I wanted to say, and if you are really like me, then before you leave tomorrow, or when you’re just ready to shut the door of the taxi and have already said goodbye to everyone else and there’s not a thing left to say in this life, then, just this once, turn to me, even in jest, or as an afterthought, which would have meant everything to me when we were together, and, as you did back then, look me in the face, hold my gaze, and call me by your name.”

20. From “Atonement” by Ian McEwan

“Falling in love could be achieved in a single word—a glance. The absentmindedness of an otherwise thoughtful act, the habit of a minute’s silence, but a word at the right time shown the way that the future would take. The way that bodies, seemingly impossibly, learned the rhythm of the other’s thoughts—returning touch for touch, word for word.”

[Read: Soul gazing – the science, 32 steps, and secrets to create an eye gaze bond]

21. From “The History of Love” by Nicole Krauss

“Once upon a time, there was a boy who loved a girl, and her laughter was a question he wanted to spend his whole life answering. The first time he saw her, he knew she was the one. She was standing there, laughing, in a crowd of friends, and in that moment, something inside him recognized something inside her.”

22. From “Never Let Me Go” by Kazuo Ishiguro

“I keep thinking about this river somewhere, with the water moving really fast. And these two people in the water, trying to hold onto each other, holding on as hard as they can, but in the end, it’s just too much. The current’s too strong. They’ve got to let go, drift apart. That’s how it is with us. It’s a shame, because we’ve loved each other all our lives. But in the end, we can’t stay together forever.”

[Read: 59 signs it’s time to break up and give up instead of trying to fix a relationship]

23. From “The Lovely Bones” by Alice Sebold

“I loved you on this earth and I will love you in heaven. You will be my one and only; my everything. No matter where I am, and no matter where you are, I’ll be there beside you, watching over you, loving you.”

24. From “Eat, Pray, Love” by Elizabeth Gilbert

“I am here. I love you. I don’t care if you need to stay up crying all night long, I will stay with you. There’s nothing you can ever do to lose my love. I will protect you until you die, and after your death I will still protect you. I am stronger than Depression and I am braver than Loneliness and nothing will ever exhaust me.”

[Read: Loving someone with depression – why it’s not your job to fix them]

25. From “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho

“So, I love you because the entire universe conspired to help me find you. The wind, the rain, the desert, they all speak to me of your love. It’s everywhere; I don’t need to see it or hear it. I can feel it. I can feel all of it, at every moment, in every gesture, in every breath, in every word you’ve ever said, in every moment we’ve shared.”

26. From “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” by Jonathan Safran Foer

“Sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I’m not living. You and me, we could have had a life, a house, children, we could have lived. I could be a person who has breakfast at Tiffany’s, I could be a person who can afford to not make his own bed. I could be a person who has a history, instead of this emptiness, this strip of death.”

27. From “The Light Between Oceans” by M.L. Stedman

“I can’t explain why, but I know that when I’m with you, I’m at home. The best I can do is this: the best part of my day is when I get to talk to you. When I hear your voice, when I see your face, I forget about the rest of the world, even if it’s for a little while.”

28. From “Where the Crawdads Sing” by Delia Owens

“I wasn’t aware that words could hold so much. I didn’t know a sentence could be so full. That a mind could open so wide. I love you, I want to tell him. I love you. I love you. I love you. But I only sit there, staring at my hands, the whole universe is now wrapped inside me, every single atom exploding in me and each one bearing your name.”

[Read: 47 sweet ways to tell someone you love them with your words and actions]

29. From “The Nightingale” by Kristin Hannah

“In love we find out who we want to be; in war we find out who we are. It’s the tragedy and the triumph of our lives. It’s the one thing that can change us, make us better or completely destroy us. You’re the reason I feel this way, the reason I want to be better, to live more fully. I never knew love could be so magnificent until I saw the sincere look in your eyes, telling me that you would never betray me.”

30. From “The Art of Racing in the Rain” by Garth Stein

“There is no dishonor in losing the race. There is only dishonor in not racing because you are afraid to lose. I know this: when you do something from your heart, you leave a heart print. It’s the heart print you leave behind that defines you. In every relationship, every touch, every glance, every kiss, every person you meet, you leave a heart print. And no one, no one, is ever the same once you’ve touched their heart. That’s how I feel about you. My heart prints are all over you, and no matter where you go, or who you are with, they’ll always be there, marking the presence of our love.”

[Read: What is the point of life? The theories, paradoxes, and secrets to find meaning]

Timeless Letters and Personal Testimonies

We’ve picked out some really touching pieces from historical letters, diaries, and personal accounts that are just brimming with love and affection. These aren’t your typical love quotes; they’re real words from real people, sharing their heartfelt emotions. Here are 15 paragraph-long quotes that give us a peek into their hearts and the timeless nature of love.

31. From “The Letters of Abelard and Heloise”

“In your absence, I am racked with despair. Sometimes, I seem to behold your beloved presence, and then again I find that I am deceived by my longing hope. If I lose you through death, I shall seek you among the dead. If you remain in this life, I shall never cease to seek you among the living.”

32. From “Love Letters of Great Men – Vol. 2” by Ludwig van Beethoven

“Though still in bed, my thoughts go out to you, my Immortal Beloved, now and then joyfully, then sadly, waiting to learn whether or not fate will hear us. I can live only wholly with you or not at all. Yes, I am resolved to wander so long away from you until I can fly to your arms and say that I am really at home with you, and can send my soul enwrapped in you into the land of spirits.”

33. From “Letters of Rainer Maria Rilke: 1892-1910”

“How should I be able to forget those days, Bella? It is only that life is now once again strange and full of waiting and I don’t quite know what to do with my thoughts that they don’t fold and tear and lose their shape. But I often think of you, dear friend, and of those days. And I have no wishes and no hopes for them; it is as if their coming back depended not at all upon my desire.”

[Read: Missed connection – what it means and the best way to find and rekindle it ASAP]

34. From “The Diary of Anne Frank”

“Remembering you is easy, I do it every day. Missing you is the heartache that never goes away. I hope you believe me when I say I love you more than yesterday but less than tomorrow. The good times we had before will always be a part of my memories.”

35. From “Selected Letters of Friedrich Nietzsche”

“It is a curious sensation: the sort of pain that goes mercifully beyond our powers of feeling. When your heart is broken, your boats are burned: nothing matters any more. It is the end of happiness and the beginning of peace.”

[Read: 36 healing steps to get over heartbreak and deal with the pain of fixing it]

36. From “Letters of John Keats to Fanny Brawne”

“I cannot exist without you – I am forgetful of everything but seeing you again – my Life seems to stop there – I see no further. You have absorb’d me. I have a sensation at the present moment as though I was dissolving.”

37. From “Letters of Vincent Van Gogh”

“Love is something eternal; the aspect may change, but not the essence. There is the same difference in a person before and after he is in love as there is in an unlighted lamp and one that is burning. The lamp was there and was a good lamp, but now it is shedding light too, and that is its real function.”

38. From “The Letters of Frida Kahlo: Cartas Apasionadas”

“I love you more than my own skin and even though you don’t love me the same way, you love me anyway, don’t you? And if you don’t, I’ll always have the hope that you do, and I’m satisfied with that. Love me a little. I adore you.”

[Read: Does he love me? 86 warm signs he’s past like and seriously in love with you]

39. From “Letters of Napoleon to Josephine”

“Since I left you, I have been constantly depressed. My happiness is to be near you. Incessantly I live over in my memory your caresses, your tears, your affectionate solicitude. The charms of the incomparable Josephine kindle continually a burning and a glowing flame in my heart.”

40. From “Zelda Fitzgerald to F. Scott Fitzgerald”

“Nobody has ever measured, even poets, how much a heart can hold. I love you, that’s all I can tell you, and that’s all I know. It’s really very simple. I love you – and I know it’s our life – I love you, I love you, and I’ll never be tired of saying it.”

41. From “The Selected Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley”

“I do not wish to live – to exist – unless I can live with you. My life without you is a torture. The time must come when we shall be together always and until then, I can only suffer.”

42. From “Letters of Vita Sackville-West to Virginia Woolf”

“I am reduced to a thing that wants Virginia. I composed a beautiful letter to you in the sleepless nightmare hours of the night, and it has all gone: I just miss you, in a quite simple desperate human way.”

[Read: 20 romantic secrets and examples to write a love letter and melt their heart]

43. From “Letters of Sylvia Plath to Ted Hughes”

“I cannot talk to you without feeling the wonder of the miraculous fact of human communication, that we are utterly other, that no feelings, thoughts, known to you are known to me: yet we talk, we give each other something. I am so grateful for your words.”

44. From “Letters of Ernest Hemingway to Marlene Dietrich”

“I can’t say how every time I ever put my arms around you I felt that I was home. Nor can I say how much you mean to me; the pleasure in the simple touch of your hand, the glow and the warmth of your smile.”

45. From “The Letters of Oscar Wilde to Lord Alfred Douglas”

“Your sonnet is quite lovely, and it is a marvel that those red-rose-leaf lips of yours should be made no less for the madness of music and song than for the madness of kissing. Your slim gilt soul walks between passion and poetry.”

[Read: Symbols of love – the psychology, how it works, and 53 most common signs of love]

There’s a Long Love Quote Out There That Perfectly Captures Every Moment

Isn’t it just amazing how love has this incredible power to inspire such beautiful words? It’s like every time someone sits down to write about their feelings, they tap into this universal well of emotion, and out pours these incredible, heartfelt messages.

Whether it’s in the lines of a classic novel, the intimate words of a personal letter, or the insights of modern literature, love continues to be the ultimate muse.

[Read: Timing is everything in a relationship – 30 secrets to get it right in love]

For every twist and turn in the romantic road, there’s a long love quote out there that perfectly captures the moment. Whether you’re head-over-heels in love, in the midst of a complicated relationship, or just daydreaming about that special someone, these quotes offer clarity and understanding. So go ahead, sift through our selection, and find the one that speaks to your heart.

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