When we are in love, we are usually at a loss for words. Good thing there’s a vast world of literary quotes waiting to be used at a moment’s notice.
It’s difficult for most people to express themselves eloquently when it comes to love. Some of us can’t even manage a single word, when there’s a Six Flags rollercoaster running nonstop in our stomachs.
That’s just how love operates. You’re more inclined to feel than to actually explain what’s going on in your heart.
The best you can do when you’re not a master of words is say “I love you,” “Ngh,” *and gulp*. Poetic, yes. However, you might benefit from saying more to your loved one than incoherent mutters.
What’s the big deal with romantic quotes?
Next to body language, words are the best thing we can use to express ourselves. The simplicity of statements like “I love you” have a huge impact, especially when they’re expressed sincerely.
Romantic lines from the literary geniuses of our time—and those of the past—are personal interpretations that sound so much better.
These lines are beautiful and enlightening. They’re not just something you say to make your partner blush; these lines are a written interpretation of how you feel, spoken eloquently by people who have a knack for prose and poetry.
Still, any thought that stems from the heart is good enough. No one is asking you to become a poet and hang out under the eaves of your girlfriend or boyfriend’s window, spouting weed-induced verbalizations.
That’s what the drunk and inebriated authors of centuries past are for. They did this all for your romantic benefit. [Read: Shakespeare love quotes – 40 wise words from the bard]
The most romantic lines that aren’t written by you
1. “When I am old and alone, I will remember that I once held something truly beautiful.” – Joe Dunthorne, Submarine
2. “I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be.” – Charles Dickens, Great Expectations
3. “We loved with a love that was more than love.” – Edgar Allan Poe, “Annabel Lee”
4. “Do I love you? My god, if your love were a grain of sand, mine would be a universe of beaches.” – William Goldman, The Princess Bride
5. “When you love something, it loves you back in whatever way it has to love.” – John Knowles, A Separate Peace
6. “You are my sympathy—my better self—my good angel—I am bound to you with a strong attachment. I think you good, gifted, lovely: a fervent, a solemn passion is conceived in my heart; it leans to you, draws you to my center and spring of life, wrap my existence about you—and, kindling in pure, powerful flame, fuses you and me in one.” – Charlotte Brontà«, Jane Eyre
7. “You should be kissed, and often, and by someone who knows how.” – Margaret Mitchell, Gone With the Wind
8. “Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.” – Emily Brontà«, Wuthering Heights
9. “I have waited for this opportunity for more than half a century, to repeat to you once again my vow of eternal fidelity and everlasting love.” – Gabriel Garcàa Mà¡rquez, Love in the Time of Cholera
10. “He stepped down, trying not to look long at her, as if she were the sun, yet he saw her, like the sun, even without looking.” – Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
11. “I want you to have your own thoughts and ideas and feelings, even when I hold you in my arms.” – E. M. Forster, A Room With A View
12. “And when one of them meets with his other half, the actual half of himself, whether he be a lover of youth or a lover of another sort, the pair are lost in an amazement of love and friendship and intimacy.” – Plato, The Symposium
13. “Love had caught him out of triviality and Maurice out of bewilderment in order that two imperfect souls might touch perfection.” – E.M. Forster, Maurice
14. “He was my North, my South, my East and West, my working week and my Sunday rest.” – W.H. Auden, “Stop All the Clocks”
15. “If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day, so I never have to live without you.” – A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh
16. “I’ve loved another with all my heart and soul; and to me, this has always been enough.” – Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook
17. “To love or have loved, that is enough. Ask nothing further. There is no other pearl to be found in the dark folds of life.” – Victor Hugo, Les Misérables
18. “You gave me a forever within the numbered days, and I’m grateful.” – John Green, The Fault in Our Stars
19. “If I were to live a thousand years, I would belong to you for all of them. If we were to live a thousand lives, I would want to make you mine in each one.” – Michelle Hodkin, The Evolution of Mara Dyer
20. “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.” – Emily Brontà«, Wuthering Heights
21. “Soul meets soul on lovers’ lips.” – Percy Bysshe Shelley, Prometheus Bound
22. “You are my heart, my life, my one and only thought.” – Arthur Conan Doyle, The White Company
23. “Each time, you happen to me all over again.” – Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence
24. “I do love nothing in the world so well as you—is not that strange?” – William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing
25. “If it weren’t for her, there would never have been an empty space, or the need to fill it.” – Nicole Krause, The History of Love
26. “Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be.” – Robert Browning, “Rabbi Ben Ezra” [Read: 11 profound relationship quotes anyone can relate to]
27. “I look at you and I would rather look at you than all the portraits in the world…” – Frank O’Hara, Having a Coke With You
28. “When we love, we always strive to become better than we are. When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.” ? Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
29. “I have a million things to talk to you about. All I want in this world is you. I want to see you and talk. I want the two of us to begin everything from the beginning.” – Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood
30. “It was love at first sight, at last sight, at ever and ever sight.” – Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita
Now, go grab a bottle of wine. Light some candles. Sit your partner down and recite the words that you think best describe your affection. No need to wear a costume—unless that’s what you’re into.
[Read: 55 funny quotes about love and all its complications]
No matter which words you choose to say, remember that the thought and the sentiment itself is what matters. Your partner will appreciate the gesture, and you may even end up exchanging romantic quotes all night long.