“Knowing how to be solitary is central to the art of loving. When we can be alone, we can be with others without using them as a means of escape.”
More from bell hooks on Love
“Love is a combination of care, commitment, knowledge, responsibility, respect and trust.”
“Do not expect to receive love from someone else you do not give yourself”
“The practice of love offers no place of safety. We risk loss, hurt, pain. We risk being acted upon by forces outside our control.”
“Addiction makes love impossible.”
“I tell them that love is always there–that nothing can keep us from love if we dare to seek it and to treasure what we find.”
“The mutual practice of giving and receiving is an everyday ritual when we know true love.”
“When we work with love we renew the spirit; that renewal is an act of self-love, it nurtures our growth. It's not what you do but how you do it.”
“Living simply makes loving simple.”
Others on Love
Atticus Poetry
20 quotes“I’ll let you into my heart but wipe your feet at the door.”
Pablo Neruda
19 quotes“You are like nobody since I love you.”
Leo Buscaglia
17 quotes“Love is always bestowed as a gift - freely, willingly and without expectation. We don't love to be loved; we love to lov...”
Khalil Gibran
16 quotes“And ever has it been known that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.”
Lord Byron
16 quotes“I have not loved the world nor the world me I have not flatter'd its rank breath nor bow'd To its idolatries a patien...”
Mother Teresa
15 quotes“When you judge someone you have no time to love them.”
Nicholas Sparks
15 quotes“Gifts of the heart can't be claimed by anyone except the giver.”
Rumi
14 quotes“There are as many ways of loving as there are people, and that wildflower variety is the great beauty of this dimension...”
John Donne
14 quotes“If ever any beauty I did see,Which I desired, and got, 'twas but a dream of thee.”
Shakespeare
14 quotes“I pray you, do not fall in love with me, for I am falser than vows made in wine.”
Gabriel García Márquez
13 quotes“It's enough for me to be sure that you and I exist at this moment.”
Balzac
13 quotes“The more a man judges, the less he loves”