“But you must be awash in a sea of compliments, my lady. Every gentleman you meet must voice his admiration, his wish to make love to you. And those are only the ones who may voice such thoughts. All about you are men who cannot speak their admiration, who must remain mute from lack of social standing or fear of offending you. Only their thoughts light the air about you, following you like a trail of perfume, heady but invisible. (Winter Makepeace)”

“You must be filled with expectancy. You must be awash in hope. You must wonder who will love you, whom you will love next.”

“-Who are those people by whom you wish to be admired? Are they not these whom you are in the habit of saying that they are mad? What then? Do you wish to be admired by the mad?”

“You must love no-thingness,You must flee something,You must remain alone,And go to nobody.You must be very activeAnd free of all things.You must deliver the captivesAnd force those who are free.You must comfort the sickAnd yet have nothing yourself.You must drink the water of sufferingAnd light the fire of Love with the wood of the virtues.Thus you live in the true desert.”

“Unlike you, who must do a cost-benefit analysis of every human interaction," he said, "I have no idea what I hope to accomplish. I only know that I must try to see her. That's what love is about, Roger. It's when a woman drives all lucid thought from your head; when you are unable to contrive romantic stratagems, and the usual manipulations fail you; when all your carefully laid plans have no meaning and all you can do is stand mute in her presence. You hope she takes pity on you and drops a few words of kindness into the vacuum of your mind.”

“To love one who loves you,To admire one who admires you,In a word, to be the idol of one's idol,Is exceeding the limit of human joy;It is stealing fire from heaven.”