Love Quotes | Examples & Citation Tips

Love quotes are excerpts from books, lyrics, poems, or other pieces of writing that communicate romantic or affectionate feelings.

Create your own love quotes and sayings using QuillBot’s free AI Text Generator.

What are love quotes?

Love quotes are selected lines of writing that capture the essence of love—whether for a significant other, family member, friend, or even toward yourself.

Here are some love quote ideas for inspiration that you can save or share with that special someone:

• Love quotes for her
• Love quotes for him
• Self love quotes
• Short love quotes

Love quotes for her

Literature, music, and poetry are full of love quotes for your female romantic partner. They often contain passionate messages that capture what it feels like to love her.

Here are 10 love quotes for her to help express how you feel:

1. “Stars veil their beauty soon / Beside the glorious moon, / When her full silver light / Doth make the whole earth bright.” —Sappho, ancient Greek poet

2. “My bounty is as boundless as the sea, / My love as deep; the more I give to thee, / The more I have, for both are infinite.” ―William Shakespeare, English playwright and author of Romeo and Juliet 
3. “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, author of Anna Karenina
4. “I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be.” ―Charles Dickens, author of Great Expectations
5. “I fell in love with her courage, her sincerity, and her flaming self respect. And it’s these things I’d believe in, even if the whole world indulged in wild suspicions that she wasn’t all she should be. I love her, and it is the beginning of everything.” ―F. Scott Fitzgerald, American novelist
6. “The world was collapsing, and the only thing that really mattered to me was that she was alive.” ―Rick Riordan, author of The Last Olympian
7. “My wish is that you may be loved to the point of madness.” ―André Breton, French poet and author of What Is Surrealism?: Selected Writings
8. “Love is a decision, it is a judgment, it is a promise. If love were only a feeling, there would be no basis for the promise to love each other forever.” ―Erich Fromm, German psychoanalyst and author of The Art of Loving
9. “I almost wish we were butterflies and liv’d but three summer days—three such days with you I could fill with more delight than fifty common years could ever contain.”
   ―John Keats, author of Bright Star: Love Letters and Poems of John Keats to Fanny Brawne
10. “Do I love you? My God, if your love were a grain of sand, mine would be a universe of beaches.” ―William Goldman, author of The Princess Bride

Love quotes for him

Love quotes for male romantic partners also abound in literature, poetry, and pop culture.

Here are 10 love quotes for him to help you communicate your romantic feelings:

1. “Doubt thou the stars are fire; / Doubt that the sun doth move; / Doubt truth to be a liar; / But never doubt I love.” ―William Shakespeare, English playwright and author of Romeo and Juliet
2. “I love you as certain dark things are to be loved, / in secret, between the shadow and the soul.” ―Pablo Neruda, former Chilean politician and poet
3. “He’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.” ―Emily Brontë, author of Wuthering Heights
4. “Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle, love is a war; love is a growing up.” ―James Baldwin, American writer and civil rights activist
5. “You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope… I have loved none but you.” ―Jane Austen, author of Persuasion
6. “But in a solitary life, there are rare moments when another soul dips near yours, as stars once a year brush the earth. Such a constellation was he to me.” ―Madeline Miller, author of Circe
7. “When it’s gone, you’ll know what a gift love was. You’ll suffer like this. So go back and fight to keep it.” ―Ian McEwan, author of Enduring Love
8. “With him, life was routine; without him, life was unbearable.” ―Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird
9. “Being with you and not being with you is the only way I have to measure time.” ―Jorge Luis Borges, Argentinian writer
10. “I am the least difficult of men. All I want is boundless love.” ―Frank O’Hara, American poet

Self love quotes

Self love quotes are also increasingly popular, and they focus on the importance of having a strong and compassionate bond with oneself.

Here are 10 self love quotes dedicated to self acceptance:

1. “I’m selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can’t handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don’t deserve me at my best.” ―Marilyn Monroe, American actress
2. “Be softer with you. You are a breathing thing, A memory to someone. A home to a life.” —Nayirrah Waheed, poet and author of salt.
3. “This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man” —William Shakespeare, English playwright and author of Romeo and Juliet
4. “To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.” ―Oscar Wilde, writer and author of An Ideal Husband
5. “You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.” ―Sharon Salzberg, American author
6. “The most important relationship in your life is the relationship you have with yourself. Because no matter what happens, you will always be with yourself.” ―Diane Von Furstenberg, Belgian fashion designer
7. “How you love yourself is / how you teach others / to love you” ―Rupi Kaur, author of milk and honey
8. “Commitment to truth-telling lays the groundwork for the openness and honesty that is the heartbeat of love. When we can see ourselves as we truly are and accept ourselves, we build the necessary foundation for self-love.” —bell hooks, American writer
9. “It’s all about falling in love with yourself and sharing that love with someone who appreciates you, rather than looking for love to compensate for a self love deficit.”
   ―Eartha Kitt, American singer
10. “Nothing I accept about myself can be used against me to diminish me.” ―Audre Lorde, author of Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches

Short love quotes

Short love quotes are perfect for affirmations you can say to yourself or share with those you care about.

How to cite love quotes

If you want to include a love quote in an essay or other piece of writing, it’s important to know how to cite it properly to avoid plagiarism.

Here are some key citation tips to keep in mind when citing love quotes:

• Enclose the quote in double quotation marks, and use single quotation marks if you’re citing a quote within a quote.
• Include the period inside the quotation mark.
• Use ellipses if you’re only citing a portion of a longer quote.
• Introduce the quote with a signal phrase like (“In the words of,” or “As [author] observes,”).
• Add a citation for each source you quote to your works cited page.

Frequently asked questions about love quotes

What are some love yourself quotes?

Quotes about self love are excerpts from poetry, literature, or music that encourage self compassion and self acceptance.

Some examples include:

“Be softer with you. You are a breathing thing, A memory to someone. A home to a life.” —Nayirrah Waheed, poet and author of salt.

“This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man” —William Shakespeare

Create your own love quotes and affirmations using QuillBot’s free Text Generator.

What are some secret love quotes?

Secret love quotes focus on love and passion that has not yet been confessed.

Some examples of secret love quotes include:

“Some of us will never know we’d owned someone’s heart for a season.” ―Joyce Rachelle

“I do not lack the courage to tell you how I feel. What I fear is how you will react to it.”―Bram Stoker

Cite your favorite love quotes using QuillBot’s free Citation Generator.

Where can I find quotes about self love?

You can find quotes about self love in poetry, literature, music, and online.

Create your own love quotes using QuillBot’s free Text Generator.