Valentine's Day is swiftly approaching and many of us will be searching for the words to express just how much we love the people in our lives. Sending a valentine to a lover is a centuries-old tradition. In the 19th century, lovelorn Victorians sent intricate, expandable paper creations. Today, options for love messages and sweet notes abound. On Etsy you will find adorable puns and sweet cats dancing across cards made by independent artists. But what should you write in these cute cards? An eloquent love quote is a great place to start. Luckily, we have compiled a list of the best Valentine's Day quotes for you to find inspiration and get you started on those cute messages for that special person in your life.
These quotes—from authors, poets, and songwriters—are some of the best expressions of love ever written. You can also further immortalize them with beautiful gifts. Present your beloved with a heartfelt Rumi quote as a beautiful print, or this mug with the immortal words of Mr. Darcy that will keep their tea and their heart warm. As sweet as these gifts, quotes, and words are—they are just the beginning. The true icing on the cake of any Valentine's Day gift are the words you write from the heart.
Read on for our curated list of the most romantic love quotes to express your feelings this Valentine's Day.
“Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night.”
―Romeo in Romeo & Juliet (1597) by William Shakespeare
“In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.”
― Mr. Darcy in Pride And Prejudice (1813) by Jane Austen
“There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.”
— On Reading and Writing by Friedrich Nietzsche
“I would rather share one lifetime with you than face all the ages of this world alone.”
― Arwen in The Fellowship of the Ring (1954) by J. R. R. Tolkien
“You don't love someone because they're perfect, you love in spite of the fact that they're not.”
— Jodi Picoult
“You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.”
― Dr. Seuss
— Poem 1246 by Rumi
“Love is anterior to life, posterior to death, initial of creation, and the exponent of breath.”
— The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson by Emily Dickinson
“It's enough for me to be sure that you and I exist at this moment.”
― One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967) by Gabriel García Márquez
“I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you simply, without problems or pride: I love you in this way because I do not know any other way of loving but this, in which there is no I or you, so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand, so intimate that when I fall asleep your eyes close.”
– 100 Love Sonnets (1959) by Pablo Neruda
“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.”
— Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1595–1596) by William Shakespeare
“All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt.”
— Charles M. Schulz
“Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.”
— Aristotle
“When I met my wife, it was so clear. I just knew. I knew it the very first time I touched her. It was like coming home, only to no home I'd ever known. I was just taking her hand to help her out of a cab. And it was like… magic.”
— Sam, played by Tom Hanks in Nora Ephron's Sleepless in Seattle (1993)
“We are most alive when we are in love.”
– John Updike
“Have I told you lately that I love you. / Have I told you there's no one else above you.”
— Have I Told You Lately (1989) by Van Morrison
“The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched, they are felt with the heart.”
— Helen Keller
“Nobody has ever measured, not even poets, how much the heart can hold.”
— Zelda Fitzgerald
“To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides.”
— David Viscott
“I am grateful to have been loved and to be loved now and to be able to love, because that liberates. Love liberates. It doesn't just hold—that's ego. Love liberates. It doesn't bind.”
— Maya Angelou
“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.”
— Lao Tzu
“I ask you to pass through life at my side—to be my second self, and best earthly companion.”
— Mr. Rochester, Jane Eyre (1847) by Charlotte Brontë
“Even in my dreams I never imagined that I should find so much love on earth.”
— Prince Albert
“Love is friendship that has caught fire. It is quiet understanding, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving. It is loyalty through good times and bad. It settles for less than perfection and makes allowances for human weaknesses.”
— Ann Landers
“There is only one happiness in this life, to love and be loved.”
— George Sand
This article has been edited and updated.
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