Man is a knot into which relationships are tied. ~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Flight to Arras, 1942, translated from French by Lewis Galantière


Then clasp my hand with closer hold,
True hearts are never unconsoled,—
They fear not care, nor cloud, nor cold,
And smile at growing old!
~Elizabeth Chase Akers Allen (1832–1911), "November," c.1864


[I]f any one had asked what gifts she desired most, she would have answered with a look more pathetic than any shivering child had given her: "I want the sound of a loving voice; the touch of a friendly hand." ~Louisa May Alcott, "Seamstress," Work: A Story of Experience, 1873


Sometimes, in a relationship, we fail to put two and two together because we want so much to keep one and one together. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com


Those who need us give us a hold upon life. ~Marie Dubsky, Freifrau von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830–1916), translated by Mrs Annis Lee Wister, 1882


Having someone wonder where you are when you don't come home at night is a very old human need. ~Margaret Mead


In the end, we get older, we kill everyone who loves us through the worries we give them, through the troubled tenderness we inspire in them, and the fears we ceaselessly cause. ~Walter Benjamin


Relationship is an art. The dream that two people create is more difficult to master than one. ~Don Miguel Ruiz


We need sympathy; hence we crave friendship and love. By the devotion of the other we feel our own power, our own value enhanced. Love tends to make man kinder and better through his complete identification with the existence of another. In the beauty of a loving attachment, man learns to comprehend all his fellowmen and to value and look at all the world by the glorious light of an inner community of emotions. ~Bernard S. Talmey, M.D., Love: A Treatise on the Science of Sex-Attraction, For the Use of Physicians and Students of Medical Jurisprudence, 1915


Shared joy is a double joy; shared sorrow is half a sorrow. ~Swedish Proverb


A partner is someone who makes you more than you are, simply by being by your side. ~Albert Kim


Remember, we all stumble, every one of us. That's why it's a comfort to go hand in hand. ~Emily Kimbrough


There are days when you need someone who just wants to be your sunshine and not the air you breathe. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com


There's one sad truth in life I've found
While journeying east and west -
The only folks we really wound
Are those we love the best.
We flatter those we scarcely know,
We please the fleeting guest,
And deal full many a thoughtless blow
To those who love us best.
~Ella Wheeler Wilcox