Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being "in love" which any of us can convince ourselves we are.
Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Your mother and I had it, we had roots that grew towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossom had fallen from our branches we found that we were one tree and not two.
- Captain Corelli's Mandolin

" If one is estranged from oneself, then one is estranged from others too. If one is out of touch with oneself, then one cannot touch others. " - Anne Morrow Lindbergh


" All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up." - Pablo Picasso


" Where love rules, there is no will to power; and where power predominates, there love is lacking. The one is the shadow of the other..." - Carl Jung


" It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change. "
- Charles Darwin


" You can never solve a problem on the level on which it was created. " - Albert Einstein


" Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future. - John F. Kennedy

After a while you learn the subtle difference
between holding a hand and chaining a soul.
and you learn that love doesn't mean learning
and company doesn't necessarily mean security.
And you begin to learn that kisses aren't promises.
And you begin to accept your defeats with your head up
and your eyes ahead
with grace and not the grief of a child.
And you learn to build all your roads on today
because tomorrow's ground is too uncertain for plans,
and futures have a way of falling down in mid flight.
And after a while, you learn that
even sunshine burns if you ask too much.
So you plant your own garden
and decorate your own soul
instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.
And you really can endure
and you learn
and you learn again.
And with every goodbye,
you learn.