Says a good friend of mine, “I’d imagine this would be what my parents would tell me about each other… and what I’d tell my children about us. A quote from St. Agustine of all people. Forgive me for being sentimental – but I am here – and I am blessed. 🙂”
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 blossoms had fallen from our branches we found that we were one tree and not two.
– St. Augustine
Incidentally, this quote is featured in the 2001 Hollywood film, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin.
If I may add,
Love is like finally
comingfinding your way home, after having beenawaygone all your life.
2011-Sep-19. Edit: This has been misattributed to St. Augustine. It is from the novel Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernières. Refer to this forum thread.