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Bid me to live, and I will live
Thy Protestant to be,
Or bid me love, and I will give
A loving heart to thee.
A heart as soft, a heart as kind,
A heart as sound and free
As in the whole world thou canst find,
That heart I'll give to thee.

— Robert Herrick Hesperides (1648)

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Love

More quotes by Robert Herrick

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying:
And this same flower that smiles to-day
To-morrow will be dying.

Hesperides (1648)

Attempt the end, and never stand to doubt;
Nothing's so hard but search will find it out.

Hesperides (1648)

Thou art a plant sprung up to wither never,
But like a laurel to grow green for ever.

Hesperides (1648)

Against diseases here the strongest fence
Is the defensive virtue, abstinence.

Hesperides (1648)

If well thou hast begun, go on fore-right;
It is the end that crowns us, not the fight.

Hesperides (1648)

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Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,
And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind.

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To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.

Bertrand Russell Marriage and Morals (1929)

Not for the body, but for the heart; companion and company are needed.

Sanu Sharma

Love seldom haunts the breast where learning lies,
And Venus sets ere Mercury can rise.

Alexander Pope

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Robert Herrick (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.