Joshua Mariano

“All too often, when we love somebody, we don't accept him or her as what the person effectively is. We accept him or her insofar as this person fits the co-ordinates of our fantasy. We misidentify [...] him or her – which is why, when we discover that we were wrong, love can quickly turn into violence.”
― Slavoj Žižek

“Love is as love does. Love is an act of will—namely, both an intention and an action. Will also implies choice. We do not have to love. We choose to love.” Since the choice must be made to nurture growth, this definition counters the more widely accepted assumption that we love instinctually.”
― bell hooks, All About Love: New Visions

“Love consists of overestimating the difference between one woman and another”
― George Bernard

“To fall in love is to project the most noble and infinitely valuable part of one’s being onto another human being (..) the divinity we see in others is truly there, but we don’t have the right to see it until we have taken away our own projections. (..) in-loveness obliterates the humanity of the beloved. One does a curious kind of insult to another by falling in love with him, for we are really looking at our own projection of God, not at the other person.”
― Robert A. Johnson, Owning Your Own Shadow: Understanding the Dark Side of the Psyche