Astha Agarwal

“Unrequited love may be painful, but it is safely painful, because it does not involve inflicting damage on anyone but oneself, a private pain that is as bitter-sweet as it is self-induced. But as soon as love is reciprocated, one must be prepared to give up the passivity of simply being hurt to take on the responsibility of perpetrating hurt oneself.”
― Alain de Botton, Essays in Love

“The telephone becomes an instrument of torture in the demonic hands of a beloved who doesn't call.”
― Alain de Botton, On Love

“He finished shaving by touch, still walking around the room, for he tried to see himself in the mirror as little as possible so he would not have to look into his own eyes.”
― Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez, The General in His Labyrinth

“Little by little he idolized her, endowing her with improbable virtues and imaginary sentiments, and after two weeks he thought of nothing else but her.”
― Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez, Love in the Time of Cholera