Articles and Features

St. Valentine's Day

Week of February 10, 1997
I apologize for the lack of a new Quotes of the Week last week; I was out of town, and the Staff of Talented Editors were unavailable for help. I'll try not to let this happen again...

On February 14th, much of the world celebrates St. Valentine's Day. This holiday centers around the concept of love. This makes it second only to Boxing Day as the holiday least understood by most of the world. It's hard to talk much about love without lapsing into song, poetry, or convulsions, depending on your current experience with it.

I've compiled a few of my favorite quotations about love for this week's edition of Quotes of the Week. As those of you familiar with my collection have already guessed, most of my favorite quotes are, well, a bit negative. Realizing this, I've tried to mix in a few positive voices about love here and there. If you think I'm mocking Valentine's Day by including some of these quotes, you're probably one of those people who are in a happy relationship and are on the verge of lapsing into song yourself, and I doubt this page will do anything to calm you down.

On a more serious note, some of you out there are shy. You're dreading Valentine's Day because you'll have a chance-- almost an obligation--to let that certain someone know how you feel, and it's not easy. Believe me, I've been there. Take my advice: do it. I let quite a few Valentine's Days (and other holidays) go by without making my feelings known, and all I got for my trouble was a bad case of bitterness (how do you think those quotes got into my collection?) Things may not work out, but there's no worse regret than the feeling that you could have had a chance, but didn't even try.

And for those of you who are married, or in a relationship, don't let the day go by unnoticed. Okay, lecture's over. We now continue with our regularly scheduled quotes.

P.S. For those who are wondering, yes, I finally tried. We've been happily married for 7 years. Unfortunately, this has done nothing to cure my skepticism...

"Men and women, women and men. It will never work."
Erica Jong
"Love is an exploding cigar we willingly smoke."
Lynda Barry
"Love is, above all, the gift of oneself."
Jean Anouilh
"There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness."
Nietzsche, "On Reading and Writing"
"Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit."
Peter Ustinov
"Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song,
A medley of extemporanea;
And love is a thing that can never go wrong;
And I am Marie of Roumania."
Dorothy Parker
"Love is an irresistable desire to be irresistably desired. "
Robert Frost
"Love is not blind - it sees more, not less. But because it sees more, it is willing to see less."
Rabbi Julius Gordon
"Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence."
H. L. Mencken
"Love is the difficult realization that something other than oneself is real."
Iris Murdoch
...and, to end on a happy note:
"Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath. At night, the ice weasels come."
Matt Groening
More about Valentine's Day...
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