Literary Quotes on Love

Ben Johnson, William Shakespear, Edgar Allan Poe

Here are poetic literary quotes from the likes of Shakespeare, Johnson, Poe, and Donne. These are famous love poems - indeed, classics - for you to consider for your ceremony or your candlelight dinner.

Drink to me only with thine eyes,
And I will pledge with mine;
Or leave a kiss but in the cup,
And I'll not look for wine.
The thirst that from the soul doth rise
Doth ask a drink divine;
But might I of Jove's nectar sup,
I would not change for thine.
-Ben Jonson

We loved with a love that was more than a love.
-Edgar Allan Poe

. . . Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
0, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
-William Shakespeare

Love's mysteries in souls do grow, But yet the body is his book.
-John Donne

Those worlds, for which the conqueror sighs,
For me would have no charms:
My only world thy gentle eyes-
My throne thy circling arms!
Oh, yes, so well, so tenderly
Thou'rt loved, adored by me,
Whole realms of light and liberty
Were worthless without thee.
-Thomas Moore

So they loved as love in twain
Had the essence but in one;
Two distincts, division none ..
.-William Shakespeare

0, human love! thou spirit given On Earth, of all we hope in Heaven!
-Edgar Allan Poe

Love, all alike, no season knows, nor clime, Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time.
-John Donne

My bounty is as boundless as the sea. My love as deep; the more I give to thee, The more I have, for both are infinite.
-William Shakespeare

I wonder, by my troth, what thou and I did till we lov'd?
-John Donne

Enjoy this very special time of your life with these literary quotes, for true love is a rare and beautiful thing. You are fortunate to have found that special someone and now the work begins to grow that relationship.

These famous love quotes will stir the embers.

More famous literary quotes here.

Shakespeare always provides some of the very best love poems.