The magical feeling of falling in love with another person is difficult to describe because it's different for everyone, every time. But it always seems like books have a knack for explaining giant, insanely beautiful concepts like love in an understandable and universal way — and these quotes about falling in love prove that. Even if you've never been in love, there's definitely a few characters and stories you can point to who have explained the head rush of excitement and fear and longing all wrapped up in one that is love. And even if you've been in love over and over again, every time you read about a character falling in love, it reminds you of how truly beautiful it is, and that it's never something to give up on.
I've had my ups and downs with the concept of love throughout my life, and even when I felt like I wanted to give up on the whole charade, books never let me. In would walk in Elizabeth and Darcy, or Hazel and Augustus to remind me of how lovely love is, and how falling in love is an experience of a lifetime — one you'll never want to miss out on. And after experiencing it for myself, I'm glad most of my favorite books have always encouraged the idea of falling in love, and to stay realistic about it, too.
If you're craving a little extra spark of love in your life, or need that reminder that falling in love is worth it and not to let fear get in your way, I've rounded up a few literary quotes capturing that moment of falling in love for the very first time with someone new:
1. It was a delicious feeling, falling in love. I'd had so many luxuries in my life, and I thought I'd had a taste of this before, but I realized now it was merely a cheap imitation of something not meant to be imitated in the first place.”
― Kiera Cass, The Crown
2. “Maybe it's just hiding somewhere. Or gone on a trip to come home. But falling in love is always a pretty crazy thing. It might appear out of the blue and just grab you. Who knows — maybe even tomorrow.”
― Haruki Murakami, Sputnik Sweetheart
3. “She wasn't exactly sure when it happened. Or even when it started. All she knew for sure was that right here and now, she was falling hard and she could only pray that he was feeling the same way.”
― Nicholas Sparks, Safe Haven
4. “Love unlocks doors and opens windows that weren't even there before.”
― Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook
5. "It's a physical sickness. Étienne. How much I love him.I love Étienne.I love it when he cocks an eyebrow whenever I say something he finds clever or amusing. I love listening to his boots clomp across my bedroom ceiling. I love that the accent over his first name is called an acute accent, and that he has a cute accent.I love that.I love sitting beside him in physics. Brushing against him during labs. His messy handwriting on our worksheets. I love handing him his backpack when class is over, because then my fingers smell like him for the next ten minutes. And when Amanda says something lame, and he seeks me out to exchange an eye roll — I love that, too. I love his boyish laugh and his wrinkled shirts and his ridiculous knitted hat. I love his large brown eyes, and the way he bites his nails, and I love his hair so much I could die."
― Stephanie Perkins, Anna and the French Kiss
6. "I have a million things to talk to you about. All I want in this world is you. I want to see you and talk. I want the two of us to begin everything from the beginning."
— Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood
7. “The whole point of being in love with someone is to make sure their life is the best life it can be. It's not about being selfish. It's not about how great that person makes you life, It's about making their life wonderful.”
― Cherie M. Hudson, Undeniable
8. “She felt the essence of herself pulled finer and smaller like those streams of spun glass that pull and stretch till there remains but a glimmering illusion. Neither falling nor breaking, the stream spins finer. She felt herself very small and ecstatic. Alabama was in love.”
― Zelda Fitzgerald, Save Me the Waltz
9. “But the you who you are tonight is the same you I was in love with yesterday, the same you I’ll be in love with tomorrow.”
― Gayle Forman, If I Stay
10. "The smell of her hair, the taste of her mouth, the feeling of her skin seemed to have got inside him, or into the air all round him. She had become a physical necessity."
— George Orwell, 1984
11. “Meeting your soul mate is like walking into a house you've been in before - you will recognize the furniture, the pictures on the wall, the books on the shelves, the contents of drawers: You could find your way around in the dark if you had to.”
― Jandy Nelson, I'll Give You the Sun
12. “Loving someone is something you can do from afar, admiring someone and appreciating their existence in your life - but in love's different. It's all-consuming to the point where being away from that person seems unbearable. There's no stopping that feeling.”
― Giovanna Fletcher, You're the One That I Want
13. “In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.”
– Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
14. "The friendship I have had in my heart for you has ripened into a deeper feeling, a feeling more beautiful, more pure, more sacred. Dare I name it you? Ah! It is love which makes me so bold!"
— Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind
15. “I thought an hour ago that I loved you more than any woman has ever loved a man, but a half hour after that I knew that what I felt before was nothing compared to what I felt then. But ten minutes after that, I understood that my previous love was a puddle compared to the high seas before a storm.”
— William Goldman, The Princess Bride
16. "I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once."
— John Green, The Fault in Our Stars
17. "He stepped down, trying not to look long at her, as if she were the sun, yet he saw her, like the sun, even without looking."
— Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
Images: Westend61/Westend61/Getty Images; Giphy (8)
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