WIST Quotations

Shakespeare, William -- Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 1, sc. 1, ll. 238ff (1.1.238-245) (1605)

Dave — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 17:25:00 +0000

HELENA: Things base and vile, holding no quantity,
Love can transpose to form and dignity.
Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind;
And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.
Nor hath Love’s mind of any judgment taste.
Wings, and no eyes, figure unheedy haste.
And therefore is Love said to be a child
Because in choice he is so oft beguiled.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 1, sc. 1, ll. 238ff (1.1.238-245) (1605)
(Source)

Stevenson, Robert Louis -- Essay (1877-02), “On Falling in Love,” Cornhill Magazine, Vol. 35

Dave — Fri, 26 Dec 2025 17:47:38 +0000

Falling in love is the one illogical adventure, the one thing of which we are tempted to think as supernatural, in our trite and reasonable world. The effect is out of all proportion with the cause. Two persons, neither of them, it may be, very amiable or very beautiful, meet, speak a little, and look a little into each other’s eyes. That has been done a dozen or so of times in the experience of either with no great result. But on this occasion all is different. They fall at once into that state in which another person becomes to us the very gist and centrepoint of God’s creation, and demolishes our laborious theories with a smile; in which our ideas are so bound up with the one master-thought that even the trivial cares of our own person become so many acts of devotion, and the love of life itself is translated into a wish to remain in the same world with so precious and desirable a fellow-creature.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
Essay (1877-02), “On Falling in Love,” Cornhill Magazine, Vol. 35
(Source)

Collected as "Virginibus Puerisque, Part 3" in Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers, ch. 1 (1881).

Dante Alighieri -- La Vita Nuova [Vita Nova; New Life], ch. 2 (c. 1294, pub. 1576) [tr. Reynolds (1969)]

Dave — Fri, 24 Jan 2025 23:51:57 +0000

The moment I saw her I say in all truth that the vital spirit, which dwells in the inmost depths of the heart, began to tremble so violently that I felt the vibration alarmingly in all my pulses, even the weakest of them. As it trembled, it uttered these words: Ecce deus fortior me, qui veniens dominabitur mihi [Behold a god more powerful than I who comes to rule over me].

[In quello punto dico veracemente che lo spirito de la vita, lo quale dimora ne la secretissima camera de lo cuore, cominciò a tremare sì fortemente, che apparia ne li menimi polsi orribilmente; e tremando disse queste parole: «Ecce deus fortior me, qui veniens dominabitur michi»]

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) Italian poet
La Vita Nuova [Vita Nova; New Life], ch. 2 (c. 1294, pub. 1576) [tr. Reynolds (1969)]
(Source)

On first seeing his beloved Beatrice (when both were nine years old). Other body parts that react are his senses, particularly his sight, which will now know "bliss"; and his stomach, which fears it will always be knotted and suffering from indigestion.

(Source (Italian)). Alternate translations:

At that moment, I say most truly that the spirit of life, which hath its dwelling in the secretest chamber of the heart, began to tremble so violently that the least pulses of my body shook therewith; and in trembling it said these words: Ecce deus fortior me, qui veniens dominabitur mihi [Here is a deity stronger than I; who, coming, shall rule over me].
[tr. Rossetti (c. 1847; 1899 ed.), ch. 1]

At that moment (I speak it in all truth) the spirit of life, which abides in the most secret chamber of the heart, began to trumble with a violence that showed horribly in the minutest pulsations of my fram, and tremulously it spoke these words: -- "Ecce deus fortior me, qui veniens dominabitur mihi! Behold a god stronger than I, who cometh to triumph over me!"
[tr. Martin (1862), ch. 1]

At that instant, I say truly that the spirit of life, which dwells in the most secret chamber of the heart, began to tremble with such violence that it appeared fearfully in the least pulses, and, trembling, said these words: Ecce deus fortior me, qui veniens dominabitur mihi [Behold a god stronger than I, who coming shall rule over me].
[tr. Norton (1867), ch. 2]

At that moment, I say truly that the vital spirit, the one that dwells in the most secret chamber of the heart, began to tremble so violently that even the least pulses of my body were strangely affected; and trembling, it spoke these words: “Here is a god stronger than I, who shall come to rule over me.”
[tr. Musa (1971), ch. 2]

At that very moment, and I speak the truth, the vital spirit, the one that dwells in the most secret chamber of the heart, began to tremble so violently that even the most minute veins of my body were strangely affected; and trembling, it spoke these words: Ecce deus fortior me, qui veniens dominabitur michi.
[tr. Hollander (1997), ch. 2]

At that moment I say truly that the vital spirit, that which lives in the most secret chamber of the heart began to tremble so violently that I felt it fiercely in the least pulsation, and, trembling, it uttered these words: "Ecce deus fortior me, qui veniens dominabitur michi: Behold a god more powerful than I, who, coming, will rule over me."
[tr. Kline (2002), ch. 2]

At that moment, I say truly, the vital spirit, which resides in the most secret chamber of the heart, began to tremble so strongly that it was terribly evident in my slightest heartbeats, and tremblingly it spoke these words: "Behold a god stronger than I, who is coming and will dominate me."
[tr. Appelbaum (2006), ch. 2]

At that time, truly, I say, the vital spirit, which dwells in the innermost chamber of the heart, started to tremble so powerfully that its disturbance reached all the way to the slightest of my pulses. And trembling it spoke these words: “Ecce deus fortior me, qui veniens dominabitur michi” [Here is a god stronger than I, who comes to rule me].
[tr. Frisardi (2012), ch. 1]

Euripides -- Andromeda [Ανδρομέδα], frag. 138 (TGF) (412 BC) [tr. Wright (2017)]

Dave — Tue, 23 Jul 2024 14:35:19 +0000

Whenever mortals fall in love,
if they should happen to meet with fine lovers,
there is no greater joy than this.

[ὅσοι γὰρ εἰς ἔρωτα πίπτουσιν βροτῶν,.
ἐσθλῶν ὅταν τύχωσι τῶν ἐρωμένων,.
οὐκ ἔσθ’ ὁποίας λείπεται τόδ’ ἡδονῆς.]

Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist
Andromeda [Ανδρομέδα], frag. 138 (TGF) (412 BC) [tr. Wright (2017)]
(Source)

One of the first recorded uses of the phrase "fall in love [εἰς ἔρωτα πίπτειν]."

Nauck frag. 138, Barnes frag. 24, Musgrave frag. 12. (Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:

They who by love are caught, and fix their love
On virtuous objects; to complete their bliss,
Can need no new accession of delight.
[tr. Wodhall (1809)]

When it befalls poor mortal men to love,
Should they find worthy objects for their loving,
There is no fuller joy on earth to long for.
[Source]

Nin, Anais -- Diary (1934-05)

Dave — Thu, 29 Feb 2024 16:37:58 +0000

Oh, God, I know no joy as great as a moment of rushing into a new love, no ecstasy like that of a new love. I swim in the sky; I float; my body is full of flowers, flowers with fingers giving me acute, acute caresses, sparks, jewels, quivers of joy, dizziness, such dizziness. Music inside of one, drunkenness. Only closing the eyes and remembering, and the hunger, the hunger for more, more, the great hunger, the voracious hunger, and thirst.

Anaïs Nin (1903-1977) Catalan-Cuban-French author, diarist
Diary (1934-05)
(Source)

McLaughlin, Mignon -- The Second Neurotic’s Notebook, ch. 1 (1966)

Dave — Thu, 14 Oct 2021 18:53:59 +0000

A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person.

Mignon McLaughlin (1913-1983) American journalist and author
The Second Neurotic’s Notebook, ch. 1 (1966)
(Source)

Originally published in Mignon's "The Neurotic's Notebook" column in The Atlantic (supposedly in July 1965, though not found here).

Percy, Walker -- Lancelot, ch. 5 (1977)

Dave — Mon, 04 May 2020 17:53:24 +0000

There is no joy on this earth like falling in love with a woman and managing at the same time the trick of keeping just enough perspective to see her fall in love too, to see her begin to see you in a different way, to see her color change, eyes soften, her hand of itself reach for you. … And there is no pain on this earth like seeing the same woman look at another man the way she once looked at you.

Walker Percy (1916-1990) American author, philosopher
Lancelot, ch. 5 (1977)
(Source)

Carriger, Gail -- Waistcoats & Weaponry (2014)

Dave — Fri, 02 Dec 2016 03:05:26 +0000

Lady Linette had warned them of this. “Try not to think it glamorous, ladies. Intelligencer work is nine-tenths discontented ennui, and one-tenth abject terror. Rather like falling in love.”

Gail Carriger (b. 1976) American archaeologist, author [pen name of Tofa Borregaard]
Waistcoats & Weaponry (2014)