"Love is a temporary madness.
It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to
make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined
together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is
what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the
promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being "in love" which
any of us can convince ourselves we are.
Love itself is what is left over
when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate
accident. Your mother and I had it, we had roots that grew towards each other
underground, and when all the pretty blossom had fallen from our branches we
found that we were one tree and not two.- Captain Corelli's Mandolin. "Love is
the beauty of the soul."