THE FAMOUS LOVE LETTERS

Lord Byron (1788 - 1824) was one of England's most notorious womanizers. A world-famous poet by the age of 24, he had a brief but extremely passionate affair with Lady Caroline Lamb. Pressured by Caroline's mother (who herself may have harbored affections for Byron), he used the opportunity to put an end to the relationship. In this letter, he explains his reasoning.


August 1812

My dearest Caroline,

If tears, which you saw & know I am not apt to shed, if the agitation in which I parted from you, agitation which you must have perceived through the whole of this most nervous nervous affair, did not commence till the moment of leaving you approached, if all that I have said & done, & am still but too ready to say & do, have not sufficiently proved what my real feelings are & must be ever towards you, my love, I have no other proof to offer.

God knows I wish you happy, & when I quit you, or rather when you from a sense of duty to your husband & mother quit me, you shall acknowledge the truth of what I again promise & vow, that no other in word or deed shall ever hold the place in my affection which is & shall be most sacred to you, till I am nothing.

I never knew till that moment, the madness of -- my dearest & most beloved friend -- I cannot express myself -- this is no time for words -- but I shall have a pride, a melancholy pleasure, in suffering what you yourself can hardly conceive -- for you don not know me. -- I am now about to go out with a heavy heart, because -- my appearing this Evening will stop any absurd story which the events of today might give rise to -- do you think now that I am cold & stern, & artful -- will even others think so, will your mother even -- that mother to whom we must indeed sacrifice much, more much more on my part, than she shall ever know or can imagine.

"Promises not to love you" ah Caroline it is past promising -- but shall attribute all concessions to the proper motive -- & never cease to feel all that you have already witnessed -- & more than can ever be known but to my own heart -- perhaps to yours -- May God protect forgive & bless you -- ever & even more than ever.

yr. most attached
BYRON

P.S. -- These taunts which have driven you to this -- my dearest Caroline -- were it not for your mother & the kindness of all your connections, is there anything on earth or heaven would have made me so happy as to have made you mine long ago? & not less now than then, but more than ever at this time -- you know I would with pleasure give up all here & all beyond the grave for you -- & in refraining from this -- must my motives be misunderstood --? I care not who knows this -- what use is made of it -- it is you & to you only that they owe yourself, I was and am yours, freely & most entirely, to obey, to honour, love --& fly with you when, where, & how you yourself might & may determine.

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THE FAMOUS LOVE QUOTES

"A mighty pain to love it is, and 'tis a pain that pain to miss; but of all the pains, the greatest pain is to love, but love in vain."

-Abraham Crowley

"So much of what we know of love we learn at home."

-unknown

"You don't marry someone you can live with - you marry the person who you cannot live without."

-unknown

"Love is blind, but friendship closes its eyes."

-unknown

"Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction."

-Saint-Exupery

"A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous."

-Ingrid Bergman

"Love built on beauty, soon as beauty, dies."

-John Donne

"He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals."

-Benjamin Franklin

"I never knew how to worship until I knew how to love."

-Henry Ward Beecher

"Woe to the man whose heart has not learned while young to hope, to love - and to put its trust in life."

-Joseph Conrad

"True love is like ghosts, which everybody talks about and few have seen."

-La Rochefoucauld

"Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?"

-Christopher Marlowe

"Tell me whom you love and I will tell you who you are."

-Houssaye

"We perceive when love begins and when it declines by our embarrassment when alone together."

-La Bruyere

"Better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all."

-St. Augustine

"To love another person is to see the face of God."

-Les Miserables

"Love is but the discovery of ourselves in others, and the delight in the recognition."

-Alexander Smith

"When we are in love we often doubt that which we most believe."

-La Rochefoucauld

"Sympathy constitutes friendship; but in love there is a sort of antipathy, or opposing passion. Each strives to be the other, and both together make up one whole."

-Samuel Taylor Coleridge

"Friendship often ends in love; but love in friendship - never."

-Charles Caleb Colton

"The richest love is that which submits to the arbitration of time."

-Lawrence Durrell

"There is no disguise which can hide love for long where it exists, or simulate it where it does not."

-La Rochefoucauld

"A very small degree of hope is sufficient to cause the birth of love."

-Stendhal

"There is no remedy for love but to love more."

-Thoreau

"Blushing is the color of virtue."

-Diogenes

"Death is a challenge. It tells us not to waste time... It tells us to tell each other right now that we love each other."

-Leo F. Buscaglia

"Love cures people - both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it."

-Dr. Karl Menninger

"Spread love everywhere you go: first of all in your own house. Give love to your children, to your wife or husband, to a next door neighbor... Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness; kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile, kindness in your warm greeting."

-Mother Theresa