Love Letters of Great Men, Vol. 1 Quotes

“I belong to you; there is really no other way of expressing it, and that is not strong enough.”
― John C. Kirkland, Love Letters of Great Men

“You are more wonderful and lovely in my eyes than you ever were before; and my pride and joy and gratitude that you should love me with such a perfect love are beyond all expression, except in some great poem which I cannot write.”
― John C. Kirkland, Love Letters of Great Men

“the truth is rarely pure and never simple. ”
― John C. Kirkland, Love Letters of Great Men

“My dearest, When two souls, who have sought each other for however long in the throng, have finally found each other… a union, fiery and pure as they themselves are… begins on earth and continues forever in heaven. This union is love, true love,… a religion, which deifies the loved one, whose life comes from devotion and passion, and for whom the greatest sacrifices are the sweetest delights.”
― John C. Kirkland, Love Letters of Great Men

“I awake consumed with thoughts of you.  Your image and the memory of the intoxicating pleasures of last evening have left my senses in turmoil.  Sweet, incomparable Josephine, what a strange effect you have on my heart.”
― John C. Kirkland, Love Letters of Great Men

“The lover who is certain of an equal return of affection, is surely the happiest of men; but he who is a prey to the horrors of anxiety and dreaded disappointment, is a being whose situation is by no means enviable.”
― John C. Kirkland, Love Letters of Great Men

“I am restless; and a man’s restlessness always means a woman; and my restlessness means Ellen. ”
― John C. Kirkland, Love Letters of Great Men

“Forgive my many faults, and the many pains I have caused you.  How thoughtless and foolish I have oftentimes been!  How gladly would I wash out with my tears every little spot upon your happiness, and struggle with all the misfortune of this world, to shield you and my children from harm.  But I cannot.  I must watch you from the spirit land and hover near you, while you buffet the storms with your precious little freight, and wait with sad patience till we meet to part no more.”
― John C. Kirkland, Love Letters of Great Men

“Robert inspired Elizabeth to write her autobiographical masterpiece, Sonnets from the Portuguese, which famously begins, “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.”
― John C. Kirkland, Love Letters of Great Men

“my Adele, my adorable and adored Adele, what have I not to tell you?  O, God! for two days, I have been asking myself every moment if such happiness is not a dream.  It seems to me that what I feel is not of earth.  I cannot yet comprehend this cloudless heaven.”
― John C. Kirkland, Love Letters of Great Men

“You could not step or move an eyelid but it would shoot to my heart—I am greedy of you—Do not think of any thing but me. Do not live as if I was not existing—Do not forget me—But”
― John C. Kirkland, Love Letters of Great Men

“Victory and failure, forgiveness and betrayal, masterwork and bagatelle, it is each poet warrior’s individual journey, battles and scars that provide a true glimpse into greatness.”
― John C. Kirkland, Love Letters of Great Men

“When two souls, who have sought each other for however long in the throng, have finally found each other… a union, fiery and pure as they themselves are… begins on earth and continues forever in heaven. This union is love, true love,… a religion, which deifies the loved one, whose life comes from devotion and passion, and for whom the greatest sacrifices are the sweetest delights. This is the love that you inspire in me… Your soul is made to love with the purity and passion of angels; but perhaps it can only love another angel, in which case I must tremble with apprehension.”
― John C. Kirkland, Love Letters of Great Men

“In 1856, shortly after leaving the army and the loss of his brother to tuberculosis, Tolstoy courted and became engaged to the beautiful Valeria Arsenev.  However—wanting her to understand him completely before marriage—he gave her his diaries; the shock ended their relationship. Though Tolstoy believed no woman could love him, six years later he married his friend’s sister, nineteen year old Sofia Andreyevna Behrs.  His beloved Sonya bore him more than a dozen children over their many blissful and prosperous years together.”
― John C. Kirkland, Love Letters of Great Men

“and be assured that the menace of the greatest tortures will not prevent me from serving you.  No, nothing has the power to part me from you; our love is based upon virtue, and will last as long as our lives.  Adieu, there is nothing that I will not brave for your sake; you deserve much more than that.  Adieu, my dear heart Arout”
― John C. Kirkland, Love Letters of Great Men

“even if such, and to give the joyous kiss on each cheek in its turn; and to embrace your emaciated body in my arms, and to say, “‘twas anxiety, on my account, that caused this thinness;” and, weeping, to recount in person my sorrows to you in tears, and thus enjoy a conversation that I had never hoped for;”
― John C. Kirkland, Love Letters of Great Men

“Honor with your presence the man who, if only he were free, would go a thousand miles to throw himself at your feet and never move from there.”
― John C. Kirkland, Love Letters of Great Men, Vol. 1

“I cannot better explain to you what I felt than by saying that your unknown heart seemed to pass into my bosom—there to dwell forever—while mine, I thought, was translated into your own.”
― John C. Kirkland, Love Letters of Great Men