8 Rules of Love Quotes

“After we learn the lessons of one level, we move to the next. If we struggle or move on from a stage before we’ve completed it, we simply return to the lesson we need—life pushes us back in the direction of this work.”
― Jay Shetty, 8 Rules of Love: How to Find It, Keep It, and Let It Go

“When you like a flower, you pluck it. When you love a flower, you water it daily.”
― Jay Shetty, 8 Rules of Love: How to Find It, Keep It, and Let It Go

“But no matter how compatible a couple is, to live in conflict-free bliss isn’t love, it’s avoidance.”
― Jay Shetty, 8 Rules of Love: How to Find It, Keep It, and Let It Go

“It’s only one fish to you,” my teacher said, “But to that fish, it is everything.”
― Jay Shetty, 8 Rules of Love: How to Find It, Keep It, and Let It Go

“We serve in goodness when we don’t want recognition or an outcome—we just want to show pure love.”
― Jay Shetty, 8 Rules of Love: How to Find It, Keep It, and Let It Go

“We think of love as reciprocal, but sannyasis love without reciprocation. We must hold on to our loving hearts, the essence of who we are, even in a workplace full of crocodiles. We try to be compassionate to those who have hurt us. We give the best energy we can under the circumstances and get on with our lives. At the same time, we make sure that we ourselves are not the crocodile because what we become at work bleeds into who we are at home. If you can’t be the sannyasi you want to be at work, make sure that you strive to give love in your personal life.”
― Jay Shetty, 8 Rules of Love: How to Find It, Keep It, and Let It Go

“when you’re dealing with crocodiles, you should leave your heart at home. You can’t always be vulnerable. Sometimes it will be used against you.”
― Jay Shetty, 8 Rules of Love: How to Find It, Keep It, and Let It Go

“You might change and grow together, mixing your karmas, mixing the energy of two families and two communities, but don't lose your identity. Remember your own personality, values and goals. Don't lose the thread of your own story. Spend time in solitude. Don't cancel plans with friends and family. Pursue your own interests, not just your partner's. This is not slighting, ignoring, or betraying your partner. It's fueling your growth in ways that they can't, which means you'll have even more to offer them. And if you have no more growing left to do together, you can take time apart. That's okay.”
― Jay Shetty, 8 Rules of Love: How to Find It, Keep It, and Let It Go

“How you handle your differences is more important than finding your similarities.”
― Jay Shetty, 8 Rules of Love: How to Find It, Keep It, and Let It Go

“When we practice love and gratitude for ourselves, we nourish the soil in which love is rooted, and from which love in its many forms will grow and blossom.”
― Jay Shetty, 8 Rules of Love: How to Find It, Keep It, and Let It Go

“When you accept who you are and what you want, you’re less likely to be triggered by someone else’s opinion of you or perception of your ideas. When we broaden our scope of love, we’re not excluding people for what they do or how they act (unless they are abusive). We love them because we want to be loving people. If you like a clean house, you keep it clean whether you have guests or not—it makes it a more pleasant place for you to live. The same is true when you create a loving environment in your heart. You do it for yourself, no matter who receives or returns it. You don’t mess your house up if someone messy comes in. You don’t fill your heart with hate because someone hateful enters your radius. You want to live in a house of love.”
― Jay Shetty, 8 Rules of Love: How to Find It, Keep It, and Let It Go

“When we encounter someone whom we find difficult to be around, the first step toward loving them is to understand what, if anything, our reaction to them reveals about ourselves. Is it our own insecurity? Is it our ego? Is it fear?”
― Jay Shetty, 8 Rules of Love: How to Find It, Keep It, and Let It Go

“Meet people with love even when they don’t meet you with love. A sannyasi offers love to everyone the same way a doctor tries to heal people on both sides of a fight, no matter who started it. Don’t compromise your values, and don’t accept abuse, but stretch your capacity to give love.”
― Jay Shetty, 8 Rules of Love: How to Find It, Keep It, and Let It Go

“Love Those Closest to You”
― Jay Shetty, 8 Rules of Love: How to Find It, Keep It, and Let It Go

“Loving those around us teaches us to love each living entity, and loving everyone teaches us to love the world around us—the place they call home. And if we love the environment, then we love its creator, the divine, a power beyond ourselves.”
― Jay Shetty, 8 Rules of Love: How to Find It, Keep It, and Let It Go

“When we expand our radius of love, we have the opportunity to experience love every day, at every moment.”
― Jay Shetty, 8 Rules of Love: How to Find It, Keep It, and Let It Go

“In the fourth stage of life, Sannyasa, the goal is simply this: to look beyond the self to how we can serve others. To experience love constantly by choosing to give it to others always. To find love in moments of frustration, annoyance, anger, and dismay, when it seems out of reach. To create more loving connections with every person we meet. To feel love for all humanity. Love means noticing that everyone is worthy of love and treating them with the respect and dignity their humanity automatically makes them deserve.”
― Jay Shetty, 8 Rules of Love: How to Find It, Keep It, and Let It Go

“The fourth ashram, Sannyasa, is when we extend our love to each and every person and area of our life. In this stage our love becomes boundless. We realize we can experience love at any time with anyone. We feel karuna, compassion for all living entities. All of these stages can all be lived simultaneously, but this fourth stage is the highest expression of love.”
― Jay Shetty, 8 Rules of Love: How to Find It, Keep It, and Let It Go

“A good teacher will assess the class before teaching. A good student will understand before he applies.”
― Jay Shetty, 8 Rules of Love: How to Find It, Keep It, and Let It Go

“A mentor will help you form a vision of how you can start to pursue your purpose and what your life might look like as you continue to live in your purpose. The mentor can also give you concrete advice as first steps you can take, how you can network, and where else you can turn to learn more.”
― Jay Shetty, 8 Rules of Love: How to Find It, Keep It, and Let It Go

“If you want to truly love someone and give them your best self, then you have to be your best self.”
― Jay Shetty, 8 Rules of Love: How to Find It, Keep It, and Let It Go

“if your partner can bear to watch you give up your purpose, that’s not love. Your purpose has to come first for you, and your partner’s purpose has to come first for them. Then you come together with the positive energy and stability that come from pursuing your purposes.”
― Jay Shetty, 8 Rules of Love: How to Find It, Keep It, and Let It Go

“The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away. —DAVID VISCOTT”
― Jay Shetty, 8 Rules of Love: How to Find It, Keep It, and Let It Go

“Seek first to understand” involves a very deep shift in paradigm. We typically seek first to be understood. Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply. They're either speaking or preparing to speak. They're filtering everything through their own paradigms, reading their autobiography into other people's lives.”
― Jay Shetty, 8 Rules of Love: How to Find It, Keep It, and Let It Go

“My guru at the ashram said that if a teacher was a ten out of ten, then the student might only be a one out of ten because the teacher would constantly uplift them. But if the teacher was a one out of ten, the student would have to rise to be a ten out of ten in order to learn from the teacher. In other words, if you approach your studies diligently enough, with an open mind and heart, you can learn even more from a mediocre teacher than you might from a great one.”
― Jay Shetty, 8 Rules of Love: How to Find It, Keep It, and Let It Go

“One of the guru qualities that Kripamoya das lists is dambha asuyadhi muktam, which means “exhibits no inauspicious characteristics such as egoism or jealousy.”
― Jay Shetty, 8 Rules of Love: How to Find It, Keep It, and Let It Go

“You can’t put in effort and expect an immediate, guaranteed reward. What you invest will have to be heartfelt and true, and what you receive will be illuminating.”
― Jay Shetty, 8 Rules of Love: How to Find It, Keep It, and Let It Go

“As a guru, we think about how our actions impact our partner. A guru offers guidance without judgment, wisdom without ego, love without expectation. Being a guru for your partner doesn’t mean imparting wisdom to them (that sounds unpleasant, at best), but it does require patience, understanding, curiosity, creativity, and self-control.”
― Jay Shetty, 8 Rules of Love: How to Find It, Keep It, and Let It Go

“A committed romantic relationship highlights this awe and respect in a different way because there isn’t one guru and one student. You are both gurus and students for each other.”
― Jay Shetty, 8 Rules of Love: How to Find It, Keep It, and Let It Go

“Vedic teachings say that there are three levels of intelligence. In the first level, when someone tells you the fire will burn you, you listen and learn and never touch fire. In the second level, you experience it for yourself. You touch fire, it burns you, and you learn not to touch fire again. In the third level, you keep burning yourself, but you never learn. If we don’t heed our karma, we’re stuck in the third level of intelligence, and we bear the scars. We forget that what we experienced in the past holds information about how we’ll feel if we do it again.”
― Jay Shetty, 8 Rules of Love: How to Find It, Keep It, and Let It Go