The Metaphysics of Love — Arthur Schopenhauer

Every kind of love however ethereal it may seem to be springs entirely from the instinct of sex indeed it is absolutely this instinct only in a more definite specialised and perhaps strictly speaking more individualised form If bearing this in mind one considers the important rôle which love plays in all its phases and degrees not only in dramas and novels but also in the real world where next to one s love of life it shows itself as the strongest and most active of all motives if one considers that it constantly occupies half the capacities and thoughts of the younger part of humanity and is the final goal of almost every human effort that it influences adversely the most important affairs that it hourly disturbs the most earnest occupations that it sometimes deranges even the greatest intellects for a time that it is not afraid of interrupting the transactions of statesmen or the investigations of men of learning that it knows how to leave its love letters and locks of hair in ministerial portfolios and philosophical manuscripts that it knows qually well how to plan the most complicated and wicked affairs to dissolve the most important relations to break the strongest ties that life health riches rank and happiness are sometimes sacrificed for its sake that it makes the otherwise honest perfidious and a man who has been hitherto faithful a betrayer and altogether appears as a hostile demon whose object is to overthrow confuse and upset everything it comes across if all this is taken into consideration one will have reason to ask Why is there all this noise Why all this crowding blustering anguish and want Why should such a trifle play so important a part and create disturbance and confusion in the well regulated life of mankind img src https s3 eu west 1 amazonaws com dia kitadagitim ckeditor_assets pictures 53 content_1_original_original jpg alt height 15 width 15 font size 1 color white font img