8 Love Quotes to Use on Valentine's Day

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So you’ve gotten the flowers. You’re all dressed up. The chocolates are ready. You’ve even set up a romantic evening, complete with candlelit dinner. You’re all ready for Valentine’s Day, right?

Not quite. You also need words.

Flowers and candles and gifts are wonderful, but nothing makes a partner feel special like looking into his or her eyes and expressing your love in a beautiful and creative way. Words move us, and have the ability to make a special moment breathtaking. Unfortunately, creating such verbal beauty is where many of us fall flat!

But fear not! Poets and writers have been creating beautiful words for centuries, and there is a deep well of inspiration to draw from so that you can create your own unique variations. So let’s draw from the very best of film, literature, and real life, and take a look at 8 love quotes to use on Valentine’s Day.

“Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.”

United Artists

While Emily Brontë's book, Wuthering Heights, isn’t the most romantic novel in the world, with its bleak tone and bleaker ending, this quote shines from the pages like the sun between storm clouds.

There is nothing in the world like finding someone with whom you feel this deepest sort of connection. While folk knowledge says that opposites attract, it’s really core similarities that draw two people together, the shared values and beliefs about the way life works. When you see the world through the same basic lens, you can share in the same experiences—you’re truly together.

This Valentine’s Day, let this quote inspire you to tell your partner about how much you adore the bond that exists between the two of you. Let him or her know that whatever your souls are made of, yours and theirs are the same. You’re guaranteed to get a smile with this lovely Valentine’s Day quote.

“To love at all is to be vulnerable."

Arthur Strong/Wikipedia Commons

To feel the full effect of author C.S. Lewis's words from his book, The Four Loves, let's take a look at the entire paragraph that surrounds it.

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”

Expressing your vulnerability in the context of a relationship can have a profound effect on your partner. When you open up, so will they—they’ll feel safe being head-over-heels in love with you, and, just as importantly, they’ll feel comfortable being themselves as they do so.

This quote expresses one of the most simultaneously painful and beautiful truths about relationships—to truly love is to truly risk. Use this quote to show that you know those risks, yet you take them anyway.

All at once, your partner will realize the gravity of this statement, that you’ve chosen to open your heart to the possibility of being wrung and broken, and that you’ve done so because your partner is well worth it. It’s the perfect way to set the mood this Valentine’s Day.

“As you wish.”

20th Century Fox

Are you and your partner fans of The Princess Bride? Then you’ll both recognize the significance of this seemingly innocuous statement!

In the film, a young woman lives on a farm in the countryside, and is quite happy poking fun at, and demanding chores of, the farm hand, Westley. His response to her demands, however ridiculous, however, is always “As you wish.”

Eventually, she realizes what he means by this—he’s actually saying “I love you”. When Buttercup gets over herself and confesses that she feels the same, Westley leaves in order to financially prepare himself for marriage, and, of course, a rousing adventure results for the both of them. In the end, they find one another once again, and live, as they say, happily ever after.

So why this quote on Valentine’s Day? Because it reminds us that there is more than one way to say “I love you,” especially for Princess Bride fans! A simple slip of paper, inscribed with this phrase and laid on a pillow, is sure to bring about a wistful smile.

And if your partner isn’t familiar with the movie? Well, Valentine’s Day is a great time to watch this hilarious and sweetly romantic film.

"You live in this, and dwell in lovers' eyes.”

Miramax Films

To feel the full effect of William Shakespeare's words, you may just want to read the entirety of Sonnet 55 to your beloved this Valentine's Day.

“Not marble, nor the gilded monuments

Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme;

But you shall shine more bright in these contents

Than unswept stone, besmear'd with sluttish time.

When wasteful war shall statues overturn,

And broils root out the work of masonry,

Nor Mars his sword, nor war's quick fire shall burn

The living record of your memory.

'Gainst death, and all oblivious enmity

Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room

Even in the eyes of all posterity

That wear this world out to the ending doom.

So, till the judgment that yourself arise,

You live in this, and dwell in lovers' eyes.”

When Shakespeare wrote Sonnet 55, he had one thing in mind—immortalizing his love in timeless literature.

He succeeded.

You, too, can express such a desire to your partner this Valentine’s Day, either by reading this poem aloud—always a good idea—or by crafting your own poetry about your beloved. If you write your own, put some work and thought into it. Make it beautiful and reverent and relevant to your unique relationship. Do your best to make something that you'd be proud to pass down to your children as a testament to how much you love your partner.

And therein lies the magic in this sonnet. These words weren't crafted only to appeal to a partner. No—they were also made to tell the world about that partner, to ensure that people everywhere, even hundreds of years later, would read of how lovely the subject of this poem once was.

Take inspiration from this poem’s purpose, and you’ll make your partner feel like the most special person in the world.

"I would rather share one lifetime with you than face all the ages of this world alone.”

New Line Cinema

To convey the gravity of this quote, let's take a look at the context of this conversation between these two timeless literary lovers.

“Do you remember what I told you?”

“You said you'd bind yourself to me, forsaking the immortal life of your people.”

“And to that I hold. I would rather share one lifetime with you than face all the ages of this world alone.”

Have you ever had to sacrifice something valuable for the sake of someone even more valuable? Most of us have. Even the best relationships, after all, require some amount of compromise. But when we do this, and do so with a glad heart, we show our partners just how much they mean to us.

For those who are familiar with Tolkien’s seminal work, and the resulting films, the above exchange holds profound meaning. Arwen, a woman of an immortal race, gives up that immortality in order to be with her mortal love, Aragorn—a human king. Her love for him is so great that she would give up eternity.

You can’t get much more profound than that, and so if your partner is a Tolkien fan, they’ll love this quote this Valentine’s Day.

"So it’s not gonna be easy. It’s gonna be really hard. We’re gonna have to work at this every day, but I want to do that because I want you. I want all of you, forever, you and me, every day."

New Line Cinema

Okay, so The Notebook is a little sappy. But it’s also home to a great quote about the nature of love.

This story about an elderly man reliving his best memories with his wife, who suffers from dementia. The film, based on the Nicholas sparks novel of the same name, chronicles the story of their love together, moving through their best moments—the ones that defined them as one of the most famous couples in love-story history.

This particular quote encapsulates what actual love really is—the kind of love that settles in when the intense, initial emotions of falling for someone burn away with time.

It’s also a promise. It’s a promise to choose to love your partner, despite the emotional ups and downs of a relationship, even when it’s not easy, and even when it takes work. This is one of the most important things you can promise your beloved this Valentine’s Day.

"I've come here with no expectations, only to profess, now that I am at liberty to do so, that my heart is, and always will be, yours."

Columbia Pictures

Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility is a treasure trove of great quotes, but this one really stands out.

At first glance, it seems like just another love quote, but note the term “no expectations”.

It’s the most important part.

Valentine’s Day is all about professions of love, but too often, we make those professions with expectations and conditions. We say “I love you,” but with an unspoken “as long as…”.

But that’s not what love should be. True love—the kind your partner will want from you—is the kind that has no expectations. It is given freely as a gift, no matter what is gotten in return.

If you use this quote, whether you write it at the bottom of a romantic card or simply speak it aloud, will let your partner know that you are making yourself vulnerable, taking risks, and committing. He or she won’t forget it.

"You should be kissed and often, and by someone who knows how.”

Loews Inc.

Sometimes you just have to say it like it is.

That last quote does quite well when inserted at the end of a romantic letter. Most people will instantly recognize the reference to Gone with the Wind, but even if they don’t, they’ll be impressed by this refreshingly bold statement.

You might even elicit a blush.

Even though the originator of this statement, the fictional Rhett Butler, is a debonair rake and a bit of a scoundrel, this quote is no less romantic—at least as long as you mean what you say, and, unlike Rhett, you intend to be that person who “knows how”. Follow it up with a charming little smirk—and don't forget the kiss, of course.

There’s something incredibly attractive in a partner who winks an eye, tells you that you need to be kissed, and does so. Be that exciting person on this Valentine’s Day, and make it happen.

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