It’s almost Valentine’s Day–a day that’s supposed to serve as a reminder to love those near and dear to our hearts. We are officially in love mode. Don’t believe me? Next time you’re on the web or in a store, just take a look at what retailers think love is all about: heart-shaped candies, flowers, roses, balloons, and even kissing bears.

Don’t get me wrong. All of these things are nice but they hardly epitomize the essence or tenets of real love.

And so, here are some quotes from “Love, Fulfilling the Ultimate Quest” by James P. Gills, M.D.:

• Love does not dominate, it cultivates ~ Goethe
• Blessed are those who find love everywhere, for they may never be lonely ~ Thomas A Carruth
• Love in your heart wasn’t put there to stay. Love isn’t love, until you give it away ~ unknown
• It is natural to love those who love us, but it is supernatural to love those who hate us ~ unknown
• The highest love of all finds its fulfillment not in what it keeps, but in what it gives ~ Fr. Andrews, S.D.C.
• Love must be learned, and learned and learned again-there is no end to it ~ Katherine Ann Porter
• That you may have pleasure in everything, seek your own pleasure in nothing ~ St. John of the Cross
• Love looks through a telescope, envy through a microscope ~ unknown

Remember, love lives in what we do, what we say and how we think, not in the things we give.

Selena, is the Editor of Blissfully You. She is a gifted poet, orator and has for the 11th straight year been voted the “prettiest-funnest-bestest-biscuit-making-Mommy-in-the-whole-wide-world.” She chronicles her passion to empower others without apology and compromise on her blog, Speak2It.