I wrote this quote down over a decade ago when I read Bernieres novel for a bookgroup. The excerpt resonates with my theory that in some respects, love is a choice. Well, it isn’t exactly my theory but it’s a concept I endorse.
Maybe we do fall in love but staying in love is a matter of commitment once the excitement wears off or once we realize the person we love is no more perfect than we are. When reality sinks in is exactly the time where we need to choose love. So, yes, it’s one of my favorite quotes on love, and, with two daughters in the middle of the temporary madness of early love, I think it’s a good verse to share.
“Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion, it is not the desire to mate every second minute of the day, it is not lying awake at night imagining that he is kissing every cranny of your body. No, don’t blush, I am telling you some truths. That is just being “in love,” which any fool can do. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident.” - Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
