‘Love has no desire but to fulfil itself. But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires: To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night. To know the pain of too much tenderness. To be wounded by your own understanding of love; and to bleed willingly and joyfully. To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving; to rest at the noon hour and meditate love’s ecstasy; to return home at eventide with gratitude; and then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.’

Kahlil Gibran, mystical writer and poet

‘For one human being to love another: that is perhaps the most difficult task of all … the work for which all other work is but preparation. It is a high inducement to the individual to ripen … a great exacting claim upon us, something that chooses us out and calls us to vast things.’

Rainer Maria Rilke, poet and novelist