La Rochefoucauld §laroch_068: It is difficult to define love; all we can say is, that in the soul it is a d...
Source: François de La Rochefoucauld, Maxims (1665) (laroch_068) · external_aligned
It is difficult to define love; all we can say is, that in the soul it is a desire to rule, in the mind it is a sympathy, and in the body it is a hidden and delicate wish to possess what we love--Plus many mysteries. ["Love is the love of one {singularly,} with desire to be singularly beloved."--Hobbes{Leviathan, (1651), Part I, Chapter VI}.] {Two notes about this quotation: (1) the translators' mistakenly have "singularity" for the first "singularly" and (2) Hobbes does not actually write "Love is the..."--he writes "Love of one..." under the heading "The passion of Love."}
Witnesses (Deuteronomy 19:15)
- manuscript_tradition: First edition, Paris 1665 — Barbin imprint
- critical_edition: Pleiade edition — Truchet (Gallimard, 1964)
- translation: Tancock translation (Penguin Classics, 1959)
- republication: Project Gutenberg — Maxims
- republication: Internet Archive — multiple editions