Can love be defined?

Question:Is there a single definition for love or is it different for every person? Is it fair to say that two people that fight a lot don't love each other as two people that rarely fight? What is love?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Is there a single definition for love or is it different for every person? Is it fair to say that two people that fight a lot don't love each other as two people that rarely fight? What is love?

Love is what makes you smile when your by yourself. When you think of a friend you may not have seen for a long time and thinking about them just makes you smile. Truly understanding love is understanding that the only constant in life is change. And as change in your life happens possibly the people you love may change. If you grow apart from someone you were close too and before you know it someone has taken their place in your life. That does not mean you care more for the new person today then you did for the one they replaced from yesterday. It just means you are allowing yourself to put yourself at risk by letting someone else in your life that could possibly harm you emotionally down the road.
As far as the debate of the couple that argues to the one that doesn't, that isn't a matter of love. Without a doubt the people that argue alot are probably in love but not on the same level mentally. Usually involved with two type A personalities, but if they didn't love each other they wouldn't fight they would walk away, which if anyone ever finds themselves in a situation like that it is unlikely to improve and you should walk away. You have to learn to love yourself and know when to when first and foremost. The two people that rarely ever fight either don't care enough to fight or are really lucky, and it is up to them to know the difference!
I would have to say trying to pin one definition on love would be like trying to make the wind blow in the same direction everyday. All we can do is try to understand the whys and try to prepare ourselves for the what to comes. Love will come and go in many different directions as we make this journey, it is what we do with it is what makes it special.

it;'s a subjective thing, some people "love" a person that abuses them daily.

I don't think love can be defined for everyone to abide by. You just "know" when you're really in love.

God is Love.

Yess. Love can be defined as sucky
=]

Noo. But I really think that love means different things for everyone =]

I do think that love is different for each person, but generally, it is conscious concern or longing for another. People have different ways of expressing, so I do believe that Wilma and Fred loved each other as much as Barney and Betty, even though the Flintstones fought more often.

"Love, friendship, respect, admiration are the emotional response of one man to the virtues of another,

the spiritual payment given in exchange for the personal, selfish pleasure which one man derives from the virtues of another man's character."

"[it] is his response to his own highest values in the person of another—an integrated response of mind and body, of love and sexual desire."

"To love is to value...The man who does not value himself, cannot value anything or anyone."

In her book "Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology" she even describes how to measure love.

Love is different and yet it is not for everyone. Love is basically the want of loving others and being loved by them. What love represents and means, however, is totally different to other people. Some may find long walks on the beach and ice cream sundaes as love while others find axe murdering as love. It may represent a person or thing to people, yet its ends and essential meaning is the same.

Love is the climax of all opposites. Wherever it happens it can cause heaven or hell.

Love is always young; too young by the way; almost a baby. It never grows. When it dies it either metamorphoses into a boring habit, or hatred if it's not given its freedom to be born somewhere else.

All concepts have definitions.
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"Romantic love, in the full sense of the term, is an emotion possible only to the man (or woman) of unbreached self-esteem: it is his response to his own highest values in the person of another—an integrated response of mind and body, of love and sexual desire. Such a man (or woman) is incapable of experiencing a sexual desire divorced from spiritual values."

"Of Living Death," The Objectivist, Oct. 1968, 6. - Ayn Rand

love is a connection to another being. it is a desire to be with that other being. i wonder sometimes if the ones we love are other parts of ourselves...and in a way i suppose they are because we are all one...but i wonder if they are a part of our oversoul.

I don't think it can be defined, because it applies to so many things. You can love your boyfriend/husband, your mom, your dad, your brothers and sisters, your sons and daughters, your friends, your pets, and you love all of those people/animals in different ways. Loving your dog is extremely different from loving your mom, but it's love anyways.

I don't know if you agree with this. But if one could figure out what love is. Then one can figure out who God is. For God is love.