Quotes about Yearning

The country in which I live is not my native country that lies elsewhere and it must always be the center of my longings.

Part of my soul I seek thee, and claim thee my other half

Henceforth an individual solace dear; Part of my Soul I seek thee, and thee claim My other half: with that thy gentle hand Seisd mine, I yielded, and from that time see How beauty is excelld by manly grace.

Was I to have never parted from thy side? As good have grown there still a lifeless rib. Paradise Lost, Book IX, l. 1154

As to embrace me she inclined, I waked she fled and day brought back my night.

The search for God begins at the point of need.

I collapsed to my knees and looked up at the predawn sky. "I hate you," I said softly. "I love you," the voice whispered back.

No wonder the romance of Wuthering Heights endures—as do romantic myths in almost every culture. Indeed, the more patriarchal and gender-polarized a culture is, the more addicted to romance. These myths embody our yearning to be whole. No wonder romance so often begins at a physical distance or across a psychic chasm of class and race,* and thrives on death and separation. Projecting our lost qualities onto someone else can be done more easily from a distance.

for you will always gravitate toward that which you, secretly, most love.

Woman naturally seeks to embrace that which is living, personal, and whole. To cherish, guard, protect, nourish and advance growth is her natural, maternal yearning.

The covetous man pines in plenty, like Tantalus up to the chin in water, and yet thirsty.

He looked at her the way all women want to be looked at by a man.