As love without esteem is volatile and capricious; esteem without love is languid and cold.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Swift argues that love needs respect to be stable, and respect needs love to be warm; without each other, they become fickle or cold.
- In plain terms
- Love without respect is fickle and respect without love is cold.
- What can you take from it?
- Lasting relationships require both affection and mutual respect.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Which is missing in your current bond?
- Can respect exist without affection?
Another view
Some relationships thrive on pure passion or pure respect alone.
More from Jonathan Swift
There is, indeed, no wild beast more to be dreaded than a communicative man having nothing to communicate.
Permalink to quote #97 (On leaving money to found a psychiatric hospital in Dublin) No nation needs it so much.
Permalink to quote #96 A man should never be ashamed to own that he has been in the wrong, which is but saying... that he is wiser today than yesterday.
Permalink to quote #95
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