What a gift it is to love and be loved in return. As we get ready for Valentine’s Day this Friday, I’m sharing a list of some of my favorite quotes on LOVING (yourself and others). May we always remember that EVERY day is an opportunity to remind those we love how very much we do and that we, ourselves, are deserving of our love as much as the love we so freely give to others. LOVE YOU, mean it! <3

“Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.”
— Maya Angelou

“The way to love anything is to realize that it may be lost.” — Gilbert K. Chesterton

“It takes courage to love, but pain through love is the purifying fire which those who love generously know. We all know people who are so much afraid of pain that they shut themselves up like clams in a shell and, giving out nothing, receive nothing and therefore shrink until life is a mere living death.” — Eleanor Roosevelt

“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.” – Buddha

“You know you’re in love when you don’t want to fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.”
— Dr. Seuss

“Life without love is like a tree without blossoms or fruit.” — Khalil Gibran

You are the last thought in my mind before I drift off to sleep and the first thought when I wake up each morning. – Unknown

You know it’s love when all you want is that person to be happy, even if you’re not part of their happiness. — Julia Roberts

To lose balance sometimes for love is part of living a balanced life. – Elizabeth Gilbert

There are only two times that I want to be with you. Now and Forever.

Love is like a virus. It can happen to anybody at any time. – Maya Angelou

There is only one happiness in life, to love and to be loved. - George Hand

Love is like the wind, you can’t see it but you can feel it. ― Nicholas Sparks

“Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.” — James Baldwin

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”
— Rumi

“Love yourself first and everything else falls into line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world.” —  Lucille Ball

“The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.” — Morrie Schwartz

“If I know what love is, it is because of you.” — Herman Hesse

“I love you not because of who you are, but because of who I am when I am with you.” — Roy Croft

“Love is a friendship set to music.” —  Joseph Campbell

“When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.”

— Marcus Aurelius

“We are shaped and fashioned by what we love.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Why I started the Monday Motivation series: As a huge fan of quotes, it’s always comforting to feel that others have been where we are and intimately share our experiences through feeling. Words are some of the best ways to express ourselves and sometimes when we can’t find the words ourselves, it is so wonderful to discover that someone else did.