The deepest loves are often accompanied by a sense of shyness, surprise, and fear of being known—"seeing others with shame, being asked with surprise, fearing to be discovered." This is because once such feelings are overly publicized, their purity is easily distorted and diminished.
Everyone has their eyes open, but that does not mean everyone is truly looking at the world. Many people barely use their own eyes to observe; they only listen to what others say. Consequently, the world they see is forever merely the version described by others.
For the communion of souls, what matters most is the inherent richness of the two souls themselves and the mutual attraction this generates, rather than mere familiarity or even meticulous scrutiny of one another.
First love is the purest and most intense, yet also the least profound. Almost all first loves resemble one another. Therefore, although people often find it hard to forget their first love experiences, they frequently discover that there is very little substance to recall.
A reliable measure of whether two people are in love is to see if they find pleasure in savoring and appreciating each other. Lovers inevitably take time to appreciate one another, often involuntarily, and the more they do, the more meaning they find. If one day this feeling turns to boredom and the interest vanishes, love has ceased to exist.
Those who are heartbroken are originally guests of the soul. Those who value emotion most keenly know the ruthlessness of time; ruthless years have swept away how many emotional lives.
In the picture of life, dreams are also a genuine stroke.