40 Amazing Quotes to Ignite Your Heart

By Toni Birdsong, CP Guest Contributor Sunday, April 29, 2012

We love because He first loved us. 1 John 4:19, NIV

Love is awesome because God is Love. We hope these truths and reflections on love help you love bigger, live deeper, and extend astonishing grace today to those around you. Whether you are single, coupled, widowed, divorced, or somewhere in between remember: the desire for love and to be loved exists because God first loved us. It's a divine gift. So handle the hearts around you with care.

1. "Love the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind . . . and love your neighbor as yourself." ~Jesus Christ, Matt. 22:37-39 (paraphrased)
2. "When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace." ~Jimi Hendrix
3. "To love another person is to see the face of God." ~Victor Hugo (Les Miserables)
4. "The human heart tells us that we are more alike than we are unalike." ~Maya Angelou (Letter to My Daughter)
5. "Because God has made us for Himself, our hearts are restless until they rest in Him." ~Augustine of Hippo
6. "Love is God, and to die means that I, a particle of love, shall return to the general and eternal source." ~Leo Tolstoy
7. "The function of freedom is to free someone else." ~Toni Morrison
8. "People should fall in love with their eyes closed." ~Andy Warhol
9. "There is nothing more truly artistic than to love people." ~Vincent van Gogh
10. "At the end of the day people won't remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel." ~Maya Angelou
11. "What we once enjoyed and deeply loved we can never lose, for all that we love deeply becomes a part of us." ~ Helen Keller
12. "Look for God. Look for God like a man with his head on fire looks for water." ~Elizabeth Gilbert
13. "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him." ~1 Cor. 2:9
14. "We weren't meant to be somebody–we were meant to know Somebody." ~John Piper
15. "Love extravagantly." ~1 Cor. 13:13
16. "In my deepest wound I saw your glory, and it dazzled me." ~Augustine of Hippo
17. "Remember, you are special because I made you. And I don't make mistakes." ~Max Lucado
18. "Go after a life of love as if your life depended on it- because it does." ~ 1 Cor. 14:1, The Message
19. "When you stop expecting people to be perfect, you can like them for who they are." ~ Donald Miller
20. "It's not what you do, but how much love you put into it that matter." ~Rick Warren
21. "A good marriage is where both people feel like they're getting the better end of the deal." ~Anne Lamott (Joe Jones)
22. "Define yourself radically as one beloved by God. This is the true self. Every other identity is illusion." ~Brennan Manning
23. Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. "Pooh?" he whispered.
"Yes, Piglet?"
"Nothing," said Piglet, taking Pooh's hand.
"I just wanted to be sure of you." ~A.A. Milne (Winnie the Pooh)
24. "Love is not a feeling, it's an ability." ~Dan in Real Life, the film
25. "Love is never wrong and so it never dies." ~The Lion King 2, the film
26. "Live like you were dying, Love because you are." ~Mark Green
27. "Love is how you stay alive, even after you are gone." ~Mitch Albom
28. "Love is always open arms. If you close your arms about love you will find that you are left holding only yourself." ~Leo Buscaglia
29. "There's a crack (or cracks) in everyone…that's how the light of God gets in." ~Elizabeth Gilbert
30. "Can miles truly separate you from friends… If you want to be with someone you love, aren't you already there?" ~Richard Bach
31. "I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear." ~Martin Luther King, Jr.
32. "A woman's heart should be so hidden in God that a man has to seek Him just to find her." ~Max Lucado
33. "Hate the sin, love the sinner." ~Mahatma Gandhi
34. "Some people care too much. I think it's called love." ~ A.A. Milne (Winnie-the-Pooh)
35. "Sometimes love means letting go when you want to hold on tighter." ~Melissa Marr
36. "Where there is great love, there are always miracles." ~Willa Cather
37. "Love is not a because, it's a no matter what." ~Jodi Picoult (Second Glance)
38. "Sometimes God allows what he hates to accomplish what he loves." ~Joni Eareckson Tada (The God I Love)
39. "Love is a choice." ~Gary Chapman
40. "No hatred." ~ Corrie ten Boom (The Hiding Place)