'Tis Better to Have Loved and Lost...

Dearest Bloggers,

For a change, I will publish something that I myself have not written. This is from a book I read recently called Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill - an absolutely brilliant book. The title is somewhat misleading, since it's not just about making money, but rather about leading a rich life - in every sense of the word. The book was originally published in 1937 and it has sold over 15 million copies. Here's what Hill writes about love. I sent this passage to a couple of friends who have recently separated from their boyfriends, and thought I'd share this with all of you. I think that it's absolutely beautiful.

Pink Lady


“If you believe yourself unfortunate because you have “loved and lost”, perish the thought. One who has loved truly can never lose entirely. Love is whimsical and temperamental. Its nature is ephemeral and transitory. It comes when it pleases and goes away without warning. Accept and enjoy it while it remains, but spend no time worrying about its departure. Worry will never bring it back.

Dismiss, also, the thought that love never comes but once. Love may come and go, times without number, but there are no two love experiences that affect you in just the same way. There may be, and there usually is, one love experience that leaves a deeper imprint on the heart than all the others, but all love experiences are beneficial, except to the person who becomes resentful and cynical when love makes its departure.

There should be no disappointment over love, and there would be none if people understood the difference between the emotions of love and sex. The major difference is that love is spiritual, while sex is biological. No experience that touches the human heart with a spiritual force can possibly be harmful, except through ignorance or jealousy.”

“Even the memories of love are sufficient to lift one to a higher plane of creative effort. The major force of love may spend itself and pass away, like a fire that has burned itself out, but it leaves behind indelible marks as evidence that it passed that way. Its departure often prepares the human heart for still a greater love”.