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A Natural History of Love: Author of the National Bestseller A Natural History of the Senses

Book by Diane Ackerman · 18 quotes · Love Is, Emotion, People

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A Natural History of Love: Author of the National Bestseller A Natural History of the Senses Quotes

“The only and absolute perfect union of two is when a baby hangs suspended in its mother's womb, like a tiny madman in a padded cell, attached to her, feeling her blood and hormones, and moods play through its body, feeling her feelings.”

TwoPlayFeelingsBodyMotherPerfectBloodBabyAbsolutesUnionsTinyMoodCellsWombMadmenHormonesSuspended
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“The brain is only three pounds of blood, dream, and electricity, and yet from that mortal stew come Beethoven's sonatas. Dizzie Gillespie's jazz. Audrey Hepburn's wish to spend the last month of her life in Somalia, saving children.”

ChildrenDreamLastsThreeWishBrainBloodMonthsJazzSavingMortalsPoundsElectricityStewHepburnAudreySomaliaSonatas
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“As anyone who has received or dispensed psychotherapy knows, it's a profession whose mainspring is love. Nearly everyone who visits a therapist has a love disorder of one sort or another, and each has a story to tell - of love lost or denied, love twisted or betrayed, love perverted or shackled to violence. Broken attachments litter the office floors like pick-up sticks. People appear with frayed seams and spilling pockets.”

PeopleKnowsStoriesLostPsychologyViolenceBrokenOfficePicksSticksProfessionPocketsAttachmentDisorderDeniedLost LoveBetrayedTwistedPsychiatryTherapistsPsychotherapySpillingBetrayed Love
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“An animal on a leash is not tamed by the owner. The owner is extending himself through the leash to that part of his personality which is pure dog, that part of him which just wants to eat, sleep, bark, hump chairs, wet the floor in joy, and drink out of a toilet bowl.”

WantJoySleepAnimalDogPersonalityDrinkPureChairsOwnersWetBowlsToiletsBarkExtendingTamedLeashes
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“When I set a glass prism on a windowsill and allow the sun to flood through it, a spectrum of colors dances on the floor. What we call "white" is a rainbow of colored rays packed into a small space. The prism sets them free. Love is the white light of emotion.”

LightSpaceWhiteLove IsEmotionSunColorGlassesRaysRainbowFloodSpectrumPrismsFree LoveWhite LightSmall Spaces
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“We think of it as a sort of traffic accident of the heart. It is an emotion that scares us more than cruelty, more than violence, more than hatred. We allow ourselves to be foiled by the vagueness of the word. After all, love requires the utmost vulnerability. We equip someone with freshly sharpened knives; strip naked; then invite him to stand close. What could be scarier?”

ThinkingHeartEmotionViolenceHatredAccidentsNakedCrueltyVulnerabilityScareKnivesInvitesTrafficVagueness
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“Love is the most important thing in our lives, a passion for which we would fight or die, and yet we're reluctant to linger over its names. Without a supple vocabulary, we can't even talk or think about it directly.”

ThinkingImportantDiesFightingPassionNamesLove IsOur LivesImportant ThingsOver ItVocabularyReluctantSupple
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“Ecstasy is what everyone craves - not love or sex, but a hot-blooded, soaring intensity, in which being alive is a joy and a thrill. That enravishment doesn't give meaning to life, and yet without it life seems meaningless.”

InspirationalGivingSeemsJoySexAliveHotEcstasyIntensityMeaninglessThrillSoarCraveMeaning Life
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