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3fcbdff If music be the food of love, play on, Give me excess of it; that surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die. romance unrequited-love William Shakespeare
e283ba9 To burn with desire and keep quiet about it is the greatest punishment we can bring on ourselves. punishment unrequited-love Federico García Lorca
6b516fd Because what's worse than knowing you want something, besides knowing you can never have it? yearning unrequited-love James Patterson
34c01cb Snape's patronus was a doe,' said Harry, 'the same as my mother's because he loved her for nearly all of his life, from when they were children. love infatuation unrequited-love J.K. Rowling
469a5e0 "I wouldn't change it," Simon said. "I wouldn't give up loving you. Not for anything. You know what Raphael told me? That I didn't know how to be a good vampire, that vampires accept that they're dead. But as long as I remember what it was like to love you, I'll always feel like I'm alive." unrequited-love Cassandra Clare
f3f88f2 Love Jo all your days, if you choose, but don't let it spoil you, for it's wicked to throw away so many good gifts because you can't have the one you want. love spoil teddy-lawrence waste-of-life jo-march lost-love longing unrequited-love Louisa May Alcott
9cdc163 She hardly ever thought of him. He had worn a place for himself in some corner of her heart, as a sea shell, always boring against the rock, might do. The making of the place had been her pain. But now the shell was safely in the rock. It was lodged, and ground no longer. pain sorrow love longing unrequited-love T.H. White
a3b300c If I said I was madly in love with you you'd know I was lying. scarlett unrequited-love Margaret Mitchell
3b93d82 His hands are saying that he wants to hold her. His feet are saying that he wants to chase after her... He's probably forgotten that I'm here, beside him unrequited-love Ai Yazawa
80221d4 Vanity was stronger than love at sixteen and there was no room in her hot heart now for anything but hate. youth unrequited-love Margaret Mitchell
48ce144 "You loved me-then what right had you to leave me? What right-answer me-for the poor fancy you felt for Linton? Because misery and degradation, and death, and nothing that God or Satan could inflict would have parted us, you, of your own will, did it. I have not broken your heart- you have broken it; and in breaking it, you have broken mine." ~Heathcliff" unrequited-love Emily Brontë
adfc787 Do people always fall in love with things they can't have?' 'Always,' Carol said, smiling, too. love patricia-highsmith the-price-of-salt starcrossed-lovers forbidden-love impossible-love lesbian in-love unrequited-love Patricia Highsmith
7a9eb36 I want him to see the flowers in my eyes and hear the songs in my hands. unrequited-love Francesca Lia Block
7c5afc1 But that afternoon he asked himself, with his infinite capacity for illusion, if such pitiless indifference might not be a subterfuge for hiding the torments of love. love indifference unrequited-love Gabriel García Márquez
a6c5bb2 I didn't call you because I'm tired of you only wanting me around when you need something. I'm tired of watching you be in love with someone else - someone, incidentally, who will never love you back. Not the way I do. love the-mortal-instruments magnus-bane bromance unrequited-love Cassandra Clare
a0b6832 You have never loved me as I love you--never--never! Yours is not a passionate heart--your heart does not burn in a flame! You are, upon the whole, a sort of fay, or sprite-- not a woman! unrequited-love Thomas Hardy
aa71a28 I think if you like somebody you have to tell them. It might be embarrassing to say it, but you will never regret stepping up. I know from personal experience, however, that you should not keep telling a girl that you like her after she tells you she isn't into it. You should not keep riding your bike by her house either. love unrequited-love Donald Miller
d9f8578 There were books about how to be gay; he'd seen them in stores and libraries. Some of them even had diagrams. But there weren't any diagrams about how to fall in love with your best friend and not fuck everything up. youth romance love unrequited-love Poppy Z. Brite
2f94e34 I imagine there must be only a very, very few men in the world, that I should like to marry; and of those few, it is ten to one I may never be acquainted with one; or if I should, it is twenty to one he may not happen to be single, or to take a fancy to me. marriage unrequited-love Anne Brontë
f8648cd Out of her favour, where I am in love. unrequited-love William Shakespeare
79096a7 I was even a little glad that if it wasn't going to be me she wanted, it was going to be someone who really deserved her. heartbreak love mortal-instruments unrequited-love Cassandra Clare
42a6c0a Let's always love each other, and never be in love with each other. love unrequited-love David Levithan
38e6b9a In the garden, the Captain of the Guard stared up at the young woman's balcony, watching as she waltzed alone, lost in her dreams. But he knew her thoughts weren't of him. unrequited-love Sarah J. Maas
96e773d Oh why rebuke you him that loves you so? / Lay breath so bitter on your bitter foe. unrequited-love William Shakespeare
a32ac1a "I was actually permitting myself to experience a sickening sense of disappointment: but rallying my wits, and recollecting my principles, I at once called my sensations to order; and it was wonderful how I got over the temporary blunder--how I cleared up the mistake of supposing Mr. Rochester's movements a matter in which I had any cause to take vital interest. Not that I humbled myself by a slavish notion of inferiority: on the contrary, I just said-- "You have nothing to do with the master of Thornfield further than to receive the salary he gives you for teaching his protegee and to be grateful for such respectful and kind treatment as, if you do your duty, you have a right to expect at his hands. Be sure that is the only tie he seriously acknowledges between you and him, so don't make him the object of your fine feelings, your raptures, agonies, and so forth. He is not of your order: keep to your caste; and be too self-respecting to lavish the love of the whole heart, soul, and strength, where such a gift is not wanted and would be despised." strength unrequited-love Charlotte Brontë
d07864c She alone had been blind to his merit. Why? Because he loved her and she did not love him. What was it in the human heart that made you despise a man because he loved you? unrequited-love W. Somerset Maugham
1701523 The thought of her gave me such a continual anguish that I could no more forget her than an aching tooth. It was involuntary, hopeless, compulsive. For years she had been the first thing I remembered when I woke up, the last thing that drifted through my mind as I went to sleep, and during the day she came to me obtrusively, obsessively, always with a painful shock. pain compulsion anguish compulsive hopeless obsession unrequited-love memory Donna Tartt
3acf782 I wanted so terribly to be good to him. unrequited-love Dodie Smith
c7ee0a5 "It's not the loving that hurts this girl; it's the understanding of it for what it is, that it will never be returned in the same way, that threatens to destroy her. But to unload the words - "I love you" - on an innocent party who didn't ask for it, to reach across the dark space and touch him - it's like the world she knows could end if she dared speak these words, dared make such a move." friendship heartbreak love heartache unrequited-love Rachel Cohn
0335731 And yet, because I love thee, I obtain From that same love this vindicating grace, To live on still in love, and yet in vain love unrequited-love Elizabeth Barrett Browning
b061f5f Certainly no one has ever died of an unrequited passion--it's usually the ones that are requited that get people in trouble. relationships unrequited-love Mercedes Lackey
d6d62ac Why should you think that I should woo in scorn? Scorn and derision never come in tears: Look, when I vow, I weep; and vows so born, In their nativity all truth appears. How can these things in me seem scorn to you, Bearing the badge of faith, to prove them true? romance unrequited-love William Shakespeare
b32e0ee "He's charmed by her as if she were some fairy!" continued Arabella. "See how he looks round at her, and lets his eyes rest on her. I am inclined to think that she don't care for him quite so much as he does for her. She's not a particular warm-hearted creature to my thinking, though she cares for him pretty middling much-- as much as she's able to; and he could make her heart ache a bit if he liked to try--which he's too simple to do." trickster sue-bridehead fairy unrequited-love Thomas Hardy
4332e1d "With women who do not love us, as with the "dear departed," the knowledge that there is no hope left does not prevent us from continuing to wait." women unrequited-love Marcel Proust
545a021 "But I love him." "So love him." "But I miss him." "So miss him. Send him love and light every time you think about him, and then drop it." love unrequited-love Elizabeth Gilbert
5734df7 Stephen had spared no expense in making himself more unhappy, his own position as a rejected lover clearer. wallowing unrequited-love Patrick O'Brian
c9afeb7 Just like that. From a hundred miles an hour to asleep in a nanosecond. I wanted so badly to lie down next to her on the couch, to wrap my arms around her and sleep. Not f*ck, like in those movies. Not even have sex. Just sleep together, in the most innocent sense of the phrase. But I lacked the courage and she had a boyfriend and I was gawky and she was gorgeous and I was hopelessly boring and she was endlessly fascinating. So I walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was a hurricane. people love unrequited-love John Green
306e640 Out of my thoughts! You are part of my existence, part of myself. You have been in every line I have ever read since I first [met you]. You have been in every prospect I have ever seen since,--on the river, on the sails of the ships, on the marshes, in the clouds, in the light, in the darkness, in the wind, in the woods, in the sea, in the streets. You have been the embodiment of every graceful fancy that my mind has ever become acquainted with. The stones of which the strongest London buildings are made are not more real, or more impossible to be displaced by your hands, than your presence and influence have been to me, there and everywhere, and will be. Estella, to the last hour of my life, you cannot choose but remain part of my character, part of the little good in me, part of the evil. But, in this separation, I associate you only with the good; and I will faithfully hold you to that always, for you must have done me far more good than harm, let me feel now what sharp distress I may. unrequited-love Charles Dickens
aebb1ce "I loved her [Gilberte]; I was sorry not to have had the time and the inspiration to insult her, to hurt her, to force her to keep some memory of me. I thought her so beautiful that I should have liked to be able to retrace my steps so as to shake my fist at her and shout, "I think you're hideous, grotesque; how I loathe you!"_" love unrequited-love Marcel Proust
9d9e94e NOVIA. !Porque yo me fui con el otro, me fui! (Con angustia.) Tu tambien te hubieras ido. Yo era una mujer quemada, llena de llagas por dentro y por fuera,y tu hijo era un poquito de agua de la que yo esperaba hijos, tierra, salud; pero el otro era un rio oscuro, lleno de ramas, que acercaba a mi el rumor de sus juncos y su cantar entre dientes. Y yo corria con tu hijo que era como un ninito de agua, frio, y el otro me mandaba cientos de pajaros que me impedian el andar y que dejaban escarcha sobre mis heridas de pobre mujer marchita, de muchacha acariciada por el fuego. Yo no queria, !oyelo bien!, yo no queria. !Tu hijo era mi fin y yo no lo he enganado, pero el brazo del otro me arrastro como un golpe de mar, como la cabezada de un mulo, y me hubiera arrastrado siempre, siempre, siempre, aun que hubiera sido vieja y todos los hijos de tu hijo me hubiesen agarrado de los cabellos. desperation unrequited-love Federico García Lorca
5613243 I watched as Humphrey Bogart's character used beans as a metaphor for the relative unimportance in the wider world of his relationship with Ingrid Bergman's character, and chose logic and decency ahead of his selfish emotional desires. The quandary and resulting decision made for an engrossing film. But this was not what people cried about. They were in love and could not be together. I repeated this statement to myself, trying to force an emotional reaction. I couldn't. I didn't care. I had enough problems of my own. love humphrey-bogart ingrid-bergman unrequited-love Graeme Simsion
f971c62 Don't take on about her, Gabriel. What difference does it make whose sweetheart she is, since she can't be yours?' 'That's the very thing I say to myself,' said Gabriel. rivals far-from-the-madding-crowd thomas-hardy gabriel-oak unrequited-love Thomas Hardy
5699bf0 You were right, I suppose, in keeping your distance. I was too intent on self-fulfillment, and rather crude about it, with all my harlequinade and conscious manipulation of your pity. love unrequited-love beat-generation jack-kerouac Allen Ginsberg
9378369 "All of us have had this experience. At some point, we have each said through our tears, "I'm suffering for a love that's not worth it." We suffer because we feel we are giving more than we receive. We suffer because our love is going unrecognized. We suffer because we are unable to impose our own rules. But ultimately there is no good reason for our suffering, for in every love lies the seed of our growth. The more we love, the closer we come to spiritual experience. Those who are truly enlightened, those whose souls are illuminated by love, have been able to overcome all of the inhibitions and preconceptions of their era. They have been able to sing, to laugh, and to pray out loud; they have danced and shared what Saint Paul called "the madness of saintliness." They have been joyful--because those who love conquer the world and have no fear of loss. True love is an act of total surrender." suffering unrequited-love Paulo Coelho
130118a "There is no hard and fast line that can be drawn that says: Up to here there was no love; from here on there is now love. Love is a gradual thing, it may take a moment, a month, or a year to come on, and in each two its gradations are different. With some it comes fast, with some it comes slowly. Sometimes one kindles from the other, sometimes both kindle spontaneously. And once in a tragic while one kindles only after the other has already dimmed and gone out, and has to burn forlornly alone. ("Too Nice A Day To Die")" unrequited-love Cornell Woolrich
898693b She disliked him more for having mastered her inner will. How dared he say that he would love her still, even though she shook him off with contempt? She wished she had spoken more - stronger. Sharp, decisive speeches came thronging to her mind, now that it was too late to utter them. The deep impression made by the interview was like that of a horror in a dream; that will not leave the room although we waken up, and rub our eyes, and force a stiff rigid smile upon our lips. It is there - there, cowering and gibbering, with fixed ghastly eyes, in some corner of the chamber, listening to hear whether we dare to breathe of its presence to anyone. And we dare not; poor cowards that we are! nightmares unrequited-love Elizabeth Gaskell
913a968 For when a woman resists an unwelcome passion, she is obeying to the full the law of her sex; the initial gesture of refusal is, so to speak, a primordial instinct in every female, and even if she rejects the most ardent passion she cannot be called inhuman. But how disastrous it is when fate upsets the balance, when a woman so far overcomes her natural modesty as to disclose her passion to a man, when, without the certainty of its being reciprocated, she offers her love, and he, the wooed, remains cold and on the defensive! An insoluble tangle this, always; for not to return a woman's love is to shatter her pride, to violate her modesty. The man who rejects a woman's advances is bound to wound her in her noblest feelings. In vain, then, all the tenderness with which he extricates himself, useless all his polite, evasive phrases, insulting all his offers of mere friendship, once she has revealed her weakness! His resistance inevitably becomes cruelty, and in rejecting a woman's love he takes a load of guild upon his conscience, guiltless though he may be. Abominable fetters that can never be cast off! love male-perspective modesty rejection pride unrequited-love Stefan Zweig
4d2323d Therefore, have done with this nonsense: you have no ground for hope: dismiss, at once, these hurtful thoughts and foolish wishes from your mind, and turn to your own duty, and the dull blank life that lies before you. You might have known such happiness was not for you. love lovesick unrequited-love Anne Brontë
9620162 And she never knew that he laid awake the whole time, his lips at her temple, his hand against her hair. Whispering her name. Whispering other words as well. michael-stirling unrequited-love Julia Quinn
c4ceedd I was deluded, and I knew it. Worse: my love for Pippa was muddied-up below the waterline with my mother, with my mother's death, with losing my mother and not being able to get her back. All that blind, infantile hunger to save and be saved, to repeat the past and make it different, had somehow attached itself, ravenously, to her. There was an instability in it, a sickness. I was seeing things that weren't there. I was only one step away from some trailer park loner stalking a girl he'd spotted in the mall. For the truth of it was: Pippa and I saw each other maybe twice a year; we e-mailed and texted, though with no great regularity; when she was in town we loaned each other books and went to the movies; we were friends; nothing more. My hopes for a relationship with her were wholly unreal, whereas my ongoing misery, and frustration, were an all-too-horrible reality. Was groundless, hopeless, unrequited obsession any way to waste the rest of my life? grief loss relationship reality past hope delusional delusional-love unreal loner delusion save hunger stalking misery hopeless frustration obsession waste unrequited-love sickness Donna Tartt
ffede09 I wanted her to know just how much I loved her while also letting her know that she bore not one particle of blame for not loving me back. But I wouldn't say that. It was rosepetals I wanted to throw, not a poison dart. unrequited-love Donna Tartt
b1cb2fe Olivia sat back and propped her half-boots on the table. 'So far it's working. He has to return to me because I have his sister hostage.' She briefly put her fingertips to her lips. 'Did I just say that? I mean I'm protecting the baby sister and earning his trust humor love unrequited-love Kresley Cole
0d0651b Graham's thoughts of me were not entirely those of a frozen indifference, after all. I believe in that goodly mansion, his heart, he kept one little place under the skylights where Lucy might have entertainment, if she chose to call. It was not so handsome as the chambers where he lodged his male friends; it was not like the hall where he accommodated his philanthropy, or the library where he treasured his science, still less did it resemble the pavilion where his marriage feast was splendidly spread; yet, gradually, by long and equal kindness, he proved to me that he kept one little closet, over the door of which was written 'Lucy's Room.' I kept a place for him too -- a place of which I never took the measure, either by rule or compass: I think it was like the tent of Peri-Banou. All my life long I carried it folded in the hollow of my hand -- yet, released from that hold and constriction, I knew not but its innate capacity for expanse might have magnified it into a tabernacle for a host. villette unrequited-love Charlotte Brontë
17bc76e The world is full of unrequited love,' I said finally. 'You and Patrick having problems?' Dad said, reaching around to get the butter out of the fridge. 'No, I was just wondering what you would say if I was a lesbian.' 'Come again?' said Lester. 'I'm having a hard time following this conversation. funny family love fridge brother lesbian dinner problems conversation random sexuality father unrequited-love Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
93b1d6a "First of all, I wish you love, and that by loving you may also be loved. love unrequited-love Victor Hugo
797e69f They laughed at him, but they didn't know, they didn't know about all the nice things he had. No one knew. No one. Only someday he'd see somebody different, somebody to give his things to, somebody who would give him all their things. Yes. He'd like that. He'd know her when he saw her. He'd know just what to say. hope love humiliation rejection unrequited-love George R.R. Martin
9bc4792 Everyone has their love story. Everyone. It may have been a fiasco, it may have fizzled out, it may never even have got going, it may have been all in the mind, that doesn't make it any less real. Sometimes, it makes it more real. Sometimes, you see a couple, and they seem bored witless with one another, and you can't imagine them having anything in common, or why they're still living together. But it's not just habit or complacency or convention or anything like that. It's because once, they had their love story. Everyone does. It's the only story. love-story true-love relationships love meaningful validation the-only-story julian-barnes unrequited-love Julian Barnes
1588628 Susan had pointed out that everyone has their love story. Even if it was a fiasco, even if it fizzled out, never got going, had all been in the mind to begin with: that didn't make it any the less real. And it was the only story. love-story love the-only-story unrequited-love Julian Barnes
5460d8d Although he doesn't know it yet, she isn't his real life. But he is hers. This is painful. unequal-affections the-robber-bride one-sided-love painful sad unrequited-love Margaret Atwood
d68dfb1 "Your dress is thin, you have been dancing, you are heated." "Always preaching," retorted she; "always coddling and admonishing." The answer Dr. John would have given did not come; that his heart was hurt became evident in his eye; darkened, and saddened, and pained, he turned a little aside, but was patient." dr-john-graham-bretton ginevra-fanshawe villette unrequited-love Charlotte Brontë
d18f83c But it was just luck really if the girls survived. You're like a man firing a machine gun into a supermarket who happens not to become a murderer. murder women unrequited-love Iris Murdoch
4d396d9 I've enough pride never to let myself love a man who does not love me. pride unrequited-love Leo Tolstoy
5988e5f It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love. Dr. Juvenal Urbino noticed is as soon as he entered the still darkened house where he has hurried on an urgent call to attend a case that for him had lost all urgency many years before. The Antillean refugee Jeremiah de Saint-Amour, disabled war veteran, photographer of children, and his most sympathetic opponent in chess, had escaped the torments of memory with the aromatic fumes of gold cyanide. suicide cyanide doctor poison unrequited-love Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez
221abea I crave for love, everybody does . . . and I've never had a bloody crumb of it--and I've given so much love to people--I can really love people, I can, I let them walk over me--but nobody's ever loved me. love unreciprocated-love unloved the-black-prince iris-murdoch sad unrequited-love Iris Murdoch
39eda6c And I thought, rolling my head to and fro between my hands in anguish, oh if only it could have worked somehow for us two. if-only star-crossed-lovers the-sea-the-sea iris-murdoch in-another-life unrequited-love Iris Murdoch
7851f1c I had deluded myself throughout by the idea of reviving a secret love which did not exist at all. love secret-love the-sea-the-sea iris-murdoch unrequited-love Iris Murdoch
375eb56 Your love for me does not exist in the real world. Yes, it is love, I do not deny it. But not every love has a course to run, smooth or otherwise, and this love has no course at all . . . But that is remote from love and remote from ordinary life. As real people we do not exist for each other. love figurative-language iris-murdoch impossible-love unrequited-love Iris Murdoch
ab3fdc0 It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love. Dr. Juvenal Urbino noticed it as soon as he entered the still darkened house where he had hurried on an urgent call to attend a case that for him had lost all urgency many years before. unrequited-love Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez
98756c2 I know girls aren't supposed to tell, but I've got to tell--just in case you should fail to love me because you never knew how much I loved you. I want not to have to say later--I wish I'd told him. romance love if-only declaration-of-love henry-and-cato iris-murdoch romantic-love gender-roles unrequited-love Iris Murdoch
3c78923 "You've obviously never been in love." "I have actually. And . And--always--without hope--I've never had my love reciprocated ever." love unreciprocated-love the-black-prince iris-murdoch painful in-love sad unrequited-love Iris Murdoch
50b9207 The poems that used to entrance me in the days of Miss Violence now struck me as overdone and sickly. --the archaic language of unrequited love. I was irritated with such words, which rendered the unhappy lovers--I could now see--faintly ridiculous, like poor moping Miss Violence herself. Soft-edged, blurry, soggy, like a bun fallen into the water. Nothing you'd want to touch, simile poetry the-blind-assassin margaret-atwood ridiculous language unrequited-love Margaret Atwood
ce22cd8 What the cold light showed me was that my situation was simply unlivable. I wanted, with a desire greater than any desire which I had ever conceived could exist without instantly killing its owner by spontaneous combustion, something which I simply could not have. unlivable the-black-prince iris-murdoch wanting suicidal hopeless unrequited-love Iris Murdoch
073aec2 How fearful that dark shadow is when we catch sight of it in the life of another. No wonder those at whom that black arrow is aimed so often turn and flee. How unendurable it can be, the love another bears us. I would never persecute my darling with that dread knowledge. From now onward until the world ended everything must remain, although utterly changed, exactly as it was before. love the-black-prince iris-murdoch selfless unspoken unrequited-love Iris Murdoch
70e1594 "Well, girls always love assholes," said Platt, not bothering to dispute this. "Haven't you noticed?" No, I thought bleakly, untrue. Else why didn't Pippa love me?" heartbreak love unrequited-love Donna Tartt
089664c But the spark vanished, there was no longed-for recognition, no dawning sign of recovery. The love she had learnt in tending him was an enclosed love, muted and maimed, already mourning. They would never communicate now. missed-opportunity star-crossed-lovers the-message-to-the-planet iris-murdoch unspoken sad unrequited-love Iris Murdoch
e3e2821 I contemplated her, seeing her young bland face looking at me, now removed as if behind a gauze curtain. She quietly invited me to suffer. There was a great space now, a great silent hall in which this suffering could take place. There was no urgency now, nothing to plan, nothing to achieve. What shall I do with it, I asked her, what shall I do now with my love for you which you so terribly revived by reappearing in my life? Why did you come back, if you could not content me? What can I do now with the great useless machine of my love which has no wholesome work to do? I can do nothing for you any more, my darling. I wondered if I would be fated to live with this love, making of it a shrine which could not now be desecrated. Perhaps when I was living alone and being everyone's uncle like a celibate priest I would keep this fruitless love as my secret chapel. Could I then learn to love uselessly and unpossessively and would this prove to be the monastic mysticism which I had hoped to attain when I came away to the sea? love the-sea-the-sea unrequited-love Iris Murdoch
4aecd94 And all the time my very soul would travel with her, invisible and crying soundlessly with pain. I had acquired a dimension of suffering which would poison and devour my whole being, as far as I could see, forever. pain suffering unending unendurable the-black-prince unspoken soul unrequited-love Iris Murdoch
66bc4be Beyond her declaration of love she could not see. But as she rehearsed the intensity of her passion she thought that he , when the time came, . The desire to, at the right time, him became, as the years moved forward toward that time, increasingly painful, like a poisoned wound that must heal itself by breaking open. She thought in anguish of the times, the recent times, when she could have told him, and had been afraid to, and had clumsily withdrawn, when she could have attracted him and drawn his attention to her. When she had watched over him when he was sleeping in the sedan-chair and could have wakened him with a kiss. If only she had , then she could more easily have borne his not preferring her. He was ready to fall in love -- and if he had -- he must have loved her -- if he had known how much she loved him. The pain of this loss burnt her in every waking moment, that awful 'if only'. She had lost him, and lost him through her own fault. There were no more pleasures now in life. loss suffering if-only missed-chance missed-opportunity the-green-knight iris-murdoch unspoken unrequited-love Iris Murdoch
d7adc61 Now, when she felt so deeply connected to him, they were finally estranged. estranged star-crossed-lovers the-message-to-the-planet iris-murdoch connection unrequited-love Iris Murdoch
cb18497 And even when he guessed that the love stories of the misled and the forsaken had become a little less authentic with each retelling . . . even if this was the case, he was still moved. Indeed, he was more moved by the lives of the bereft and the unchosen than he was by stories of success in love. love forsaken love-stories unlucky-in-love the-only-story julian-barnes unrequited-love Julian Barnes
9b88e63 She could only hold on to her husband with both hands and promise herself that the best way to keep someone was to let him go. love lost-love unrequited-love Lauren Willig
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