While I have heard many of the most gooiest romantic, heart-stopping phrases explaining and elaborating in many ways what love is and how it feels (Though they are good to have around, don't get me wrong. How else could we ladies live on?), this quote below is by far one of my top favorites. I have never quite heard the definition of love quite like this, and I hope you enjoy the different point of view.

"Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being "in love" which any of us can convince ourselves we are.

Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Your mother and I had it, we had roots that grew towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossom had fallen from our branches we found that we were one tree and not two.
- Captain Corelli's Mandolin. "Love is the beauty of the soul." --St. Augustine