A Geeky Valentines

For the past twenty-three years, I've just been a spectator during Valentines. The same's still true this year.

Of course strangely enough, the pattern still remains the same. Some friends are breaking up while others are getting together. I seem to be the status quo on which the fulcrum is balanced upon. (I could also be a cynic and say that Valentines is merely commercialist propaganda just like Halloween and Christmas but Valentines is a good excuse to be extra kind to that special someone.)

Anyway, here are various fantasy and science-fiction quotes on love (or lack thereof):

"How ironic it is that our instincts often run exactly opposite from what we truly desire for those we love." - Drizzt Do'Urden, Seige of Darkness

"You can't love anyone or anything until you love your own existence, first. Love can only grow out of a respect for your own life. When you love yourself, your own existence, then you love someone who can enhance your existence, share it with you, and make it more pleasurable." - Jensenn Daggett, The Pillars of Creation

"It is a human failing, to attribute the best of motives to those we know the least, and the worst to those we love best." - Kushiel's Dart

"Maybe, but I'm not a hundred percent sure I've ever held an ideal close enough to trade the people I love for it. Ideals can die, but they don't breathe, they don't bleed, they don't cry." - Anita Blake, Narcissus in Chains

"Pride may bind a man, even when there is no love." - Narcheska, Golden Fool

"Who wills, Can. Who tries, Does. Who loves, Lives." - Dragonsong

"Nobody controls his own life, Ender. The best you can do is choose to fill the roles give you by good people, by people who love you." - Valentine Wiggin, Ender's Game

"But you don't love him. You don't know how to love people. You only know how to own them. And because people will never act just like you want them to, Mother, you'll always feel betrayed. And because eventually everybody dies, you'll always feel cheated. But you're the cheat, Mother. You're the one who uses our love for you to try to control us." - Miro, Xenocide

"Love isn't about feeling sure of the other person, knowing what he would give up for you. It's knowing with certainty what you are willing to surrender for his sake. Make no mistake; each partner gives up something. Individual dreams are surrendered for a shared one." - Amber, Mad Ship

"I am simply saying that you should not lock your dreams onto a child or a man. Who loves you or who you love is not as significant as who you are. Too many folk, women and men, love the person they wish to be, as if by loving that person, or being loved by that person, they could attain the importance they long for." - Wintrow Vestrit, Ship of Destiny

"I discovered that the big things don't love you back. They take and take, and never give in return. They'll drain your blood, your soul, if you let them, and never let go." - George Powhatan, The Postman

"I believed in love, but I believed in evil, too. Neither love nor evil conquers all, but evil cheats more." - Anita Blake, Cerulean Sins

"I don't believe in love at first sight. I believe true love takes time to build, like friendship. I believe in instant lust." - Galen, Seduced by Moonlight

"It is an old truth that men and women sometimes miss what they hate as much as what they love." - The Lions of Al-Rassan

"Love and anger are like land and sea: They meet at many different places." - Lyo, The Changeling Sea

"Animals try to rear their young, don't they? That's all. How much can a parent's love for a child really weigh in the scales of virtue? It's only love for those not our own that counts for a great deal, surely." - Raule, The Etched City