The 15 Most Romantic Quotes from Books
Updated: Feb. 11, 2021When in love, let your actions speak for themselves—and let the world’s most romantic authors and poets help you say the rest.
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
“Scarlett, you need kissing badly. That’s what wrong with you… You should be kissed and by someone who knows how.”
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Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
“You and I, it’s as though we have been taught to kiss in heaven and sent down to Earth together, to see if we know what we were taught.”
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The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
“Each time you happen to me all over again.”
Though The New York Times has called her “a realist, not a romantic,” we think this Edith Wharton line definitely deserves a spot on this list of romantic quotes.
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Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair by Pablo Neruda
“I want to do with you what spring does with the cherry trees.”
Nothing like a sensual nature metaphor to profess your love for someone.
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Hamlet by William Shakespeare
“Doubt thou the stars are fire; doubt that the sun doth move; doubt truth to be a liar; but never doubt I love.”
This Shakespeare line, from a letter written by the doomed Prince Hamlet himself, encompasses a feeling of love more certain than the stars in the sky.
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The Diaries of Adam and Eve by Mark Twain
“Wherever she was, there was Eden.”
Calling someone the epitome of Paradise—it doesn’t get more romantic than that.
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Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
“To love or have loved, that is enough. Ask nothing further. There is no other pearl to be found in the dark folds of life.”
Victor Hugo’s French Revolution-set epic is best known for its death and despair, but Hugo reminds us that love is worth living for.
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Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
“He stepped down, trying not to look long at her, as if she were the sun, yet he saw her, like the sun, even without looking.”
There’s a reason this Tolstoy masterpiece maintains its place as one of the greatest romances of all time.
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The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
“As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.”
Who says young love isn’t real? This young adult novel captured the hearts of teenagers and adults alike with its tear-jerking love story.
Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen
“I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun.”
Jane Austen is the undisputed queen of romance with a healthy dose of social satire. Of all the romantic quotes in her most popular novel, this one by Mr. Darcy might just be our favourite.
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A Woman of No Importance by Oscar Wilde
“Who, being loved, is poor?”
Oscar Wilde’s best-known quotes are witty and snarky—in fact, his last words were, “It would really be more than the English could stand if another century began and I were still alive.” (He died in 1900.) But this sweet, romantic quote of his totally deserves a mention.
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The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
“When we love, we always strive to become better than we are. When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.”
Brazilian author Paulo Coelho’s philosophical, allegorical novel is filled with little pearls of wisdom like this one, making it one of the most quotable books of all time.
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Being to Timelessness As It’s to Time by E.E. Cummings
“Love is the voice under all silences, the hope which has no opposite in fear; the strength so strong mere force is feebleness: the truth more first than sun, more last than star…”
The innovative 20th-century poet E. E. Cummings wrote about everything from birds to sunsets to loneliness. He wrote this beautiful line as a testament to the strength of true love.
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Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
“Whatever our souls are made out of, his and mine are the same… if all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger.”
Emily Brontë‘s Gothic tale of indestructible love and passion remains a classic to this day.
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