Dorothy Tennov

“I rejected "infatuation" because although the meanings of the terms overlap in some respect, they differ in meaning, and evoke different connotations.”

“It is safer to write as a moralist, as an observer and evaluator outside personal involvement who may not know the precise nature of the subject matter, but who can indicate clearly what others ought and ought not do. Much of the writing in the literature of love was written by persons, who, perhaps never having suffered the insanity themselves but having observed its outward manifestations, are adamantly opposed to it. Limerent persons, sufferers of an unallowable condition, find themselves speechless save for ambiguity of "poetic" expression.”

“Writers have been philosophizing, moralizing, and eulogizing on the subject of "erotic," "passionate," "romantic" love (i.e., limerence) since Plato (and surely long before that). And more often than not, what is said is enough to make a limerent dissolve into the walls in embarrassment. It can be dangerous to stick your neck out on the subject of love—dangerous to your self-esteem and to your reputation.”

“It is not love. It is the force of evolutionexpressed as the compulsion for the particular,this particular one above all others. Often,it is called love. . .”