# How do you define love? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 24, 2018, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-define-love/818508 "2018-07-24T15:20:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mr\_Quatro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bc8723/32.png) [@Mr\_Quatro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Quatro)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2018, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-define-love/818508/1 "2018-07-24T15:20:11Z")
How do you define love? In my humble opinion … Love is something you share ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2018, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-define-love/818508/2 "2018-07-24T15:25:41Z")
When someone else’s happiness is essential to your own. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2018, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-define-love/818508/3 "2018-07-24T15:37:14Z")
The noun, or the verb? ---
**Author:** ![Go\_Arachnid\_Laser\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b2d939/32.png) [@Go\_Arachnid\_Laser\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Go_Arachnid_Laser_1)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2018, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-define-love/818508/4 "2018-07-24T15:38:57Z")
Something about baby not hurting me. Not hurting me. No more. ---
**Author:** ![MindsEye\_Watering](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindseye_watering/32/3619_2.png) [@MindsEye\_Watering](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MindsEye_Watering)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2018, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-define-love/818508/5 "2018-07-24T15:51:03Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > When someone else’s happiness is essential to your own. This. ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2018, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-define-love/818508/6 "2018-07-24T15:54:04Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > When someone else’s happiness is essential to your own. Agreed, better than anything else I was going to say. ---
**Author:** ![Go\_Arachnid\_Laser\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b2d939/32.png) [@Go\_Arachnid\_Laser\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Go_Arachnid_Laser_1)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2018, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-define-love/818508/7 "2018-07-24T16:17:25Z")
> [@pool](#): > > Agreed, better than anything else I was going to say. What about those of us who enjoy laughing at the least serious misfortunes of our loved ones? ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2018, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-define-love/818508/8 "2018-07-24T16:20:26Z")
Love is the answer, you gotta let it, gotta let grow! So sez: John Lennon:) ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2018, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-define-love/818508/9 "2018-07-24T16:33:16Z")
[Love is a slippery eel that bites like hell.](http://comicsalliance.com/files/2017/02/CA_GroeningLIHlove.png?w=630&h=628&zc=1&s=0&a=t&q=89) ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2018, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-define-love/818508/10 "2018-07-24T16:40:32Z")
Really? Not yet? It means never having to say you’re sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2018, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-define-love/818508/11 "2018-07-24T16:43:42Z")
Love is sympathetic attention. I recognize that you are there, and that you are important. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Sefton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Sefton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sefton)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2018, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-define-love/818508/12 "2018-07-24T16:46:26Z")
Love is like oxygen! Love is a many splendored thing! Love lifts us up where we belong! All you need is love! ---
**Author:** ![Satchmo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/satchmo/32/4223_2.png) [@Satchmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satchmo)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2018, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-define-love/818508/13 "2018-07-24T16:48:16Z")
Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath. At night, the ice weasels come. Matt Groening ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2018, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-define-love/818508/14 "2018-07-24T16:49:19Z")
> [@Sefton](#): > > Love is like oxygen! Love is a many splendored thing! Love lifts us up where we belong! All you need is love! Not… love stinks? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2018, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-define-love/818508/15 "2018-07-24T16:49:31Z")
Just a word I’ve heard when things are being said. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2018, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-define-love/818508/16 "2018-07-24T16:54:45Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > When someone else’s happiness is essential to your own. Originally by Robert A. Heinlein, isn’t it? Not bad at all for a short definition. I’d interpret “happiness” in the “old-fashioned” sense of flourishing, having a good life, [eudaimonia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eudaimonia), rather than just as a feeling. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2018, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-define-love/818508/17 "2018-07-24T16:59:32Z")
> [@Satchmo](#): > > Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath. At night, the ice weasels come. Matt Groening _claps_ See my link in post #9. Groening claims that he was quoting Nietzsche about the snowmobile, but I’d like to see his cite. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2018, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-define-love/818508/18 "2018-07-24T17:01:40Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Originally by Robert A. Heinlein, isn’t it? Not bad at all for a short definition. I’d interpret “happiness” in the “old-fashioned” sense of flourishing, having a good life, [eudaimonia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eudaimonia), rather than just as a feeling. I thought that up myself, basically word for word, some years back. And yes, it’s my definition of love too. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2018, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-define-love/818508/19 "2018-07-24T18:28:26Z")
Love is an evolutionary adaptation which creates pair bonding to produce and subsequently increase the survival rate of offspring. I am incurable romantic. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2018, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-define-love/818508/20 "2018-07-24T19:51:16Z")
[Love is…](https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=love+is&chips=q:love+is,g_3:cartoon&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjBst-FwbjcAhXCnOAKHbusCpAQ4lYILSgA&biw=2133&bih=1187&dpr=0.9) Clothing averse, anatomically challenged young people. Apparently. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-define-love/818508.md?page=2)