Relationships can bring us the greatest joy. A good one can open up parts of ourselves we could only have imagined, if even. And even challenging ones, or in challenging times, they help us grow into the people we want to become.

When everything feels great, we look to great writers and thinkers who can put our feelings into words that we can express. Sometimes, we need insight to help us through the challenges.

Here are nine great quotes with some insight and wisdom into what it means to love, to be in love, and grow in love. Whether you are looking to bring intimacy back into your relationship or deepen the love you have, these will certainly resonate.

Each of these relationship quotes are pulled from The Lover’s Journal, a guided journal for couples.

“Love doesn’t make the world go ’round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile.”

~FRANKLIN P. JONES

Isn’t that the truth. It’s true even for a cynic, only then it would be a different kind of love than for the rest of us.

“Love involves a peculiar unfathomable combination of understanding and misunderstanding.”

~ DIANE ARBUS

It certainly can feel like that. I can say that earlier in my life of relationshipping, there was a lot more of the “misunderstanding.” Now, it’s much more the other way. I know some of that has to do with age and experience, but some also has to do with how I approach the issues. Cera and I started journaling together in the first couple months of our relationship. Looking back, it was like compound interest. We put in a little time early on that has paid huge dividends in the time since.

We still do it, too. Honestly, not as often now, but it’s a major part of our relationship practice.

“The more one judges, the less one loves.”

“Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future.”

- PAUL BOOSE

Some say that love represents the hight of human spiritual evolution. I think it’s forgiveness. Forgiveness is hard, but when achieved, love flows in automatically. Love is easy when forgiveness happens

“Love has to be shown by deeds, not words.”

- SWAHILI PROVERB

Yes, a good “I love you” goes a long way. But throw in a foot massage, or a bring love into what you do and how you do it, and wow - love blossoms.

“Even after all this time, the sun never says to the earth, ‘you owe me.’ Look what happens with a love like that! It lights up the whole sky.”

- HAFEZ

Selflessness in love is hard. And sometimes, self-love is key to the situation. And sometimes, the best way to explain an idea is not to explain it at all, but to let Hafez’s poetic words do the talking.

“The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise, we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them”

- THOMAS MERTON

If I had known this much younger, I would have avoided a lot of strife and heartache. Alas, I learned it later.

“Do what you did in the beginning of a relationship and there won’t be an end.”

- TONY ROBBINS

Way too often, we think the hard work is finding the right person, or that marriage is a goal in and of itself. But that’s not true. That’s just the beginning. All that stuff we do to impress our partner before we are a committed couple often falls by the wayside once we know we’ve committed.

Don’t fall for that trap! Don’t do less impressing, do more. Not pleasing, as that can backfire. But being the best you each day, and then being a better you tomorrow - that’s relationship magic.

“What the world really needs is more love and less paperwork.”

~ PEARL BAILEY

Put down the paperwork and go show some love to your significant other. Be radically loving.

Maybe share a favorite relationship quote?