“It does seem to me more and more that love has no value in itself or by itself (except perhaps first love, to the young). People talk about love as though it were something you could give, like an armful of flowers. And a lot of people give love like that—just dump it down on top of you, a useless strong-scented burden. I don’t think it is anything that you can give, or if you can, it is valueless.

        Love is a force in you that enables you to give other things. It is the motivating power. It enables you to give strength and power and freedom and peace to another person. It is not a result; it is a cause. It is not a product; it produces. It is a power, like money or steam or electricity. It is valueless unless you can give something else by means of it. It has taken me a long time to learn. I hope it will stay learned and that I can practice it.”

—Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Locked Rooms and Open Doors: Diaries and Letters 1933–1935 (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1974), 231.