What Love Really Is and Why It Matters

We talk a lot about love without fully understanding exactly what it means. True love is less an appreciation of strength than a tolerance of (and kindness towards) what is weak and misshapen in another person.

FURTHER READING

"There is so much talk of love in our societies, it would be natural to think that we must by now know what it is and why it counts. Love is the excited feeling we get in the presence of someone of unusual accomplishment and talent – great intelligence or beauty for the most part – whom we hope will reciprocate our interest and whom we badly want to touch, caress and one day share our lives with. This definition sounds so plausible and enjoys such powerful cultural endorsement, we are apt to miss another vision of love altogether, this one focused not so much on the appreciation of strength as on a tolerance of, and kindness towards, what is weak and misshapen…"

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CREDITS

Produced in collaboration with:

Eunju Ara Choi

Title animation produced in collaboration with

Vale Productions

[eanora]

It’s so easy to love attractive, smart, and seemingly-put-together people. Look at celebrities. But I’m learning that real love is about looking at people’s hearts, realising that we’re all flawed, and being forgiving, instead of focusing on material things that fade away.

[ericrodriguez]

This channel is the best thing that ever happened to youtube

[jeandeanb]

You're not a machine with broken parts, you're a human with unmet needs.

[bennettartmn]

I’m forever grateful for this man guiding me through the relationship I don’t have.

[nicojoshuas]

If love had another name, it would be empathy

[sobrevida]

I think a successful relationship is one that moves from 'love as admiration' to 'love as generosity'.

We are attracted to people whose characteristics we admire. We wish we were more like them. We idealize them. We think, "That small bit of them that I know is perfect! I bet all of them is perfect!" And, if we spend a lot of time with them, we become disillusioned; we realize they are not perfect. In fact, they have some habits and attitudes and beliefs that are quite irritating. If we can gracefully negotiate the 'fall' from ideal to human, if we can look at them with curiosity and wonder rather than judgement, our love morphs from a simple admiration or adoration to generous commitment and investment in the life of another.

[andreajimenez]

Your videos make me think that there’s so much potencial trapped in every of us.

[ALSeth-Storyteller]

Have a heart that never hardens,
A temper that never tires,
And a touch that never hurts.

CHARLES DICKENS

[starxichr]

I guess learning to love makes us better people. In learning to love, we can love ourselves. By loving ourselves, we can love others. Love isn’t perfect, the rough edges, the dents, the wrinkles: that’s what makes it beautiful. Love is the awkward, weird mush we want despite the caveats of losing it. Love is human.

[kaik]

"Nächstenliebe" is a German biblical term that describes this concept very well. Don't only love people because they are beautiful or intelligent but love them because they are humans, just like you.

[esabkhan]

"True love involves precisely not giving someone what is their due, but giving them what they need in order to survive".

[rosettesionne]

For me true love comes from seeing someone vulnerability and weaknesses but still showing them compassion without judgements by admitting our own flaw too. When we feel at ease with someone and free to share our burdens and weaknesses and be truly our self without fear of judgements and negative reactions, That is when true love come to place

[jeevajyothis]

Love is letting a person be himself without wanting to make him into your own version of him.
Love is accepting his choices even if he chooses someone over you.

[bigtankmb]

Don't love what is perfect, that is too easy to do. True love is loving what is imperfect. That is my takeaway from this wonderful video. Thanks!

[dereksilvers]

Alain's voice is the only voice which keeps me coming back to school of life and its videos

[aperson]

We like people for their strengths, we love people for their weaknesses

[meg]

When I imagine trying to practice this art of love, it's so much easier to envision myself doing it for strangers who have a 'clean slate' in regards to hurting me personally (on an emotional level), than it is a family member or close friend who has hurt me deeply and betrayed my trust.

[vanessaaventura]

Love in its purest form is empathy, and loving someone even on their worst days. Love starts with loving ourselves wholeheartedly, and loving others the same way we love ourselves. People who don't love themselves can't love other people properly.

[Leo-mrqz]

"Love is patient, love is kind...it always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always preserves. Love never fails." - 1 Corinthians 13:4
Love like there's no tomorrow! 💚

[FynePrntWilliamsMUSC]

That was the best definition of love I've ever heard. Now if only everyone else decided to practice this.🖤💯