From Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis De Bernieres

Love is a temporary madness,

it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides.

And when it subsides you have to make a decision.

You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is.

Love is not breathlessness, it is not

excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion.

That is just being in love, which any fool can do. Love itself is what

is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art

and a fortunate accident.

Those that truly love have roots

that grow towards each other underground, and, when all the pretty

blossoms have fallen from their branches, they find that they are one

tree and not two.