Words And Phrases That Inspire, Motivate, And Persuade At Work

 “Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.”

―Rudyard Kipling
Words are powerful. They have the ability to inspire, motivate, and persuade; or discourage, dismiss, and dissuade. “With your words, you wield the power to plant seeds of either success or failure in the mind of another, and in the process you reveal who you are, how you think, and what you believe,” says Darlene Price, author of Well Said! Presentations and Conversations That Get Results. “Whether it’s inspiring a nation, launching a product, building a team, or mending a relationship, the right words spoken at the right time can change history.”
It’s important in business to choose your words wisely because they expose the number one ingredient to success: attitude. “In the workplace, a positive collaborative mind-set can mean the difference between landing a job or losing out; winning a customer or wasting an opportunity; developing teamwork or destroying trust,” Price says. “Actions may speak louder than words, but words and thoughts are the seeds of those actions. Words announce to the world how you feel and what you think about important workplace values like respect, commitment, accountability, gratitude, initiative, service, and excellence.”
There are certain day-to-day words and phrases that can help you win friends and create rapport in the office; make a persuasive presentation; or conduct a powerful conversation. “Here again, words are your allies,” she says.
“According to research, some of the most persuasive words also happen to be the shortest and oldest,” Price explains. “Look at any advertisement, and you’re likely to see one or more of these words.”

• Affordable
• Best
• Convenient
• Discover
• Easy
• Enjoy
• Fast
• Free
• Guarantee
• More
• New
• Power
• Reduce
• Results
• Safe
• Save
• Time

“These words help your customers visualize how good they’ll feel and what they’ll gain when they own your product or use your service,” Price says. “Deliberating crafting these words to communicate value transforms them into power phrases, which actually trigger buying behavior.  For example: ‘It’s affordable, while giving you all the power, performance, and speed you need.’ ‘Best of all, you’ll save time, save money, and get immediate results.’ Or, ‘It’s fast, easy, and convenient. Plus it reduces your cost.’”
Additional tips for motivating, inspiring, and persuading others at work:
Say the word ‘you’ more than ‘I.’ “When attempting to influence another’s thinking, the words ‘you’ and ‘your’ are among the most persuasive words because they refer directly to the listener,” Price explains. “Conversely, the self-centric pronouns which refer directly to the speaker are not as convincing: ‘I,’ ‘Me,’ ‘My,’ and ‘Mine,’ or ‘We,’ ‘Us,’ and ‘Our,’ which refer to the speaker’s group or company.”
The frequent use of the word “you” answers the audience’s unspoken question: “What’s in it for me?” “The point is, whether it’s a formal presentation or a casual conversation, avoid speaking from your perspective the whole time; choose words that directly address and include your listeners.”
Use names. “The most important word in any language is one’s own name,” Price says. “Your name carries a potent amount of emotion. When you make the effort to learn, remember and use another person’s name appropriately, you not only convey to that person that he or she is important to you, you instill self-worth within them.” In turn, they are likely to view you as a thoughtful caring person who listens well and pays attention to important details.
Practice the three As: Appreciate, Acknowledge, Ask. Simple words that show a person they are valued generate positive emotions and create job satisfaction, Price says. “Taking the time to sincerely say to another, ‘Thank you, I really appreciate your efforts,’ or ‘We couldn’t have done it without you!’ can really boost morale.”
Equally important to appreciating and acknowledging others is asking for their input. “The single most frequent cause of workplace negativity is when an employer makes decisions that affect their employees without first asking for their input,” Price says. “Words or phrases which only take seconds to say can help create job satisfaction and a sense of well-being in another.”
Use positive words and phrases.
If a co-worker asks for help on a project, don’t say, “That’s not my job.” “That may be true, but it’s certainly not helpful,” Price says. Instead, try something like: “I can see you’re swamped. How can I help?”
If the request is too large, you may respectfully decline or place appropriate limits on your offer. “At least, your words—your verbal attitude–convey empathy, understanding and support,” she adds.
Convince with cause-and-effect phrases. In persuasive or argumentative speaking, we try to convince others to agree with our facts, believe our claim, share our values, accept our conclusions, buy our product, or adopt our way of thinking, Price says. “One proven approach to convince your audience is cause-and-effect reasoning. It’s a method that helps your listeners see why things have happened or will happen as they do. It shows the inevitable linkage between what happens first and what happens next as a result. Cause-and-effect words make your claims sound objective and rational rather than biased and subjective.” Words to help craft cause-and-effect reasoning include:

• Accordingly
• As a result
• Because
• Caused by
• Consequently
• Due to
• For this reason
• Since
• Therefore
• Thus

“Words matter,” Price concludes. “If Rudyard Kipling was right, words are the most powerful drug used by humanity. Whether we use that drug to heal or harm lies in the power of the tongue.”

The 10 Words and Phrases That Motivate Us Most (and The 7 That Don’t!)

Have you ever been in a meeting where you felt the electricity in the room change based on a single sentence?
Words are incredibly powerful: even a solitary one can win you over, put you out, set your boundaries, and change how others perceive you.
With this kind of power, it’s in our best interest to try to understand the science and psychology of words.
I went hunting for some of the top words and phrases that motivate people to be creative, work together and build relationships.
These are the 10 words and phrases that motivate us (and 7 that have the opposite effect!)

10 words and phrases that motivate us

1. If: Describing a positive hypothetical improves performance

Here’s a universal truth: No one likes to be wrong, especially in front of other people.
When you’re facing a lot of “I don’t knows” during a brainstorm or tough challenge, there’s a word that can alleviate the pressure of being wrong and open up a pathway of critical thinking: If.
Tim David, author of Magic Words: The Science and Secrets Behind Seven Words That Motivate, Engage, and Influence, employs this magic word in a very specific sentence I plan to borrow a lot:
‘What would you say if you did know?’
As he explains, deploying the magic “if” allows those you’re addressing to think hypothetically, taking away all the pressure that might prevent them from volunteering an answer.
The book also shares research that when people describe a hypothetical outcome in a positive light, it not only increases their expectations for success, it improves their actual performance.
The hypothetical element is the key, triggered by the “if.”

2. Could: Use instead of ‘should’ for more creativity

A similar form of magic happens with the word “could,” especially when you substitute it for its sibling “should.”
Here’s a cool example from The Science of Us:

In a 1987 study, researchers gave participants an assortment of random objects, including a rubber band. Some of them were asked to think about what the objects were, while others were told to think about what the objects could be. Then, they asked participants to erase a mark without using an eraser. The people who’d been primed to think could “were more likely to recognize that a rubber band could be used in lieu of an eraser, compared to those who considered what these objects were.

Though they seem and sound so similar, research shows that “should” tends to narrow one’s field of vision and limits potential answers, while “could” opens up your mind to new possibilities.
Another study, of ethical and moral challenges, found that:
“When encountering ethical dilemmas, shifting one’s mindset from “What should I do?” to “What could I do?” generates moral insight, defined as the realization that ostensibly competing values are not entirely incompatible.”
A whole new train of thought, achieved just by changing one little word.

3. Yes: 3 ‘little yeses’ can help close a deal

Another “magic word” from Tim David: Yes. It’s particularly interesting how one yes can lead to another, as he describes in a sales study:
“The study looked at whether or not getting someone to say yes during a conversation would affect the outcome of that conversation. First, the salespeople went about their business as usual. They were able to close 18 percent of the sales— not bad. However, when they were instructed to get a minimum of three “little yeses” early on in the conversation, suddenly they were able to close 32 percent of the sales.”
“Little yeses” can be any sort of affirmative, even if it comes in response to a question like “You’re here for the 3 p.m. appointment, right?”

4. Together: Makes teams work harder and smarter (up to 48%!)

The word “together” is all about relatedness, belonging and interconnectivity. Powerful stuff for the brain, seeing as belonging is so elemental in our hierarchy of needs.

So it’s not too surprising that using this word can help teams become more efficient.

A Stanford study had participants work on difficult puzzles on their own, although one group was told that they would be working on their task “together” and could receive a tip from a team member.

The results for the participants who heard “together” were astounding. They:

• Worked 48% longer
• Solved more problems correctly
• Had better recall for what they had seen.
• Said that they felt less tired and depleted by the task
• Reported finding the puzzle more interesting 

“Together” motivates because you feel like you are part of something bigger than yourself.
Relatedly, words like “let’s” and “we” can also help build connection and sense of togetherness, according to Tim David.

5. Thank you: Makes acquaintances more likely to seek a relationship

Gratitude can not only make your life happier—it could also help you further your professional relationships and career.
As research shows, thanking a new acquaintance for their help makes them more likely to seek an ongoing social relationship with you.
In a study of 70 students who provided advice to a younger student, only some were thanked for their advice.
Those who were thanked were more likely to provide their contact details when asked, such as their phone number or email address, for the mentee.

The mentees who gave out thank-yous were also rated as having significantly warmer personalities.
“Saying thank you provides a valuable signal that you are someone with whom a high quality relationship could be formed,” says UNSW psychologist Dr Lisa Williams, who conducted the research.
According to gratitude researcher Jeffrey Froh, these are the five key elements of an effective thank-you:

1. Be timely.
2.  Compliment the attributes of the benefactor.
3. . Recognize the intent of the benefactor.
4.  Recognize the costs to the benefactor.
5. Articulate the benefits.

6. Choose to: Reframe from “have to”

Speaking of gratitude, Marshall Rosenberg, the father of Non-Violent Communication, suggests a simple exercise called “Have to” to “Choose to” that can reframe your life in a big way.
Step 1
What do you do in your life that you don’t experience as playful? List on a piece of paper all those things that you tell yourself you have to do. List any activity you dread but do anyway because you perceive yourself to have no choice.
Step 2
After completing your list, clearly acknowledge to yourself that you are doing these things because you choose to do them, not because you have to. Insert the words “I choose to … “ in front of each item you listed.
Step 3
After having acknowledged that you choose to do a particular activity, get in touch with the intention behind your choice by completing the statement, I choose to … because I want ….

7. And: The best way to state a contrary opinion

Liane Davey, author of You First: Inspire Your Team to Grow Up, Get Along, and Get Stuff Done, has some great tips at HBR on making yourself heard during a difficult conversation. One I picked out in particular is when to use “and.”

“When you need to disagree with someone, express your contrary opinion as ‘and.’ It’s not necessary for someone else to be wrong for you to be right,” she says. When you’re surprised to hear something your counterpart has said, don’t interject with a “But that’s not right!” Just add your perspective. Davey suggests something like this: “You think we need to leave room in the budget for a customer event, and I’m concerned that we need that money for employee training. What are our options?”

Dorie Clark, author of Reinventing You, suggests some additional phrases to make sure you’re heard:

• “Here’s what I’m thinking.”
• “My perspective is based on the following assumptions . . .”
• “I came to this conclusion because . . .”
• “I’d love to hear your reaction to what I just said.”
• “Do you see any flaws in my reasoning?
• “Do you see the situation differently?”

8. Because: Makes whatever you ask feel objective and rational

One of the two most important words in blogging is also one of the top words for motivating anyone: Because.
Social psychologist Ellen Langer tested the power of this word by asking to cut in line at a copy machine. She tried three different ways of asking:

• “Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine?”
• “Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I’m in a rush?”
• “Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I have to make some copies?” –

60% of those she asked let her cut in line using the first request technique. But when she added the “because?” 94% and 93%, respectively, said OK.
The takeaway: When you want people to take action, always give a reason.
Darlene Price, author of Well Said! Presentations and Conversations That Get Results, says cause-and-effect reasoning works because it “makes your claims sound objective and rational rather than biased and subjective.”
Over at Forbes, Price offers a big list of additional cause-and-effect phrases:

• Accordingly
• As a result
• Caused by
• Consequently
• Due to
• For this reason
• Since
• Therefore
• Thus

And Tim David of Magic Words takes this one step further with what he calls the ABT (Advanced Because Technique).

“The idea behind ABT is to get the person to say ‘because’ to themselves. Instead of giving someone a thousand reasons to do something, try asking them, ‘Why?’ When you do that, they will fill in their own ‘because.’ Now it’s their reasons, not yours.”

9. Others’ names: We have a preference for things connected to ourselves

The state of Virginia has 30 percent more residents named Virginia than average, Louisiana’s got 47 percent more people named Louis, and there are 88 percent more Georgias in Georgia than you’d expect.
This is the Name-Letter Effect, a weird phenomenon that has been proven to show that “because most people possess positive associations about themselves, most people prefer things that are connected to the self (e.g., the letters in one’s name).”
So Dale Carnegie was right on in Buffer favorite How to Win Friends and Influence People: “Remember that a person’s name is, to that person, the sweetest and most important sound in any language.”
In fact, there’s evidence that unique brain patterns happen when we hear our own names, as compared to hearing the names of others.

10. Willing: Can turn a “no” into a “yes”

Professor of social interaction Elizabeth Stokoe works often with mediation services that help people deal with disputes.
Analyzing hundreds of calls between mediators and potential clients, she discovered a secret word that changes minds: “Willing.”
She explains in a TED post that many callers are apt to reject mediation on the grounds that the other party is the “kind of person who won’t mediate.”

But when mediators ask people if they would be “willing” to mediate, even resistant callers agreed to try the service.
“Willing” was significantly more effective than other phrasing such as “might you be interested in mediation?” — and it was the only word that achieved a total turnaround from “no” to “yes.”
My theory: it works because if the other party is the kind of person who won’t mediate, then the caller must be the kind of person who will!

Plus: 7 words that have the opposite effect

On the flip side are words that might not seem too detrimental at first glance, but can hurt your trust with your team and even demotivate others.
Jason Fried warns us to beware of the 4-letter words, including:

• Need
• Must
• Can’t
• Easy
• Just
• Only
• Fast

“When collaborating with others — especially when designers and programmers are part of the mix — watch out for these,” he writes. “Be careful when you use them, be careful when you hear them. They can really get you into trouble.”

 Over to you!

What words never fails to motivate you or those around you? What words do you avoid? I’d love to hear it all in the comments!

 

What Is the Meaning of Life?

To wonder too insistently what ‘the meaning of life’ might be marks you out as being somewhat heavy, weird or just naïve.
People nowadays often say – sometimes in a sad way, other times more aggressively and cynically – that ‘life just has no meaning.’

Two reasons are often cited for this. The first has to do with religion. Once upon a time, so the story goes, life had a clear meaning given to us by God: it was about worshiping Him and living according to His dictates. But as religious belief has declined, not only has god supposedly died, but along with him, the meaning he once guaranteed.
Modern science is the second cause of the current crisis of meaning. Scientists tell us that existence, which emerged from a random interplay of chemicals and gases, does have meaning, but it’s of a rather bleak, relentless and narrow sort: for humans – as for all other living things (like amoeba) – the meaning of life is survival and the propagation of one’s genetic material. It sounds very true and at the same time, distinctly futile and melancholy.
Here we want to argue as follows: to wonder about the meaning of life is an extremely important activity, life does have substantial meaning – and there are, in fact, a range of practical steps we can take to ensure we end up leading lives of maximal meaningfulness.


We should start by saying that there is no meaning in life outside of that which we can find by ourselves as a species. There isn’t any kind of objective meaning written in the stars, in a holy book or in sequences of DNA.
What seems to prompt people to complain that life lacks meaning are particular varieties of unhappiness. Let’s consider some central examples:
– You’re in a relationship, but the intensity you experienced at the start has long gone. You don’t seem to talk about anything important any more or share vulnerable feelings and ideas. It feels, as you put it, ‘meaningless’. Or else you’re single and, though you have many friends, every time you see them, the conversation seems shallow and trivial.
– You are at university studying for a degree. You signed up for the course in part because you often feel confused about who you are and what you want. You thought that reading books and going to lectures would shine a light on things, but the topics are dull and disconnected from your confusion. You complain it feels meaningless.


– You’re working in a large profitable company and earning a decent sum every week, but the work doesn’t seem, in the grander scheme, important. By which you mean two things: that you don’t seem to be making any great difference to anyone’s life and also that there’s no profound part of you that you’re able to bring to, or incorporate in, your work. It might as well be done by a robot.
From these strands, we can start to extrapolate a theory of meaning.
Meaning is to be found in three activities in particular: Communication, Understanding and Service.
Let’s look at communication first. We are, by nature, isolated creatures and it appears that some of our most meaningful moments are to do with instances of connection: with a lover, for example, when we reveal our intimate physical and psychological selves, or when we form friendships where substantial truths about our respective lives can be shared. Or on a journey to a new country, when we strike up a conversation with a stranger and feel a thrilling sense of victory over linguistic and cultural barriers. Or when we are touched by books, songs, and films that put their fingers on emotions that are deeply our own but that we had never witnessed externalised so clearly or beautifully before.

Then there’s the meaning that emerges via understanding. This is about the pleasure that can be felt whenever we correct confusion and puzzlement about ourselves or the world. We might be scientific researchers, or economists, poets or patients in psychotherapy; the pleasure of our activities stems from a common ability to map and make sense of what was once painfully unfamiliar and strange.
Thirdly, there’s service. One of the most meaningful things we can do is to serve other people, to try to improve their lives, either by alleviating sources of suffering or else by generating new sources of pleasure. So we might be working as cardiac surgeons and aware every day of the meaning of our jobs or else be in a company that’s making a modest but real difference to people’s lives by helping them get a better night’s sleep, finding their keys or thrilling them aesthetically with elegant furniture or harmonious tunes. Or else our service might be to friends or our own families, or perhaps the earth itself. We’re often told to think of ourselves as inherently selfish. But some of the most meaningful moments come when we transcend our egos and put ourselves at the service of others – or the planet. One should add that in order for service to feel meaningful, it has to be in synch with our native, sincere interests. Not everyone will find medicine or social work, ballet or graphic design meaningful. It’s a case of knowing enough about ourselves to find our particular path to service.


Armed with such ideas, we can move towards defining nothing less than the meaning of life. The meaning of life is to pursue human flourishing through communication, understanding and service.
In order to have meaningful lives, we can also see that certain things will need to be in play.
We need to have relationships with others: not necessarily romantic ones (that’s been way overdone in our society), but connections of some kind where the important things are shared. It might, of course, be relationships with books or songs.
We also need to have a culture conducive to fostering an understanding of oneself and the world. The enemies of this include being surrounded by mass media that throws out chaotic information or an academic environment that promotes dead, sterile investigations.

And lastly we need to have good work, which means a world filled with businesses and organisations geared towards not just profit, but the assistance and genuine improvement of human kind. In addition, we need to help people to discover their own particular inner ‘tune’ that they can put into their work, so that people aren’t just serving per se, but serving in a way that taps into their heartfelt interests.
There are, sadly, a lot of obstacles to meaningful lives. In the area of communication: it’s things like an over-emphasis on sex, an underplaying of friendship, a lack of neighbourliness or an absence of nourishing culture. It’s also, at an internal level, bugs in one’s emotional software that make one afraid to get close to others.
In the area of understanding, it’s a lack of good media, a suspicion of introspection and psychotherapy, and a pompous and disconnected academic world.


And in the area of service, it’s an over-exaggerated concern for money in individuals and companies that puts the focus on financial gain over the genuine needs of others. It’s overly large systems in which the individual is lost and can’t see the impact of his or her work. And internally, it might be about an inner timidity, snobbery or a follow-the-herd mentality, which prevents one from properly getting to know oneself and one’s authentic talents.
To build a more meaningful world, we have to place the emphasis on emotional education, on community, on a culture of introspection and on a more honest kind of capitalism.
We may not have meaningful lives yet, but it’s central to affirm that the concept of a meaningful life is eminently plausible – and that it comprises elements that can be clearly named and gradually fought for.

What is the Meaning of Life for You?

“What is the meaning of life?”

I struggled with this question throughout my teenage years and young adulthood. My parents tried to convey their meaning of life to me when I was a teenager. Yet my contrarian streak prevented me from really listening to them. Instead, I thought and talked about the meaning of life with my friends. I remember long conversations when we would discuss and debate this topic with each other. I particularly remember one conversation when I was 18 – my two closest friends and I stayed up until 5 AM, playing cards, drinking, and trying to convince each other that our individual vision of the meaning of life made the most sense.

Going to college prompted further thought. Listening to professors and reading great books caused me to rethink the meaning of life many times. I really gained a richer perspective, but never a clear answer to my question – “What is the meaning of life?” That was until discovering research about this question.

But, before going into that, let me answer a question that some of you may have on your mind: why does my story matter? Who cares whether some guy figured out the meaning of life or not? Aren’t there bigger fish to fry in the world – hunger, disease, polarized political debate? Why even spend time worrying about the meaning of life?

Recent research shows that people who feel that their life has meaning experience substantially higher sense of well-being and even physical health. For example, Michael F. Steger, a psychologist and Director of the Laboratory for the Study of Meaning and Quality of Life at Colorado State University, found that many people gain a great deal of psychological benefit from understanding what their lives are about and how they fit within the world around them. His research demonstrates that people who have a sense of life meaning and purpose feel in general more happy as well as more satisfied on a daily level, and also feel less depressed, anxious, and are less likely to engage in risky behaviors.

Additionally, research on life meaning and purpose shows that it does not matter how you get this sense of meaning and purpose in life. What’s most important is that you experience your life as having a meaning and purpose. The key question is not “What is the meaning of life?” In fact, research seems to show that there is no one clear answer to this question. The only question that matters is “What is the meaning of life for you?” Each of us is free to formulate her or his own answer to this question. By doing so you get a personal sense of life meaning and purpose, and thus gain a sense of agency and choice by and through understanding your own personal life goals.

So let me ask you a question: “What is the meaning of life for you?” How did you reach your answer?

P.S. For additional resources, check out this workbook with exercises on finding meaning and purpose using science-based strategies; this free science-based web app to evaluate your current sense of meaning and purpose; this free online class on finding meaning and purpose using science; and the wide variety of other resources on meaning and purpose available at Intentional Insights.

31 Hilarious Quotes That Totally NAIL Your Crazy Relationship

Because love is funny-strange, but it's also funny ha-ha.
There's a funny thing about love and relationships, and it's called everything. Thankfully, some of our favorite comedians can relate, and we found the love quotes to prove it.
Not only are these hilariously funny love quotes, they're 100 percent spot on, and from some of the world's most famous, influential people to date.
1.

"Before you marry a person, you should first make them use a computer with slow Internet service to see who they really are."
— Will Ferrell

2.

"I thought I was promiscuous, but it turns out I was just thorough."
— Russell Brand

3.

"I love being married. It's so great to find one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life."
— Rita Rudner 

4.

"If you text 'I love you' to a person and the person writes back an emoji — no matter what that emoji is, they don't love you back."
— Chelsea Peretti

5.

"Love is telling someone their hair extensions are showing."
— Natasha Leggero 

6.

"I'm now making a Jewish porno film. 10 percent sex, 90 percent guilt."
— Henny Youngman
​
7.

"My friends tell me I have an intimacy problem. But they don't really know me."
— Garry Shandling

​8.
​
"Honesty is the key to a relationship. If you can fake that, you’re in."

— Richard Jeni
​
9.

"If love is the answer, could you please rephrase the question?"
— Lily Tomlin

10.

"Being a good husband is like being a stand-up comic. You need 10 years before you can call yourself a beginner."
— Jerry Seinfeld

11.

"My best birth control now is just to leave the lights on."
— Joan Rivers

12.

"Obviously, if I was serious about having a relationship with someone long-term, the last people I would introduce him to would be my family."
— Chelsea Handler

13.

"Love is a lot like a backache, it doesn't show up on X-rays, but you know it's there."
— George Burns

14.

"I was married by a judge. I should have asked for a jury."
— Groucho Marx

15.

"Love is the answer, but while you're waiting for the answer, sex raises some pretty good questions."
— Woody Allen

16.

"If you can stay in love for more than two years, you're on something."
— Fran Lebowitz 

17.

"Marriage is really tough because you have to deal with feelings and lawyers."
— Richard Pryor

18.
​
"There are only three things women need in life: food, water, and compliments."
— Chris Rock

19.

"My wife was afraid of the dark... then she saw me naked and now she's afraid of the light."
— Rodney Dangerfield

20.

"I know a man who gave up smoking, drinking, sex, and rich food. He was healthy right up to the time he killed himself."'
— Johnny Carson

21.

"My brother is gay and my parents don’t care, as long as he marries a doctor."
— Elayne Boosler

22.

"My wife gets all the money I make. I just get an apple and clean clothes every morning."
— Ray Romano

23.

"I went to a meeting for premature ejaculators. I left early."
— Jack Benny

24.

"Love is grand; divorce is a hundred grand."
— Unknown

25.

"Women love a self-confident bald man."
— Larry David

26.

"Women need a reason to have sex. Men just need a place."
— Billy Crystal

27.

"Women cannot complain about men anymore until they start getting better taste in them."
— Bill Maher

28.

"Eighty percent of married men cheat in America. The rest cheat in Europe."
— Jackie Mason

29.​

"Real love amounts to withholding the truth, even when you're offered the perfect opportunity to hurt someone's feelings."
— David Sedaris

30.

"Marry a man your own age; as your beauty fades, so will his eyesight."
— Phyllis Diller

31.
​
"Marriage has no guarantees. If that's what you're looking for, go live with a car battery."
— Erma Bombeck
​
If you're searching for the best quotes and memes to share with the people you love (or just want to feel inspired yourself) ... look no further! From the sweetest love quotes, inspirational sayings, and hilarious relationship truths, we've got you covered.​

 

Love Quotes

50 Love Quotes That Express Exactly What 'I Love You' Really Means

Here's a little inspiration to tell your love how you really feel.
Here's the thing about love: It's hard to put into words.
Love brings up emotions that run the gamut from agony to ecstasy. Love can inspire us to accomplish some of the craziest and most amazing feats.
Love can make you happier than you've ever been, sadder than you've ever been, angrier than you've ever been. It can elate you and deflate you almost at the same time.
While we can all pretty much recognize the emotions associated with love, actually finding the words to explain those feelings is a pretty tough order.
People have searched for centuries to find the right way to say "I love you" and to try to explain those butterflies in your stomach, that warm fuzzy feeling in your belly and that heart skipping a beat.
One thing we DO know is that  whether you've love and won — or loved and lost, it's ALWAYS worth it.

While there are plenty of non-verbal ways to express your love, finding that perfect love quote that sums up exactly what you're feeling can be pretty amazing.
Luckily, some the world's greatest artists, poets, musicians and hopeless romantics (like ourselves) have managed to articulate the magic of love using words so simple and perfect, sharing them can mean the world.

Here are 50 of the best love quotes you will find online, perfect for sharing with that special someone. We couldn't have put these inspirational phrases better ourselves. 

How love works ...

1. "The best love is the kind that awakens the soul; that makes us reach for more, that plants the fire in our hearts and brings peace to our minds. That’s what I hope to give you forever."
— The Notebook 

 

How love feels ... 

2. "I look at you and see the rest of my life in front of my eyes."
— (Unknown)

 

Love brings happiness ... 

3. "The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves."
— Victor Hugo

 

What you learn from love ...

4. "All, everything that I understand, I only understand because I love."

— Leo Tolstoy

 

Where love is, God is ...

5. "And remember, as it was written, to love another person is to see the face of God."
— Les Miserables 

 

Why love matters ... 

6. "I'm much more me when I'm with you."
— (Unknown)

 

Why love hurts ...

7. "It's a very dangerous state. You are inclined to recklessness and kind of tune out the rest of your life and everything that's been important to you. It's actually not all that pleasurable. I don't know who the hell wants to get in a situation where you can't bear an hour without somebody's company."
— Colin Firth  

 

How love colors your world ...

 

8. "The best and most beautiful things in this world cannot be seen or even heard, but must be felt with the heart." 

— Helen Keller 

 

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Love is giving ...
9. "To love is nothing. To be loved is something. But to love and be loved, that’s everything."
— T. Tolis

 

Love is blind ...

10. "I saw that you were perfect, and so I loved you. Then I saw that you were not perfect and I loved you even more."
— Angelita Lim  

 

Love is unselfish ...

11. "In order to be happy oneself it is necessary to make at least one other person happy."
— Theodor Reik

 

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When love takes over ...

12. "The heart wants what it wants. There's no logic to these things. You meet someone and you fall in love and that's that."
— Woody Allen

 

Love does not judge ... 

13. "There's no substitute for a great love who says, 'No matter what's wrong with you, you're welcome at this table.'"
— Tom Hanks

 

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Love grow and grows ...

14. "I swear I couldn't love you more than I do right now, and yet I know I will tomorrow."
— Leo Christopher

 

Love means togetherness ...

15. "If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you."
— A. A. Milne

 

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When love is real ...

16. "You don't love someone because they're perfect, you love them in spite of the fact that they're not."
― Jodi Picoult, My Sister's Keeper

 

Love without end ...

17. "I would rather spend one lifetime with you, than face all the ages of this world alone."
— Lord of The Rings

 

Love is friendship ...


18. "You are my best friend, my human diary and my other half. You mean the world to me and I LOVE YOU."
— (Unknown)

 

Love is a teacher ... 

19. "If I know what love is, it is because of you." 
— Herman Hesse

 

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Love is vulnerable ...

20. "Don’t forget I’m just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her."
— Anna (Julia Roberts) to William (Hugh Grant) in Notting Hill

 

Love is a choice ...

21. "I choose you. And I'll choose you over and over and over. Without pause, without a doubt, in a heartbeat. I'll keep choosing you."
— (Unknown)

 

Love is complicated ...

22. "It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages."
― Friedrich Nietzsche

 

 

Love is crazy, mad, wonderful ...

23. "When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible."
— When Harry Met Sally

 

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How love is poetic ...

24. "At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet."
― Plato

 

How you love like crazy ...

25. "I realized I was thinking of you, and I began to wonder how long you'd been on my mind. Then it occurred to me: Since I met you, you've never left."
— (Unknown)

 

Why love hurts ...

26. "Pleasure of love lasts but a moment. Pain of love lasts a lifetime."
— Bette Davis

 

Love is strength ...

27. "Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage."
— Lao-Tzu

 

How love works ...

28. "Love is like war: easy to begin but very hard to stop."
— H. L. Mencken

 

Love is life ...

29. "Thinking of you keeps me awake. Dreaming of you keeps me asleep. Being with you keeps me alive."
— (Unknown)

 

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When love finds you ...

30. "We are shaped and fashioned by those we love." 
— Geothe

 

Love is wild and crazy ...

31. "When love is not madness it is not love." 
― Pedro Calderón de la Barca

 

Love is magical ...

32. "You have bewitched me body and soul, and I love, I love, I LOVE YOU."
— Pride & Prejudice

 

What is love ...

33. "Love is an untamed force. When we try to control it, it destroys us. When we try to imprison it, it enslaves us. When we try to understand it, it leaves us feeling lost and confused." 
― Paulo Coelho

 

 

How love should be ...

34. "Love is so short, forgetting is so long." 
― Pablo Neruda

 

Love is freedom ...

35. "One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: That word is love." 
― Sophocles

 

How love begins ...

36. "I wish I could turn back the clock. I'd find you sooner and love you longer."
— (Unknown)

 

Love is unselfish ...

37. "You know it's love when all you want is that person to be happy, even if you're not part of their happiness."
— Julia Roberts

 

Why love is important ...

38. "The greatest thing you'll ever learn Is to love and be loved in return."
— "Unforgettable with Love" by Natalie Cole

 

Love is the little things ...

39.  "I hope you know that every time I tell you to get home safe, stay warm, have a good day, or sleep well what I am really saying is I love you. I love you so damn much that it is starting to steal other words' meanings. " 
— Open-365

 

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Love brings joy ...

40. "I have decided to stick to love; hate is too great a burden to bear."
— Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

How love lasts ...

41. "You don't love someone for their looks, or their clothes, or for their fancy car, but because they sing a song only you can hear."
— Oscar Wilde

 

Love is worth it ...

42. "Better to have lost and loved than never to have loved at all."
— Ernest Hemingway

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How love changes over time ...

43. "When I say I love you more, I don't mean I love you more than you love me. I mean I love you more than the bad days ahead of us, I love you more than any fight we will ever have. I love you more than the distance between us, I love you more than any obstacle that could try and come between us. I love you the most." 
— (Unknown)

 

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Love is silly ...
44.  "All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt."
— Charles Schulz

 

Where love lies ...

45. "Where there is love there is life."
— Mahatma Gandhi

 

Love is unconditional ...

46. "I want you. All of you. Your flaws. Your mistakes. Your imperfections. I want you, and only you."
— (Unknown)

 

Love is give and take ...

47. "And in the end, the love you take, is equal to the love you make."
— Paul McCartney

 

Because love makes everything beautiful ...

48. "Because I could watch you for a single minute and find a thousand things that I love about you."
— (Unknown)

 

Love makes you lose your mind a little ...

49.  "There is a madness in loving you, a lack of reason that makes it feel so flawless."
— Leo Christopher

 

Love is EVERYTHING ...

50.  "All of me loves all of you."
— John Legend, All of Me