Love is what we need.

Human beings are social animals, having evolved as part of closenit groups over thousands of years. Psychological studies prove time and again we are happier when we have good, strong, close, loving relationships with others.

Social isolation is known to be a major cause of psychological & biological problems, and to it's extreme this is why solitary confinement has always been seen as one of our greatest punishments. So this page is just an attempt to emphasize the importance of good relationships to us, especially those most loving relationships with partners, close family and best friends.

The importance of love & good relationships:

Love & Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our lives. 

C. S. Lewis 

Love doesn't make the world go round, it just makes the ride worthwhile.

Unknown

Love is when you expand your circle of interest beyond your individual self to encompass others - so that the well-being of others contributes greatly to your own.

S.H

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom. 

Marcel Proust

The love of family and the admiration of friends is much more important than wealth and privilege. 

Charles Kuralt 

A flower cannot blossom without sunshine, and we cannot live without love. 

Max Muller 

Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for awhile and leave footprints on our hearts. And we are never, ever the same.

Anoymous

Think back to the happiest moments of your life. More often than not they involved those you love. Now go and create even more happier times with those you love.

Stuart Hodgson

Shared joy is a double joy; shared sorrow is half a sorrow.

Swedish Proverb

People are lonely because they build walls instead of bridges.

Anonymous

I once succumbed to the fad of fasting and went for six days and nights without eating.
It wasn't difficult.  I was less hungry at the end of the sixth day than I was at the end
of the second.  Yet I know, as you know, people who would think they had
committed a crime if they let their families or employees go for six days without food;
but they will let them go for six days, and six weeks, and sometimes sixty years without
giving them the hearty appreciation that they crave almost as much as they crave food.

Dale Carnegie

One day the people you love in life won't be there. So make damn sure that the people you value know about it - and make the most of every moment you spend with them.

Stuart Hodgson

There's one sad truth in life I've found while journeying east and west - The only folks we really wound are those we love the best. We flatter those we scarcely know, We please the fleeting guest, And deal full many a thoughtless blow To those who love us best.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Tell those you love you love them; you never know what tomorrow will bring…

Unknwon

A man should never neglect his family for business. 

Walt Disney 

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Choose relationships wisely...

Surround yourself with good people and good things will happen

Unknown

You can not change the people around you. But you can change the people that you choose to be around.

Anoymous

Life is too short to spend a lot of time with people who suck the happiness out of you

Unknown

People inspire you or they drain you, pick the people you associate with wisely

Hans F Hansen

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great makes you feel that you, too, can become great.

Mark Twain

There comes a time in life when you have to let go of all the pointless drama & the people who create it and surround yourself with people who make you laugh so hard that you forget the bad and focus solely on the good. After all, lifes too short to be anything but happy.

Karl Marx (composer)

A person is known by the company he keeps

Unknown

When the character of a man is not clear to you, look at his friends.

Japanese Proverb

Keep people in your life who truly love you, motivate you, encourage you, enhance you, and make you happy.  If you know people who do none of these things, let them go.

Unknown

Friendship...

Friends can help each other. A true friend is someone who lets you have total freedom to be yourself - and especially to feel. Or, not feel. Whatever you happen to be feeling at the moment is fine with them. That's what real love amounts to - letting a person be what he really is. 

Jim Morrison 

The only way to have a friend is to be one.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you go looking for a friend, you’re going to find they’re scarce. If you go out to be a friend, you’ll find them everywhere.

Zig Ziglar

Improving relationships...

Any deep relationship to another human being requires watchfulness and nourishment."

Paul Tillich

If you want to change the way people respond to you, change the way you respond to people.

Timothy Leary

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.

Carl Jung

Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.

William Shakespeare

One should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself.

Golden Rule

Everyone you meet has struggles you know nothing about.  Be kind, always!

Unknown

A relationship is like a garden. They can get more beautiful as they grow - but need care, attention and the weeding out of the bad bits.

Unknown

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Dealing with conflict

When your are in a heated exchange with someone - remember that to respond with anger and emotionally charged, perhaps even vicious comments, is like trying to put out a fire with petrol - you will only make it worse. Instead try to remember to be calm, composed, try to understand and respect the other persons point of view and respond with Equanimity - then its like putting out a fire with water and you will resolve things much quicker.

Stuart Hodgson

Hate. It has caused a lot of problems in this world but has not solved one yet.

Maya Angelou

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Romantic Love

There are many things in life that will catch your eye, but only a few will catch your heart...pursue those.

Michael Nolan

It hurts to love someone and not be loved in return.
 But what is more painful is to love someone and never
find the courage to let that person know how you feel.

Unknown

The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.

Carl Jung

Well, it seems to me that the best relationships - the ones that last - are frequently the ones that are rooted in friendship. You know, one day you look at the person and you see something more than you did the night before. Like a switch has been flicked somewhere. And the person who was just a friend is... suddenly the only person you can ever imagine yourself with

Gillian Anderson

Life has taught us that love does not consist of gazing at each other, but in looking together in the same direction.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

In love, it is better to know and be disappointed, than to not know and always wonder.

Unknown

The couples that are 'meant to be' are the ones who go through everything that is meant to tear them apart, and come out even stronger than they were before.

Unknown

The relationship between husband and wife should be one of closest friends.

B. R. Ambedkar

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Some think love can be measured by the amount of butterflies in their tummy. Others think love can be measured in bunches of flowers, or by using the words ‘for ever.’ But love can only truly be measured by actions. It can be a small thing, such as peeling an orange for a person you love because you know they don’t like doing it.

Marian Keyes

Treasure your relationships, not your possessions.

Anthony J. D’Angelo

Good relationships don’t just happen; they take time, patience and two people who truly want to work to be together.

Unknown

We’ve got this gift of love, but love is like a precious plant. You can’t just accept it and leave it in the cupboard or just think it’s going to get on by itself. You’ve got to keep watering it. You’ve got to really look after it and nurture it.

John Lennon

Short Stories.

The important stuff. The mayonaise jar and a cup of coffee

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 cups coffee. 

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was. 

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He asked the students again if the jar was now full. They agreed it was. The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. “yes” was the reply. 

The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty spaces between the grains of sand. The students laughed. “Now” said the professor to the students “I want you to recognise that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things: your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favourite passions. And if everything else was lost and only they remained; your life would still be full. 

The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, your car. The sand is everything else-the small stuff. If you put the sand into the jar first,” he continued,“there is no room fo the pebbles or the golf balls. 

The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you willl never have room for all the things that are important for you. 

Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18 holes. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the shower. Take care of the golf balls first-the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.” 

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented. The professor smiled. “I’m glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a cup of coffee with a friend.”