Love is not when you love someone because he or she is beautiful, fair, sober, non-smoking, rich, but when simply you love that person.

Love is, probably, when you love even the one’s faults. If the other seems beautiful, intelligent, gifted, this is not necessarily love. A different thing is when you know and love their flaws. (...)

When you love somebody you restrict yourself in many respects, you live for the other and not to become someone important or to gain something. You are worried for his health, you think about his spiritual side, how he feels, and how his career is. And he cares about you for the same reason.

Beauty, passion are pleasant, but what do you do if you're sick or you had an accident and you have lost your beauty and health? Not everyone will want to clean your bedpan and to watch at your bedside, for there are other beautiful and healthy persons around you. (...)

In the case of many people, they are fine while everything is fine – but if something goes wrong, your spouse has to be the one that doesn’t betray you. Your man is your support, your protection and you are his support, and he feels that you are not going to betray him that is always waited at home, that here is where he can relax, he can run from stress and tensions from the outside world, that here is fine, and psychologically protected.

(Translated from Dmitrii Semenik, Dragostea adevărată : taina dragostei înainte și după căsătorie, Traducere de Adrian Tănăsescu-Vlas, Editura Sophia, 2012,pp. 20-21)