"Being in love is a good thing, but it is not the best thing. There are many things below it, but there are also things above it. You cannot make it the basis of a whole life. It is a noble feeling, but it is still a feeling…who could bear to live in that excitement for even five years?... But, of course, ceasing to ‘be in love’ need not mean ceasing to love. Love in a second sense – love as distinct from ‘being in love’ – is not merely a feeling. It is a deep unity, maintained by will and deliberately strengthened by habit; reinforced by the grace which both parents ask, and receive, from God. They can have this love for each other even at those moments when they do not like each other; as you love yourself even when you do not like yourself. They can retain this love even when each would easily, if they allowed themselves, be ‘in love’ with someone else. ‘Being in love’ first moved them to promise fidelity; this quieter love enables them to keep the promise. It is on this love that the engine of marriage is run; being 'in love' was the explosion that started it."
C.S. Lewis
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