18 Beautiful Quotes About Intimacy and Love
Intimacy is often confused with sex, but in actuality it involves feeling deeply emotionally connected with another person and a desire to be deeply known. Intimacy is not something achieved quickly, but rather something that continues to mature and develop over time, like a garden or fine wine. Although intimacy is something many of us long for, not all of us find or experience it in our relationships. This is because intimacy involves being vulnerable — taking emotional risks and working through the fear of allowing another person to see you as you truly are. It involves trust, caring, acceptance, safety, and connection. To nurture intimacy is to be willing to show all sides of yourself, to embrace differences, to grow from conflict, and to choose our partners — the individuals we share our hearts with — wisely.
Below are 18 quotes on intimacy and love demonstrating their beauty and timelessness.
“It is an absolute human certainty that no one can know his own beauty or perceive a sense of his own worth until it has been reflected back to him in the mirror of another loving, caring human being.”
“I wonder if this is how people always get close: They heal each other’s wounds; they repair the broken skin.”
“Most people are slow to champion love because they fear the transformation it brings into their lives. And make no mistake about it: love does take over and transform the schemes and operations of our egos in a very mighty way.”
“True love is not a hide and seek game: in true love, both lovers seek each other.”
“The deepest moments of intimacy occur when you’re not talking.”
“Can the purpose of a relationship be to trigger our wounds? In a way, yes, because that is how healing happens; darkness must be exposed before it can be transformed. The purpose of an intimate relationship is not that it be a place where we can hide from our weaknesses, but rather where we can safely let them go. It takes strength of character to truly delve into the mystery of an intimate relationship, because it takes the strength to endure a kind of psychic surgery, an emotional and psychological and even spiritual initiation into the higher Self. Only then can we know an enchantment that lasts.”
“They slipped briskly into an intimacy from which they never recovered.”
“Love is like breathing. You take it in and let it out.”
“Intimacy is a totally different dimension. It is allowing the other to come into you, to see you as you see yourself.”
“Real intimacy is a sacred experience. It never exposes its secret trust and belonging to the voyeuristic eye of a neon culture. Real intimacy is of the soul, and the soul is reserved.”
“Intimacy is not something that just happens between two people; it is a way of being alive. At every moment, we are choosing either to reveal ourselves or to protect ourselves, to value ourselves or to diminish ourselves, to tell the truth or to hide. To dive into life or to avoid it. Intimacy is making the choice to be connected to, rather than isolated from, our deepest truth at that moment.”
“It is not time or opportunity that is to determine intimacy—it is disposition alone. Seven years would be insufficient to make some people acquainted with each other, and seven days are more than enough for others.”
“If you love a person and live the whole life with him or with her, a great intimacy will grow and love will have deeper and deeper revelations to make to you. It is not possible if you go on changing partners very often. It is as if you go on changing a tree from one place to another, then another; then it never grows roots anywhere. To grow roots, a tree needs to remain in one place. Then it goes deeper; then it becomes stronger. Intimacy is good, and to remain in one commitment is beautiful, but the basic necessity is love. If a tree is rooted in a place where there are only rocks and they are killing the tree, then it is better to remove it. Then don’t insist that it should remain in the one place. Remain true to life – remove the tree, because now it is going against life.”
“If fear is the great enemy of intimacy, love is its true friend.”
“Real intimacy is only possible to the degree that we can be honest about what we are doing and feeling.”
“My great hope is to laugh as much as I cry; to get my work done and try to love somebody and have the courage to accept the love in return.”
“Love is friendship that has caught fire. It is quiet understanding, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving. It is loyalty through good and bad times. It settles for less than perfection and makes allowances for human weaknesses.”
“To grow in our ability to love ourselves we need to receive love as well.”
Therapist in mclean, tysons corner, merrifield, falls church, arlington and vienna
Victoria Chialy Smith, PhD is a licensed clinical psychologist serving the Falls Church, McLean, Great Falls, Vienna, Arlington, Alexandria, and the greater Washington DC region. She provides individual therapy to children, teens, and adults with stress, anxiety, and depression. Our practice provides Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), mindfulness and acceptance based therapies, and other top, premier evidence-based treatments. Call, email, or schedule an appointment with us online today. We’re happy to help!
1. What drew you to the field of psychological and neuropsychological assessment?
"I was diagnosed with ADHD later in life, while I was in graduate school, and that experience really shaped my passion for assessment. After my diagnosis, I was able to look back at pieces of my childhood that I had previously viewed through the lens of anxiety or “I just didn't try hard enough” and recognize that, in reality, my brain just worked differently.
That's one of the things I love most about testing. So often, people know that something feels different or that they're struggling, but they don't necessarily have the words to explain why. This can be especially true for high-achieving individuals. They may be doing well academically or professionally, while the difficulties show up elsewhere (relationships, work performance, anxiety, self-esteem, effort to mask, etc).
Receiving a diagnosis can be incredibly validating because it gives someone a framework for understanding their experiences. Instead of wondering, “Am I just not trying hard enough?” or “Is everyone else struggling this much too?”, they can recognize that their brain genuinely processes certain things differently. For many of my adult clients, an evaluation is the first time they feel truly understood.
That's also why I tell people that it's never too late to pursue testing. That feeling of validation and being understood is powerful and invaluable, no matter what age. And for providers, if you suspect that there may be something more going on for a client, referring them for an evaluation can be an incredibly helpful next step in their journey."