--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Love is not a desire for beauty; it is a…" description: "\"Love is not a desire for beauty; it is a yearning for completion.\" — Octavio Paz" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c7c/octavio-paz-1790_beauty_love-is-not-a-desire-for-beauty-it-is-a_2633384.jpg" --- # Love is not a desire for beauty; it is a yearning for… ![“Love is not a desire for beauty; it is a yearning for completion.” quote by Octavio Paz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c7c/octavio-paz-1790_beauty_love-is-not-a-desire-for-beauty-it-is-a_2633384.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c7c/octavio-paz-1790_beauty_love-is-not-a-desire-for-beauty-it-is-a_2633384.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c7c/octavio-paz-1790_beauty_love-is-not-a-desire-for-beauty-it-is-a_2633384.jpg) > “Love is not a desire for beauty; it is a yearning for completion.” [Octavio Paz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/octavio-paz/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Love seeks wholeness, not just beauty; it is a deep longing for completeness. **In simple terms:** Love is a yearning for unity. Key Takeaway Seek deeper connection. Themes love completion longing Mood romantic thoughtful Type poetic philosophical When to use this quote - romantic relationships - personal growth - spiritual practice - artistic expression Key Concepts existential yearning philosophical love Questions to Reflect On - What does completeness mean to you? - How do you pursue it? A Different Perspective Love can be idealized. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Beauty](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/beauty/) [Beauty Yearning](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/beauty-yearning-2208380/) [Completion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/completion/) [Desire](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/desire/) [Love](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/love/) [Love Desire](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/love-desire/) [Love is](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/love-is/) [Yearning](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/yearning/) [Yearning Completion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/yearning-completion-959287/) ## Related quotes > [In violence there is often the quality of yearning - the yearning for completion. For closure. 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And if we desire to be more than human,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jacqueline-carey/pride-desire-compassion-cleverness-belligerence-fruitfulness-loyalty/) [Jacqueline Carey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jacqueline-carey/) > [To love someone is to desire and work toward their becoming the best version of themselves. The one person in all the universe who…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-ortberg/to-love-someone-is-to-desire-and-work-toward-their-becoming-the-best/) [John Ortberg](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-ortberg/) > [Where they love they do not desire and where they desire they do not love.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sigmund-freud/where-they-love-they-do-not-desire-and-where-they-desire-they-do-not/) [Sigmund Freud](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sigmund-freud/) > [What we love that we have, but by desire we bereave ourselves of the love.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-waldo-emerson/what-we-love-that-we-have-but-by-desire-we-bereave-ourselves-of-the/) [Ralph Waldo Emerson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-waldo-emerson/) > [You call it love,I call it the desire to conquer every obstacle that life throws our way while we](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/you-call-it-love-i-call-it-the-desire-to-conquer-every-obstacle-that-2/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [Love and desire are the spirits wings to great deeds.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/love-and-desire-are-the-spirits-wings-to-great-deeds/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [Poetry proceeds from the totality of man, sense, imagination, intellect, love, desire, instinct, blood and spirit together.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jacques-maritain/poetry-proceeds-from-the-totality-of-man-sense-imagination-intellect/) [Jacques Maritain](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jacques-maritain/) > [You call it love, I call it the desire to conquer every obstacle that life throws our way while we discover ourselves and grow…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/you-call-it-love-i-call-it-the-desire-to-conquer-every-obstacle-that/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [Love is not only a desire to do something that you want. It is a combination of care, responsibility, honesty, understanding, sincerity and all…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/love-is-not-only-a-desire-to-do-something-that-you-want-it-is-a/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [Love and desire are the spirit's wings to great deeds.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/love-and-desire-are-the-spirit-s-wings-to-great-deeds/) [Johann Wolfgang von Goethe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/) > [“Because I didn't move here to fall in love. The desire for love is universal but that has never meant it's worthy of respect.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rachel-kushner/because-i-didn-t-move-here-to-fall-in-love-the-desire-for-love-is/) [Rachel Kushner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rachel-kushner/) > [She wonders if this is what people call falling in love, the desire to be with someone for every minute of the rest of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/yiyun-li/she-wonders-if-this-is-what-people-call-falling-in-love-the-desire-to/) [Yiyun Li](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/yiyun-li/) ## More by Octavio Paz > [What sets worlds in motion is the interplay of differences, their attractions and repulsions. Life is plurality, death is uniformity. By suppressing differences and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/octavio-paz/what-sets-worlds-in-motion-is-the-interplay-of-differences-their/) [Octavio Paz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/octavio-paz/) > [The religion of art, like the religion of politics, was born from the ruins of Christianity. Art inherited from the old religion the power…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/octavio-paz/the-religion-of-art-like-the-religion-of-politics-was-born-from-the/) [Octavio Paz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/octavio-paz/) > [I thought that the world was a vast system of signs, a conversation between giant beings. My actions, the cricket's saw, the star's blink,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/octavio-paz/i-thought-that-the-world-was-a-vast-system-of-signs-a-conversation/) [Octavio Paz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/octavio-paz/) > [Changes are inseparable from democracy. To defend democracy is to defend the possibility of change; in turn, changes alone can strengthen democracy.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/octavio-paz/changes-are-inseparable-from-democracy-to-defend-democracy-is-to/) [Octavio Paz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/octavio-paz/) > [Grace is gratuitous; it is a gift.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/octavio-paz/grace-is-gratuitous-it-is-a-gift/) [Octavio Paz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/octavio-paz/) > [Death is the mother of forms.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/octavio-paz/death-is-the-mother-of-forms/) [Octavio Paz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/octavio-paz/) > [It is not proper to project our feelings onto things or to attribute our own sensations and passions to them. 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Handicrafts belong to a world existing…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/octavio-paz/a-glass-pitcher-a-wicker-basket-a-tunic-of-coarse-cloth-their-beauty/) [Octavio Paz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/octavio-paz/) > [“Between going and staying the day wavers, in love with its own transparency. The circular afternoon is now a bay where the world in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/octavio-paz/between-going-and-staying-the-day-wavers-in-love-with-its-own/) [Octavio Paz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/octavio-paz/) > [“Two bodies face to face Are at times two waves And the night is an ocean. Two bodies face to face Are sometimes two…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/octavio-paz/two-bodies-face-to-face-are-at-times-two-waves-and-the-night-is-an/) [Octavio Paz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/octavio-paz/) > [Writers, you know, are the beggars of Western society.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/octavio-paz/writers-you-know-are-the-beggars-of-western-society/) [Octavio Paz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/octavio-paz/) > [“Solitude is the profoundest fact of the human condition.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/octavio-paz/solitude-is-the-profoundest-fact-of-the-human-condition/) [Octavio Paz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/octavio-paz/) > [“...you are you and your body of steam, you and your face of night, you and your hair, unhurried lightning, you cross the street…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/octavio-paz/you-are-you-and-your-body-of-steam-you-and-your-face-of-night-you-and/) [Octavio Paz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/octavio-paz/) [Explore all 150 Octavio Paz quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/octavio-paz/) ## More Beauty quotes > [We do not want nowadays temples of worship and outward rites and ceremonies. What we really want is an Asram. We want a place…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rabindranath-tagore/we-do-not-want-nowadays-temples-of-worship-and-outward-rites-and/) [Rabindranath Tagore](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rabindranath-tagore/) > [How could anybody confuse truth with beauty, I thought as I looked at him. Truth came with sunken eyes, bony or scarred, decayed. Its…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janet-fitch/how-could-anybody-confuse-truth-with-beauty-i-thought-as-i-looked-at/) [Janet Fitch](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janet-fitch/) > [A thing of beauty is a joy for ever;It's loveliness increase;it will never pass into nothingness;but still will keep a bower quiet for us,and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-keats/a-thing-of-beauty-is-a-joy-for-ever-it-s-loveliness-increase-it-will/) [John Keats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-keats/) > [To fathom the power, to witness the beauty, to bathe in the fountain, to swing on the spiral of our divinity, and still be…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tool/to-fathom-the-power-to-witness-the-beauty-to-bathe-in-the-fountain-to/) [Tool](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tool/) > [The term "black metal" has become a lot looser, or can include a larger range of sounds and extra-musical aesthetics, not just Satan and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/colin-marston/the-term-black-metal-has-become-a-lot-looser-or-can-include-a-larger/) [Colin Marston](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/colin-marston/) > [“We've all met people who are beautiful on the outside, however, when they open their mouths to speak, they have nothing of substance to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-c-young/we-ve-all-met-people-who-are-beautiful-on-the-outside-however-when/) [Susan C. Young](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-c-young/) > [There are various orders of beauty, causing men to make fools of themselves in various styles.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/there-are-various-orders-of-beauty-causing-men-to-make-fools-of/) [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) > [To me, the beauty of a quilt or a dress lies within the stitches and the thought of the person who made them. When…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/natalie/to-me-the-beauty-of-a-quilt-or-a-dress-lies-within-the-stitches-and/) [Natalie](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/natalie/) > [“do not misunderstand person by beauty You really do not know its real or Mask on dirty thoughts”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mohammed-zaki-ansari/do-not-misunderstand-person-by-beauty-you-really-do-not-know-its-real/) [Mohammed Zaki Ansari](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mohammed-zaki-ansari/) > [“I already love in you your beauty, but I am only beginning to love in you that which is eternal and ever precious –…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/leo-tolstoy/i-already-love-in-you-your-beauty-but-i-am-only-beginning-to-love-in/) [Leo Tolstoy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/leo-tolstoy/) > [The more perfect the sight is the more delightful the beautiful object. The more perfect the appetite, the sweeter the food. The more musical…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-baxter/the-more-perfect-the-sight-is-the-more-delightful-the-beautiful/) [Richard Baxter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-baxter/) > [Call her beautiful a million times and she won't believe you. Call her ugly once, and she will never forget it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tumblr/call-her-beautiful-a-million-times-and-she-won-t-believe-you-call-her/) [Tumblr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tumblr/) > [Time can but make her beauty over again.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-butler-yeats/time-can-but-make-her-beauty-over-again/) [William Butler Yeats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-butler-yeats/) > [ The social \[media channel\] isn't about beauty contests and popularity contests. They're a distortion, a caricature of the real thing. 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I needed to find out all the information I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kate-avery-ellison/what-about-you-what-do-you-do-i-needed-to-ask-questions-draw-him-out/) [Kate Avery Ellison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kate-avery-ellison/) [Browse all 24,662 Beauty quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/beauty/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Love is not a desire for beauty; it is a yearning for completion.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Octavio Paz" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/octavio-paz/love-is-not-a-desire-for-beauty-it-is-a-yearning-for-completion/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Beauty" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/octavio-paz/love-is-not-a-desire-for-beauty-it-is-a-yearning-for-completion/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c7c/octavio-paz-1790_beauty_love-is-not-a-desire-for-beauty-it-is-a_2633384.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c7c/octavio-paz-1790_beauty_love-is-not-a-desire-for-beauty-it-is-a_2633384.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c7c/octavio-paz-1790_beauty_love-is-not-a-desire-for-beauty-it-is-a_2633384.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Love is not a desire for beauty; it is a yearning for completion.” — Octavio Paz", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Octavio Paz", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/octavio-paz/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Love is not a desire for...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/octavio-paz/love-is-not-a-desire-for-beauty-it-is-a-yearning-for-completion/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/octavio-paz/love-is-not-a-desire-for-beauty-it-is-a-yearning-for-completion/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```