The word "love" is used far too frequently and far too imprecisely. It moves heaven and earth, it illuminates the purest of pages, but oh, with what ease it is pressed into service to mask the most infamous of passions, the vilest selfishness, and even crime!

Next to ‘God’, ‘love’ is the word most mangled in every language.

We use the word love in such a sloppy way that it can mean almost nothing or absolutely everything.

The word 'love,' used in connection with the reproduction of our species, is the most odious blasphemy taught in our times.

Love is just another means of manipulation. We can use that emotion like we use hatred and fear.

The power of the word is completely misused in hell. We use the word to curse, to blame, to find guilt, to destroy. Of course, we also use it in the right way, but not too often. Mostly we use the word to spread our personal poison - to express anger, jealousy, envy, and hate. The word is pure magic - the most powerful gift we have as humans - and we use it against ourselves. We plan revenge. We create chaos with the word. We use the word to create hate between different races, between different people, between families, between nations. We misuse the word so often, and this misuse is how we create and perpetuate the dream of hell. Misuse of the word is how we pull each other down and keep each other in a state of fear and doubt.

Love is a special word, and I use it only when I mean it. You say the word too much and it becomes cheap.

I'm afraid love is just a word.

Some words hide the truth. Just as torture can be named enhanced interrogation, and logging of old-growth forests is named the Healthy Forest Initiative, words that lie about prostitution leave people confused about the nature of prostitution and trafficking. The words "sex work" make the harms of prostitution invisible.

Love is the most important word in the English language — and the most confusing.

The men in my life have always been the folks who are wary of using the word 'love' lightly. They are wary because they believe women make too much of love. And they know that what we think love means is not always what they believe it means. Our confusion about what we mean when we use the word 'love' is the source of our difficulty in loving. If our society had a commonly held understanding of the meaning of love, the act of loving would not be so mystifying.

We can confuse love with dependency, manipulation, and neediness. None of those are love. Love is when we want other people to be who they are.

Love is reverence, worship, glory, and the upward glance. But they don’t know it. Those who speak of love most promiscuously are the ones who’ve never felt it. They make some sort of feeble stew out of sympathy, compassion, contempt and general indifference, and they call it love. Once you’ve felt what it means to love–the total passion for the total height–you’re incapable of anything less..

People have these preconceived notions of what love is and what it should be and what a love story is. Let’s do the same thing. Let’s confuse people, let’s open up this word.