Valentine’s Day candy. Valentine’s Day falls on Feb. 14. Photo: Amanda via Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – For the stringent Jew, Valentine’s Day clearly has nothing on Judaism’s own love fest Tu B’Av. For the cynics among us, the Feb. 14 holiday is nothing but a commercialized festival exemplifying everything materialistic in society. But for those romantics at heart who just want to celebrate love, here are 20 Jewish quotes to keep us inspired.

1. “I love you to pieces, distraction, etc.” ― J. D. Salinger, Franny and Zooey

2. “Love your neighbor as yourself.” — Leviticus

3. “The only thing that is going to save mankind is if enough people live their lives for something or someone other than themselves.” — Leon Uris, QB VII

4. “Never say love is ‘like’ anything…It isn’t.” ― Michael Chabon, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh

5. “Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love.” — Albert Einstein

6. “By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth.” — Song of Songs

7. “Only love gives us the taste of eternity.” — Jewish proverb

8. “Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it.” — Song of Songs

9. “Anyone can be passionate, but it takes real lovers to be silly.” — Rose Franken

10. “So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her.” — Genesis

11. “The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and let it come in.” — Morrie Schwartz

12. “Immature love says: ‘I love you because I need you.’ Mature love says, ‘I need you because I love you.’” — Erich Fromm

13. “Everyone has a right to love and be loved, and nobody on this Earth has the right to tell anyone that their love for another human being is morally wrong.” — Barbra Streisand

14. “Love is many things, none of them logical.” — William Goldman, The Princess Bride

15. “This is love, she thought, isn’t it? When you notice someone’s absence and hate that absence more than anything? More, even, than you love his presence?” — Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything Is Illuminated

16. “The truth — that love is the highest goal to which man can aspire.” — Viktor Frankl

17. “Real love doesn’t end, it always remains — a sea. Calm or rough, rippling or rolling, heaving or warming in the sun — but always a sea.” — Yonatan Netanyahu (brother of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu)

18. “The heart wants what it wants. There’s no logic to these things. You meet someone and you fall in love and that’s that.” — Woody Allen

19. “Whenever I go upstairs, it’s always so I can see ‘him’. Now that I have something to look forward to, my life here has improved greatly.” — Anne Frank

20. “How bold one gets when one is sure of being loved” — Sigmund Freud