The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran 1882 - 1931

"Love one another but make not a bond of love. Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup. Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone, even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music."



Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke 1875 - 1926

"The point of marriage is not to create a quick commonality by tearing down all boundaries; on the contrary, a good marriage is one in which each partner appoints the other to be the guardian of his solitude, and thus they show each other the greatest possible trust. A merging of two people is an impossibility, and where it seems to exist, it is a hemming-in... once the realization is accepted that even between the closest people infinite distances exist, a marvelous loving side-by-side can grow up for them, if they succeed in loving the expanse between them, which gives them the possibility of always seeing each other as a whole and before an immense sky.



Forms of the Implicit Love of God by Simone Weil 1909 - 1943

...Friendship exists only where distance is preserved and respected... Pure friendship is an image of the original and perfect friendship that is the very essence of God. It is impossible for two human beings to be one while scrupulously respecting the distance that separates them, unless God is present in each of them. The point where parallels meet is infinity.