simmel in love (economias xii)

[Texts from: "The Philosophy of Money" - Translated by T. Bottomore & D.Frisby. Routledge, second Edition]

"this dual significance of desire - that it can arise only at a distance from objects, a distance that it attempts to overcome, and yet that it presupposes a closeness between the objects and ourselves in order that the distance should be experienced at all - has been beautifully expressed by Plato in the statement that love is an intermediate state between possession and deprivation" (76) "i would call your attention to love, which receives its contents and colouring from the desire for the closest and most permanent union, and frequently loses both when its object is attained" (166)

"it is above all the exchange of economic values that involves the notion of sacrifice. When we exchange love for love, we have no other use of our inner energy and, leaving aside any later consequences, we do not sacrifice any good" (82) "by subsuming the two events or changes of condition that are going on in reality under the concept of 'exchange', one is tempted to assume that something else has ocurred beyond what is experienced by the contracting parties; just as the concept of a 'kiss', which is also 'exchanged', might tems us to regard the kiss as something beyond the movement and experiences of two pairs of lips" (83).

"while the deepest and most sublime love may be that between two souls, which excludes all carnal desire, so long as such love is unattainable, the sentiment of love will develop most fully wjere a spiritual relation is complemented and mediated by a close sensual bond. Paradise may fulfil the promise of eternal bliss under conditions in which the consciousness of bliss no longer requires the contrast of opposite emotions, but, as long as we remain human, positive happiness depends upon the contrast with our other experiences of pain, indiference and depression" (191) "I would remind you that the fundamental emotion of love can manifest itself sensually and spiritually in such a way that the one seeks to eliminate the other; and that very often an interplay between the two possibilities expresses the basic emotion most fully and vividly" (194)