A book newly acquired by the Thammasat University Library may be useful for students interested in moral philosophy, literature, sociology, folklore, and related subjects.

The Reasons of Love is shelved in the General Stacks of the Pridi Banomyong Library, Tha Prachan campus.

It joins many other books owned by the TU Library about different aspects of the theme of love. 

Its author, Harry Gordon Frankfurt, is professor emeritus of philosophy at Princeton University, the United States of America.

The Reasons of Love argues that love is the most authoritative form of caring.

Moral philosophers have long discussed what is meant by love.

Some TU students may say that they love a TV series or they love a new song by a K-pop band. Love can also have something to do with  human kindness, compassion, and affection, when people unselfishly care about others.

Religions often speak of compassionate and affectionate action towards people and animals.

The Reasons of Love suggests that people do not love something because they are told that it is a good idea to do so.

Professor Frankfurt notes about loving his children: “Besides the fact that my children are important to me for their own sakes, there is the additional fact that loving my children is important to me for its own sake.”

He also points out that since we cannot decide to control what we love, sometimes there is a risk of choosing the wrong thing to love: “Love may engage us in volitional commitments from which we are unable to withdraw and through which our interests may be severely harmed.”

Professor Frankfurt suggests that some people find that they cannot love themselves, which is an important first step for loving other people. If this happens, then he suggests that such people should “at least be sure to hang on to your sense of humor.”

Thoughts about love

Here are some ideas about love as written by authors, all of whom are represented in the TU Library collection:

• Love is the principal cause of pleasure.

St. Thomas Aquinas

• Once for all, then, a short precept is given to you : Love, and do what you wish…

St. Augustine of Hippo

• Since love grows within you, so beauty grows. For love is the beauty of the soul.

St. Augustine of Hippo

• Choose to love whoever you wish: all else will follow.

St. Augustine of Hippo

• There is, in the human Breast, a social Affection, which extends to our whole Species.

President John Adams, letter to Abigail Adams (1775).

• Love is a great beautifier.

Louisa May Alcott, Little Women (1868)

• If we are bold, love strikes away the chains of fear from our souls.

Maya Angelou, Love’s Exquisite Freedom (2011)

• Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator, but among those whom I love, I can: all of them make me laugh.

W.H. Auden, The Dyer’s Hand, and other essays‎ (1962)

• Just as a mother with her own life

Protects her child, her only child, from harm,

So within yourself let grow

A boundless love for all creatures.

Gautama Buddha

• Hatred has never stopped hatred. Only love stops hate. This is the eternal law.

Gautama Buddha

• At the center of religion is love. I love you and I forgive you. I am like you and you are like me. I love all people. I love the world. I love creating. Everything in our life should be based on love.

Ray Bradbury

• The mightiest love was granted him

Love that does not expect to be loved.

Jorge Luis Borges, of Baruch Spinoza in “Baruch Spinoza”

• Where there is the greatest love, there are always miracles.

Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927)

• The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people.

G.K. Chesterton, Illustrated London News (1910)

• The mystery of poverty is that by sharing in it, making ourselves poor in giving to others, we increase our knowledge of and belief in love.

Dorothy Day

• “What is hell?” I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.

Fyodor Dostoevsky

• We are all born for love. It is the principle of existence and its only end.

Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, Sybil (1845)

• From my own limited experience I have found that the greatest degree of inner tranquility comes from the development of love and compassion. The more we care for the happiness of others, the greater our own sense of well-being becomes. Cultivating a close, warm-hearted feeling for others automatically puts the mind at ease. This helps remove whatever fears or insecurities we may have and gives us the strength to cope with any obstacles we encounter. It is the ultimate source of success in life.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama, Compassion and the Individual

• Ultimately, the reason why love and compassion bring the greatest happiness is simply that our nature cherishes them above all else. The need for love lies at the very foundation of human existence. It results from the profound interdependence we all share with one another.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama, Compassion and the Individual

• Love is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.

Robert A. Heinlein

• Above all do not forget your duty to love yourself.

Søren Kierkegaard

• The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen nor even touched, but just felt in the heart.

Helen Keller, The Story of My Life (1905), p. 203

• What is it that makes a person great, admired by creation, well pleasing in the eyes of God? What is it that makes a person strong, stronger than the whole world; what is it that makes him weak, weaker than a child? What is it that makes a person unwavering, unwavering as a rock; what is it that makes him soft, softer than wax? –It is love! What is it that is older than everything? It is love. What is it that outlives everything? It is love. What is it that cannot be taken but itself takes all? It is love. What is it that cannot be given but itself gives all? It is love. What is it that perseveres when everything falls away? It is love. What is it that comforts when all comfort fails? It is love. What is it that endures when everything is changed? It is love. What is it that remains when the imperfect is abolished? It is love. What is it that witnesses when prophecy is silent? It is love. What is it that does not cease when the vision ends? It is love. What is it that sheds light when the dark saying ends? It is love. What is it that gives blessing to the abundance of the gift? It is love. What is it that gives pith to the angel’s words? It is love. What is it that makes the widow’s gift an abundance? It is love. What is it that turns the words of the simple person into wisdom? It is love. What is it that is never changed even though everything is changed? It is love; and that alone is love, that which never becomes something else. It is love!

Søren Kierkegaard, Three Upbuilding Discourses, Love Will Hide a Multitude of Sins, p. 55

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)