FOR VALENTINE'S Day, some reflections on love and romance:
* "Love affairs have always greatly interested me, but I do not greatly care for them in books or moving pictures. In a love affair I wish to be the hero, with no audience present."
-- Edgar Watson Howe
* "Love is much nicer to be in than an automobile accident, a tight girdle, a higher tax bracket, or a holding pattern over Philadelphia."
-- Judith Viorst
* "Love is the bewilderment which overtakes one person on account of another."
-- James Thurber and E. B. White
* "The charm of kissing, to a genuinely civilized man, lies very largely in the fact that it is not everywhere and always convenient . . . his fancy delights to play with the contrast between the girl's aloof dignity in public and her somewhat exigent willingness behind the door. This contrast flatters and delights him; it is at the heart of romance."
-- H. L. Mencken
* "Love means giving one's self to another person fully, not just physically. When two people really love each other, this helps them to stay alive and grow. One must really be loved to grow. Love's such a precious and fragile thing that when it comes we have to hold on tightly. And when it comes, we're very lucky because for some it never comes at all. If you have love, you're wealthy in a way that can never be measured. Cherish it."
-- Nancy Reagan