Agape Quotes

• Agape is something of the understanding, creative, redemptive goodwill for all men. It is a love that seeks nothing in return. It is an overflowing love; it's what theologians would call the love of God working in the lives of men. And when you rise to love on this level, you begin to love men, not because they are likeable, but because God loves them.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Life, Men, Creative

  "Loving Your Enemies". Sermon by Martin Luther King, Jr. at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Montgomery, Alabama, November 17, 1957.

  26 Copy quote

  Show source

• The only way love can last a lifetime is if it's unconditional. The truth is this: love is not determined by the one being loved but rather by the one choosing to love.

  Stephen Kendrick

  Love, Relationship, Truth

  Alex Kendrick, Stephen Kendrick (2013). “The Love Dare”, p.46, B&H Publishing Group

  90 Copy quote

  Show source

• Agape doesn't love somebody because they're worthy. Agape makes them worthy by the strength and power of its love. Agape doesn't love somebody because they're beautiful. Agape loves in such a way that it makes them beautiful.

  Rob Bell

  Beautiful, Way, Agape Love

  Rob Bell (2010). “Sex God”, p.86, Harper Collins

  43 Copy quote

  Show source

• I'm a little pencil in the hand of a writing God, who is sending a love letter to the world.

  Mother Teresa

  Love, Marriage, God

  77 Copy quote

• Agape is disinterested love. . . . Agape does not begin by discriminating between worthy and unworthy people, or any qualities people possess. It begins by loving others for their sakes. . . . Therefore, agape makes no distinction between friend and enemy; it is directed toward both.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Faith, People, Enemy

  Martin Luther King (Jr.) (1964). “A Martin Luther King Treasury”

  37 Copy quote

  Show source

• There may come a time when it will be possible for you to humiliate your worst enemy or even to defeat him, but in order to love the enemy you must not do it... The Greek language has another word [for love]. It calls it agape. Agape is more than romantic love. Agape is more than friendship. Agape is understanding, redemptive goodwill for all men. Agape is an overflowing love, a spontaneous love, which seeks nothing in return. And theologians would say that it is the love of God operating in the human heart. When you rise to love on this level you love all men, not because you like them, not because their ways appeal to you, not because they are worthful to you, but you love all men because God loves them. And you rise to the noble heights of loving the person who does the evil deed while hating the deed that the person does. And I think this is what Jesus means when he says, “Love your enemies.”

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Life, Jesus, Hate

  "Loving Your Enemies". Sermon Delivered at the Detroit Council of Churches' Noon Lenten Services, kinginstitute.stanford.edu. March 07, 1961.

  26 Copy quote

  Show source

• Agape love is...profound concern for the well-being of another, without any desire to control that other, to be thanked by that other, or to enjoy the process.

  Madeleine L'Engle

  Love Is, Profound, Desire

  103 Copy quote

• There must be a stronger foundation than mere friendship or sexual attraction. Unconditional love, agape love, will not be swayed by time or circumstances.

  Stephen Kendrick

  Unconditional Love, Stronger, Foundation

  Alex Kendrick, Stephen Kendrick (2013). “The Love Dare”, p.48, B&H Publishing Group

  60 Copy quote

  Show source

• The Greeks were smarter than us, and they had different words for different kinds of love. There's storge, which is family love. That's not us. There's eros, which is sexual love. There's philia, which is brotherly love. And then there's the highest form. Agape.” He pronounced it “aga-pay.” “That's transcendental love, like when you place the other person above yourself.

  Bill Konigsberg

  Family Love, Greek, Different

  Bill Konigsberg (2013). “Openly Straight”, p.205, Scholastic Inc.

  27 Copy quote

  Show source

• Agape means recognition of the fact that all life is interrelated. All humanity is involved in a single process, and all men are brothers. To the degree that I harm my brother, no matter what he is doing to me, to that extent I am harming myself.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Wisdom, Brother, Mean

  Martin Luther King (Jr.) (1964). “A Martin Luther King Treasury”

  25 Copy quote

  Show source

• Agape is the catalyst that makes value appear in anything.

  Peter Kreeft

  Love, Catalyst, Values

  Peter Kreeft (2009). “The God Who Loves You: Love Divine, All Loves Excelling”, p.51, Ignatius Press

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• We must never stop dreaming. Dreams provide nourishment for the soul, just as a meal does for the body. Many times in our lives we see our dreams shattered and our desires frustrated, but we have to continue dreaming. If we don't, our soul dies, and agape cannot reach it.

  Paulo Coelho

  Dream, Soul, Frustrated

  Paulo Coelho (1992). “The diary of a magus”, Harpercollins

  18 Copy quote

  Show source

• Agape, the love of each one of us for the other, from the closest to the furthest, is in fact the only way that Jesus has given us to find the way of salvation and of the Beatitudes.

  Pope Francis

  Jesus, Way, Facts

  "The Pope: how the Church will change". Interview with Eugenio Scalfari, www.repubblica.it. October 1, 2013.

  23 Copy quote

  Show source

• This is the secret of life: the self lives only by dying, finds its identity (and its happiness) only by self-forgetfulness, self-giving, self-sacrifice, and agape love.

  Peter Kreeft

  Sacrifice, Self, Giving

  18 Copy quote

• Divine love, agape, is self-sacrificing love, which sounds difficult, as it is, and not very attractive. If the best image we have of love is of a man who's been tortured and hung upon a cross to die an excruciating death, this is something that human beings find very, very hard to understand as love. But it is the highest Christian image of love.

  Kevin Hart

  Christian, Sacrifice, Love Is

  "The Poetry and Prayers of Kevin Hart". "Encounter" with Carmel Howard, www.abc.net.au. June 5, 2011.

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• Agape means love for another self not because of any lovable qualities which he or she may possess, but purely and entirely because it is a self capable of experiencing happiness and misery and endowed with the power to choose between good and evil. The love of humans is thus more than a feeling, it is a state of the will.

  Obert C. Tanner

  Love, Mean, Self

  12 Copy quote

• What is this love that endures decades, passes on sleep, and resists death to give one kiss? Call it agape love, a love that bears a semblance of God's.

  Max Lucado

  Sleep, Kissing, Giving

  Max Lucado (2009). “3:16: The Numbers of Hope”, p.30, Thomas Nelson Inc

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

• On this special day of love, remember that your Father loves you more than you could ever imagine...no matter what you’ve done or haven’t done. No box of candy or flowers can compare to this kind of agape love!

  Joyce Meyer

  Love, God, Religious

  17 Copy quote

• It is possible to be at the top of Christian service, respected and admired, and not have that indispensable ingredient by which God has chosen to work in His world today - the absolute sacrificial agape love of the Eternal God.

  David Jeremiah

  Christian, World, Today

  20 Copy quote

• Agape's object is always the concrete individual, not some abstraction called humanity. Love of humanity is easy because humanity does not surprise you with inconvenient demands. You never find humanity on your doorstep, stinking and begging.

  Peter Kreeft

  Life, Humanity, Doe

  "Love". Fundamentals of the Faith: Essays in Christian Apologetics, www.peterkreeft.com. 1988.

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• What I am trying to say is that it is not without any value. The value of copies is that they can direct us towards the original. I was recently at the Louvre Museum and I was filming people who were viewing the Mona Lisa. I noticed the number of ordinary people, astonished, mouths agape, standing still for long stretches looking at the work, and I wondered, "Where does this come from? Are these people all art connoisseurs?" They are like me; through the years, we've seen this work in our schoolbooks or art history books, but when we stand before the original, we hold our breath.

  Abbas Kiarostami

  Art, Book, Years

  18 Copy quote

• Fasting and feasting are universal human responses, and any meal, shared with love, can be an agape.

  Elise M. Boulding

  Fasting, Meals, Eating

  17 Copy quote

• There's a term, agape, you hear used a lot with charismatic religious groups, that it's this more pure love of caring, of sharing of concern and understanding. I think players and teams have to come to that at some point in the season to become successful. Maybe not "personal friends," but they become teammates at the highest level of that term.

  Phil Jackson

  Religious, Team, Successful

  Source: onlyagame.wbur.org

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• While we do our good works let us not forget that the real solution lies in a world in which charity will have become unnecessary.

  Chinua Achebe

  Real, Lying, Compassion

  FaceBook post by Chinua Achebe from Dec 17, 2011

  51 Copy quote

  Show source

• My teenage children watched Senator Clinton on the Today Show, mouths agape. They attended our local caucus with me and saw hundreds of our friends and neighbors gathered in the elementary school gym on that Sunday afternoon, despite an ugly Maine snowstorm. They listened to the thoughtful searching debates and saw us cast our votes. How could anyone suggest we didn't know exactly what we were doing? 'What's the point of electing someone who doesn't believe in the American people?' they asked. 'If she wants to ignore us now when she's only a candidate, what will she do as the President?'

  Shoshana Zuboff

  Teenage, Children, Believe

  8 Copy quote