In our estimate of an affection, its intensity, though doubtless of great importance, is yet of an importance that is clearly secondary.

Else things that the modern world regards as the most abominable might be on a level with the things it regards as most pure and holy; the lovers of Athens might even put to shame with their passion the calm sacramental constancy of many a Christian pair; and the whole fabric of modern morals would be undermined.

For, according to the modern conception of morals, love can not only give life its highest quality, but its lowest also.

If it can raise man to the angels, it can also sink him below the beasts; and as to its intensity, it is a force which will carry him in the one direction just as well as the other.
Kind and not degree is the first thing needful.

It is the former, and not the latter, that essentially separates David and Jonathan from Harmodius and Aristogeiton, St.Elizabeth from Cleopatra, the beloved disciple from Antinous.