quotations about kissing
We are in favor of a certain degree of shyness when a kiss is proposed, but it should not be continued too long; and when the fair one gives it, let it be administered with warmth and energy. Let there be soul in it. If she closes her eyes, and sighs deeply immediately after it, the effect is greater. She should be careful not to slobber a kiss, but give it as a humming-bird runs his bill into a honeysuckle--deep, but delicate. There is much virtue in a kiss when well delivered. We have had the memory of one we received in our youth, which has lasted us forty years, and we believe it will be one of the last things we will think of when we die.
SIDNEY SMITH
attributed, Graham's Illustrated Magazine
A kiss is a secret which takes the lips for the ear.
EDMOND ROSTAND
Cyrano de Bergerac
It is the passion that is in a kiss that gives it its sweetness: it is the affection in a kiss that sanctifies it.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
For my part I feel an immense and imperative need of that pure embrace, of that chaste kiss, which is no longer the savage bite of the flesh, but the ideal caress of the soul.
OCTAVE MIRBEAU
The Diary of a Chambermaid
Ah why refuse the blameless bliss?
Can danger lurk within a kiss?
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE
"To Sara"
Ah, in those earliest days of love how naturally the kisses spring into life! So closely, in their profusion, do they crowd together that lovers would find it as hard to count the kisses exchanged in an hour as to count the flowers in a meadow in May.
MARCEL PROUST
Swann's Way
'Tis true, the kiss which to the vermeil cheek
All delicate is given, we own is sweet;
But those who rightly judge, as ye can judge,
Blest lovers! who have prov'd it, must declare
That's but a lifeless kiss, where the dear maid
Doth not herself with joy return the kiss.
But when the lips of an enamor'd pair
Most cordially encounter--and the smack
(Just when with sweet revenge the God of Love
Wounds either mouth) so charmingly resounds!
These are true kisses; where, with honest will,
As much is rendered back as was received.
Let the nice curious mouth refin'dly kiss
The forehead, neck, or hand; 'twill ever find
No part of the sweet maid, who tastes the kiss,
Can like the mouth its grateful sense express.
For here, doth either soul, with eager joy,
Rushing, the kiss repay--and, with new fire,
Gives to the precious kissing rubies, life.
GIOVANNI BATTISTA GUARINI
Pastor Fido
Where do the noses go? I always wondered where the noses would go.
ERNEST HEMINGWAY
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Well, I'm already going to Hell for kissing you, so I may as well take the scenic route.
AARON DAVIS
Latter Days
Kissing is the only human act that fully engages all five senses. Beyond the smoldering eyes, beyond the commingling of mutual desires, the romantic soul soon cries out for contact, and to the wonder of Sight we add a second sense, intrepid Touch. The embrace! At this point the commitment is made. The kiss, for better or worse, must happen. A whiff of fragrant hair sends Smell dancing into action, and as the kiss rushes to its fruition, a thousand little cupids dart through the bloodstream. Her lips part, but only slightly; his descend as the twin sisters Sound and Taste envelop these heedless heads--a sound faint and surreal, a susurration, but such a taste! What follows is an indescribable blur that I am helpless to describe, for it includes the accumulated wisdom of 10,000 years of human history.
JOHN BLOOM
Texas Monthly, Feb. 1980
Kissing is an old marvel--an old, old marvel whose origins are hidden somewhere within that turbid region of the unconscious reserved for matters of lust and passion. To our everlasting discredit, the first kiss was not recorded. But the anthropologists envision a hirsute primitive, some ten millennia ago, endowed with the beastly habit of eating any and every object that seemed desirable. It mattered not whether the object was a lamb chop, a woolly mammoth, or a woman--let it be tasted nevertheless.
JOHN BLOOM
Texas Monthly, Feb. 1980
Hollywood's a place where they'll pay you a thousand dollars for kiss, and fifty cents for your soul.
MARILYN MONROE
My Story
For the kiss you give you reclaim in the act of giving, and the one you receive you instantly redeliver, neither party sustaining any loss.
KRISTOFFER NYROP
The Kiss and Its History
The kiss originated when the first male reptile licked the first female reptile, implying in a subtle, complimentary way that she was as succulent as the small reptile he had for dinner the night before.
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
The Crack-Up
Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy.
PROVERBS 27:6
Great one another with a holy kiss.
ROMANS 16:16
There was such an incredible logic to kissing, such a metal-to-magnet pull between two people that it was a wonder that they found the strength to prevent themselves from succumbing every second. Rightfully, the world should be a whirlpool of kissing into which we sank and never found the strength to rise up again.
ANN PATCHETT
Bel Canto
The most important thing you can do when kissing is to slow down, take your time, and simply try to enjoy the physical sensations of lip contact with someone else.
WILLIAM CANE
The Art of Kissing
A kiss is persecution for the child, ecstasy for the youth and homage for the old.
MARK STIBBE
The Bells! The Bells!
Kissing is the greatest chemistry test of whether a couple is going to fuse--or explode.
TINA FERRARO
The ABC's of Kissing Boys