“We are often deceived in love, often wounded, often unhappy; but we love.”Luc de Vauvenargues · Reflecții și maxime · 1746 · Maxima 294
The risk of being hurt does not cancel love's value; people keep loving, knowing the price.
Vauvenargues neither idealizes nor condemns: he simply observes that the experience of love includes deception and wounds, and yet no one gives it up. It is a remark about human nature — we are made to seek connection even knowing its price. Someone who has been through a painful breakup and falls in love again is not naive but honest about what matters. Fear of being hurt is not a sufficient argument against something without which life seems poorer.
Why it matters Consolation and permission for someone who, after a romantic disappointment, wonders whether trying again is worth it.