For to love, loveless, is a bitter pill

Quote byJan Struther · 1901–1953

Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: THE CHOICE, BETSINDA DANCES AND OTHER POEMS.

English (original)

For to love, loveless, is a bitter pill: But to be loved, unloving, bitterer still.

— Jan Struther

Then say–how come the years to seem so swift, The days, the days so slow?

Now heaven be thanked, I am out of love again! I have been long a slave, and now am free;

O love's a simple word to say With nature aiding and abetting;

And I am a mockery, who was God before.

Come, let us wage a holy war!

To be entirely at leisure for one day is to be for one day an immortal: