quote · Words worth keeping
Love sought is good, but given unsought is better.
Love sought is good, but given unsought is better.
Approximate author period: c. 1590 AD · renaissance
From the source collection
Meaning
This means that it is good for her to give love, but even better that she is giving it without reciprocation.
This explanation comes from the collection, rather than a new Edsverb interpretation. See the attribution and source notes below.
Attribution & collection notes
- Author or tradition
- William Shakespeare
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin. - Historical period
- Approximate author period: c. 1590 AD · renaissance
author lifetime midpoint
An author lifetime, approximate period or collection date is not necessarily the date when these words were first written or spoken. - Recorded source
- Familiar Quotations, ninth edition (1905 printing) (1905 AD)
Twelfth Night. Act iii. Sc. 1.
A collection's publication date can be later than the words it records.
The voice behind the words.
Listed in the author section of Bartlett’s ninth-edition anthology, in the linked 1905 printing. Dates reflect that historical edition and may differ from modern scholarship.
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