December 29, 2025

"Love is an energy which exists of itself. It is its own value."

Thornton Wilder
Did you find this inspiring?
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Explanation

Wilder is saying that love isn't a tool you use to get something else — it’s a force that simply exists and is valuable on its own. Think about staying up with a sick friend, calling your mom just to hear her voice, or cheering on someone with no payoff expected: those acts feel full because the love behind them is enough. When you love this way, you don't constantly calculate returns; you give and are nourished by the giving itself. It’s a reminder that some of life’s richest moments come from wholehearted presence, not from measuring what we’ll get back.

About the Author

Thornton Wilder (April 17, 1897–December 7, 1975) was an American novelist and playwright from Madison, Wisconsin, whose spare, lyrical work made him one of the 20th century’s most celebrated writers. He won three Pulitzer Prizes — for the novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1928) and the plays Our Town (1938) and The Skin of Our Teeth (1943) and influenced modern American theater with his formal experiments and focus on ordinary lives. He’s best remembered for Our Town, a quiet, poetic drama that finds transcendence in daily rituals and human connection. That lifelong concern with the universal, intrinsic value of everyday bonds helps explain his view of love as an energy that exists for its own sake.

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