This time of year often leaves us longing to express our affection towards the people who mean the most to us. However, it can be difficult to adequately capture the power of love in words, especially when that special someone deeply values the written arts. To get you started, here are some particularly poignant texts that are sure to capture the heart of your loved one this Valentine's Day -- or any time, for that matter!

1. “To love or have loved, that is enough. Ask nothing further. There is no other pearl to be found in the dark folds of life.” ~ Victor Hugo, "Les Miserables"

Despite the challenges of daily life, this quote reminds us that the beautiful simplicity of love is enough to sustain us through it all.

2. "Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same." ~ Emily Bronte, "Wuthering Heights"

For many people, love has an intense spiritual element. It's incredibly powerful to believe that there is something metaphysical that brings kindred spirits together, and we are enabled to see the deepest places in the hearts of the ones we love and know that they are connected to the deepest parts in ourselves.

3. “Here is the deepest secret nobody knows (here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of a sky of a tree called life; which grows higher than soul can hope or mind can hide) and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart.” ~ E.E. Cummings, "I Carry Your Heart With Me"

I love the natural imagery used in this poem to emphasize the way that the beauty of falling in love seems to amplify the beauty of the natural world. Loving another person intimately and sacrificially truly helps us see the world through new eyes and helps us make sense of the awe and mystery around us.

4. “Every atom of your flesh is as dear to me as my own; in pain and sickness it would still be dear.” ~ Charlotte Bronte, "Jane Eyre"

I think that this idea can be understood in several ways. In the physical sense, it speaks to a love for every square inch of a person's outer self, no matter what perceived imperfections it might have. However, an atom in its essence is the fundamental core of being. True love embraces not only outer beauty, but also embraces the heart of who a person is when all pretenses are stripped away.

5. “Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealously is cruel as the grave; the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it; if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would be utterly contemned.” ~ Song of Solomon 8:6, King James Version

How incredible is it to think that a vast majority of human life revolves around an entity that not even nature's strongest physical forces can overcome it? How much more incredible is it to think that this entity manifests itself in the form of something so simple and timid as two people engraving one another's values, hopes, and fears upon the surface of their own hearts?

6. "Love, whether newly born or aroused from a deathlike slumber, must always create a sunshine, filling the heart so full of radiance that it overflows upon the outward world." ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne, "The Scarlet Letter"

This might be my favorite literary quote to ever exist on the face of this earth. It highlights the idea that in its truest form, the intimate bonds that we share wih individuals allow us to cultivate qualities of compassion and authenticity that allow us to illuminate the dark places not only in our own lives, but also those in the world around us.

7. “When love speaks, the voice of all the gods makes heaven drowsy with the harmony.” ~ William Shakespeare, "Love’s Labour's Lost"

I'm certainly no Shakespeare scholar, but I feel like this quote captures the way that love forces us to slow down and revel in the beauty of the people, things, and places we love.

8. “For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I only know in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide; these three, and the greatest of these is love.” ~ 1 Corinthians 13:12-13

Human life is inevitably full of gaps in knowledge. This closing to the famous "Love Chapter" in the Bible reveals that love spurs us on towards truth and helps us catch a glimpse of who we were created to be. (Disclaimer: This does not mean that we are not complete without relationships! Remember that the kind of love we're talking about here can manifest itself in all sorts of contexts that are not exclusively romantic!)

Whoever you want to share your love with this Valentine's Day, don't underestimate the power of these timeless truths. But at the end of the day, remember that there are no words that your loved ones will cherish more than your own, so don't be afraid to take a risk in expressing yourself. Your words just might find themselves etched on the hearts of those in generations to come.