From: Helen Fisher: The brain in love

Quanto minus spei est tanto magis amo ("The less my hope, the hotter my love") - Terence (Roman Poet), Eunuchus, I. 160 B.C.

"[Love] has all of the characteristics of an addiction. You focus on the addiction, obsessively think about them, you crave them, and it's got the three main characteristics of addiction. Tolerance: you need to see them more and more and more. Withdrawals, and last, Relapse: I'm just getting over a terrible love affair. It's been about 8 months, she's beginning to feel better, and she was driving along in her car the other day and suddenly she heard a song on the car radio, that reminded her of this man, and she, not only did the instant craving come back, but she had to pull over the road, to the side of the road and cry... Romantic love is one of the most addictive substances on earth [Ed: And it's responsible for many crimes and much suffering (much more than pot), so we should ban it!]...

People have often asked me whether what I know about love has spoiled it for me. I just simply say, "Hardly". Err, you can know every single ingredient in a piece of chocolate cake, and when you sit down and eat that cake, you can still feel that joy. And certainly I make all the same mistakes."