Love is not love that alters when it alteration finds.

“Love is not love that alters when it alteration finds.” — So wrote William Shakespeare, the poet of eternity and the master of the human heart. This line, drawn from his immortal Sonnet 116, stands as one of the purest definitions of love ever spoken. It is both a hymn and a vow, a declaration that true love is steadfast, unshaken by change, unbroken by time. In these few words, Shakespeare separates the fleeting shadow of affection from the eternal flame of devotion. He tells us that love — real love — does not shift with circumstance, nor fade when beauty fades. It is constant, like a star that guides the sailor through storm and night.

In his Sonnet 116, Shakespeare was not speaking of love as mere passion or desire, but as something sacred — an unchanging truth that endures beyond all trials. “Love is not love that alters when it alteration finds,” he wrote, “or bends with the remover to remove.” In this, he proclaims that love does not vanish when life changes, nor crumble when faced with distance, loss, or imperfection. It is not a contract to be broken, nor a mood to be swayed by the seasons. Rather, it is a moral and spiritual anchor, binding one soul to another, even as the world shifts around them.

This vision of love was born from the Renaissance ideal that love is not simply emotion, but virtue — a reflection of divine constancy. Shakespeare’s own life was surrounded by the turbulence of human passion and betrayal, yet he glimpsed, through his art, a love that transcends all frailty. It is the kind of love that survives even death, the love that Dante wrote of for Beatrice, the love that endures when all else fails. For such love, change is no threat, for it is rooted not in the fleeting surface of the beloved, but in the eternal truth of the soul.

To understand the depth of these words, let us look to a living example. Consider the story of Antoine and Consuelo de Saint-Exupéry, the couple bound together through storms of distance and difference. Antoine, the author of The Little Prince, was a pilot who flew dangerous missions during war; his wife Consuelo, a spirited artist, often quarreled with him but never ceased to love him. Their letters reveal a love both wounded and unbreakable — tested by jealousy, absence, and fear, yet always returning to tenderness. When Antoine vanished in flight, Consuelo never believed he was truly gone. Her love did not alter with his absence; it endured as the living echo of his soul. Hers was the kind of love Shakespeare meant — the kind that holds firm even when the winds of change howl across the heart.

Shakespeare reminds us that the measure of love is its steadfastness. Many love only the joy that love brings, but true love remains even in sorrow. It does not retreat when the beloved falters, nor turn cold when age or trial alters the form of life. Such love is an act of will as much as of feeling — a covenant between hearts to stand together against time’s decay. In this way, love becomes not a fragile emotion, but a pillar of eternity, reflecting the divine permanence that dwells within the human spirit.

And yet, the poet does not deny that love feels pain. Indeed, its constancy is proven through suffering. When love endures betrayal or grief and still chooses to remain kind, it is then most holy. As iron is forged in fire, love grows stronger when tested. The love that alters easily is not love at all — it is the shadow of comfort, not the substance of faith. For Shakespeare, true love’s greatness lies in its immutability, its refusal to die even in the face of death. “Love’s not Time’s fool,” he writes, for even when youth and beauty fade, love remains, defying the scythe of mortality.

Therefore, dear listener, take this lesson to heart: love that endures is the only love worth giving. When you love, do not love for pleasure, nor for what the other gives you. Love because it is your nature to love; because to love steadfastly is to mirror the divine. When hardship comes — as it always does — let your heart remain firm. Speak gently even when wronged, give patiently even when weary, and hold fast to the truth that real love is not altered by circumstance, but deepened by it.

For this is the eternal wisdom of Shakespeare’s words: true love is not a flicker, but a flame that no wind can extinguish. It burns through change, through time, through loss, until only the essence remains — pure, unwavering, eternal. To love thus is the greatest art, and the highest calling of the soul. So love, and let your love be constant, for when all else fades, only such love will remain — shining like a star, unaltered by the turning of the heavens.