Indulge in the best literary fairy tale quotes about love that will warm your heart and help you live happily ever after. These quotes and sayings hail from the original books/stories (not Disney movies or other adaptations) for the most literary references to true love, romance, and other varieties of love. They can be used in wedding ceremonies, baby showers, children’s rooms, Valentine’s Day wishes, and beyond.

happily ever after

I recently got into reading and re-reading fairy tales for my Rory Gilmore reading challenge (in which we read books referenced on Gilmore Girls), and it struck me how each classic story somehow touched on this universal, yet multi-faceted, feeling — even when it wasn’t a magical love story about a prince and a princess.

Below, you will find fairy tale quotes about love in all forms — romantic, familial, and between friends. Sometimes they are whimsical and feel good to read, and other times they show the hardship that comes with the risk of loving someone. You’ll hear quotes from famous writers like Hans Christian Andersen, the Brothers Grimm, and more!

As far as I’m aware, there’s no compilation like it on the internet right now, which makes it feel like an extra special curation to help you celebrate love in its many forms, straight from the stories we first read as blooming children.

Below are the best fairy tale quotes about love, in alphabetical order of the story from which they came.

Famous Fairy Tale Quotes About Love

“The Princess lifted her veil as she went in, and looked so beautiful that Aladdin fell in love with her at first sight. He went home so changed that his mother was frightened. He told her he loved the Princess so deeply he could not live without her, and meant to ask her in marriage of her father.” – Aladdin and the Magic Lamp

happily ever after

“She called to him to come to her, and great was the joy of these lovers at seeing each other again.” – Aladdin and the Magic Lamp

“Oh, ’tis love, ’tis love, that makes the world go round!” – Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland 

“Alas! I thought I had only a friendship for you, but the grief I now feel convinces me, that I cannot live without you.” – Beauty and the Beast

“Your every wish shall be gratified. Only try to find me out, no matter how I may be disguised, for I love you dearly, and in making me happy, you will find your own happiness. Be as truehearted as you are beautiful, and we shall have nothing left to wish for.” – Beauty and the Beast

“I never knew how much I loved you until just now, when I feared I was too late to save your life.” – Beauty and the Beast

“[S]he hurried away immediately when it struck twelve, and with so much haste that she dropped one of her little glass slippers, the prettiest in the world, which the king’s son had picked up; that he had done nothing but look at her all the time at the ball, and that most certainly he was very much in love with the beautiful person who owned the glass slipper.” – Cinderella

“Cinderella took them up, and, as she embraced them, said that she forgave them with all her heart, and wanted them always to love her.” – Cinderella

“I do not care for thy clothes, thy pearls and jewels, or thy golden crown, but if thou wilt love me and let me be thy companion and play-fellow, and sit by thee at thy little table, and eat off thy little golden plate, and drink out of thy little cup, and sleep in thy little bed—if thou wilt promise me this I will go down below, and bring thee thy golden ball up again.” – The Frog Prince

“At twelve o’clock at night the princess goes to the bathing-house: go up to her and give her a kiss, and she will let you lead her away[.]” – The Golden Bird

“The two children grabbed the witch’s treasure and raced outside, to find the white dove waiting for them. Of course, she led them home by the shortest way, and when their father saw them, his smile was as warm as the summer sun.” – Hansel and Gretel

“There she heard the beating waves sounding down through the water, and she thought, sure, he is sailing up there, he whom I love more than father or mother, he to whom my thoughts cling and in whose hand I would lay the destiny of my life. I would risk everything to win him and an immortal soul.” – The Little Mermaid

“Day by day she grew dearer to the Prince: he loved her as one might love a dear good child, but he never had a thought of making her his Queen: and his wife she must be, or else she could never win an immortal soul, but on his wedding morning she would turn into foam on the sea.” – The Little Mermaid

“And he kissed her red lips and played with her long hair and laid his head on her heart, so that it dreamed of man’s destiny and an undying soul.” – The Little Mermaid

“Just always be waiting for me.” – Peter Pan

“She also said she would give him a kiss if he liked, but Peter did not know what she meant, and he held out his hand expectantly.” – Peter Pan

“I’ll hold you in my heart, until I can hold you in my arms.” – Peter Pan

“Don’t you understand? You mean more to me that anything in this entire world.” – Peter Pan

“True, true—that is well—be comforted, tremble not so; there is none here would hurt thee; there is none here but loves thee.” – The Prince and the Pauper

“[H]ow costly is my love for thee.” – The Prince and the Pauper

“You are a true princess, aren’t you? Please marry me and live here and I will get you any mattress you choose.” – The Princess and the Pea

“Let me be your husband and love you for as long as I live.” – Rapunzel

“Now, our story seems to show / That a century or so, / Late or early, matters not; / True love comes by fairy-lot.” – Sleeping Beauty

“For I love you tenderly—you alone—and in making me happy you can attain to your own happiness.”  – Sleeping Beauty

“He declared that he loved her better than he loved himself. His words were faltering, but they pleased the more for that. The less there is of eloquence, the more there is of love.” – Sleeping Beauty

“And they both sat there, grown up, yet children at heart; and it was summer, – warm, beautiful summer.” – The Snow Queen

“I love you more than everything in the world, come with me to my father’s palace, you shall be my wife.” – Snow White

“You are mine, and I am yours, and no one in the world can alter that.” – The Twelve Huntsmen

“It is only with the heart that one can see clearly, for the most essential things are invisible to the eye.” – The Ugly Duckling


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