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Love Quote by Thomas More

"The heart that has truly loved never forgets, but as truly loves on to the close"

About this Quote

Memory is doing double duty here: not just a mental scrapbook, but a moral claim. More’s line insists that real love has stamina, that it outlives proximity, convenience, even betrayal. The phrasing is almost legalistic in its confidence: “truly” appears twice, like a stamp of authenticity, as if love can be audited and found either genuine or counterfeit. That repetition isn’t softness; it’s pressure. If love fades, the implication goes, maybe it wasn’t love in the first place.

The subtext is both tender and severe. “Never forgets” frames devotion as an ethical obligation, not merely a feeling you fall into. The second clause sharpens the blade: love doesn’t only remember, it “loves on” all the way “to the close,” suggesting a fidelity that runs parallel to mortality. It’s comfort, but it’s also a trap: the line flatters constancy while quietly warning against fickleness. To be the kind of person who “truly” loves is to accept an ending you can’t negotiate.

Context matters. More wrote in a world where bonds were public and consequential: marriage alliances, religious vows, patronage, loyalty to sovereign and Church. He himself would become a martyr figure, choosing principle over survival. Read against that biography, the quote sounds less like romantic poetry than an argument for steadfastness under pressure. It works because it turns an intimate emotion into a test of character, implying that to love well is to endure, and to endure is to prove you meant it.

Quote Details

TopicRomantic
Source
Later attribution: The Heart that Has Truly Loved (Lorraine Vines, Michael Oakey, 2009) modern compilationISBN: 9781409290889 · ID: EvfaAgAAQBAJ
Text match: 95.00%   Provider: Google Books
Evidence:
... more dear! No, the heart that has truly loved never forgets, But as truly loves on to the close, As the sunflower turns on her god, when he sets The same look which she turn'd when he rose! Thomas Moore (1799-1825) Childhood and School ...
Other candidates (1)
No, the heart that has truly loved never forgets, But as truly loves on to the close, As the sun-flower turns on her ...
Cite

Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
More, Thomas. (2026, February 16). The heart that has truly loved never forgets, but as truly loves on to the close. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-heart-that-has-truly-loved-never-forgets-but-74130/

Chicago Style
More, Thomas. "The heart that has truly loved never forgets, but as truly loves on to the close." FixQuotes. February 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-heart-that-has-truly-loved-never-forgets-but-74130/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"The heart that has truly loved never forgets, but as truly loves on to the close." FixQuotes, 16 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-heart-that-has-truly-loved-never-forgets-but-74130/. Accessed 24 Feb. 2026.

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About the Author

Thomas More

Thomas More (February 7, 1478 - July 6, 1535) was a Author from England.

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