Meaning & Analysis
One cannot simultaneously be in love and act with complete wisdom or rationality; love inevitably clouds or overpowers good judgment.
Insights
Love’s Power Over Reason
The proverb encapsulates the age-old belief that love is an overwhelming force that overrides reason, making even the wise act foolishly or irrationally under its influence.
Human Frailty
It expresses a broader truth about human nature: strong emotions—especially love—often lead people to act against their own best interests, suspending logic and caution.
The Divinity of Passion
By invoking gods (as in Shakespeare and classical allusions), the proverb suggests that even divine wisdom cannot withstand love’s power; to love is to surrender, if only briefly, the privilege of pure wisdom.
Classical and Renaissance Authority
The proverb is rooted in ancient and Renaissance wisdom, from Erasmus’s Latin adage (‘Amare et sapere, vix Deo conceditur’) to Shakespeare (‘to be wise and love / Exceeds man's might: that dwells with gods above’), recurring as a cultural refrain for centuries.
Psychological Realism
Modern psychology confirms that passionate attachment can impair decision-making, induce idealization, and cloud objectivity—making the proverb as relevant now as in the past.
Ambiguity and Debate
Some writers (e.g., Brathwaite) challenge the proverb, suggesting that true love might in fact entail a higher, albeit paradoxical, wisdom. This ongoing debate keeps the saying alive in moral and philosophical discussion.
Literary Resonance
The motif of love’s folly appears throughout poetry, drama, and satire, often used to explain characters’ unwise choices or the comic excesses of lovers.
Rhetorical Devices
Antithesis
The proverb’s force lies in the stark opposition between love (emotion, passion) and wisdom (reason, prudence), creating dramatic tension and memorability.
Aphorism
Its crisp, universal phrasing gives it the tone of established truth, lending rhetorical authority and widespread currency.
Hyperbole
By claiming impossibility even for the gods, the saying exaggerates to underline the all-conquering, irrational nature of love.
Transcription
Quotations
Amare et sapere, vix Deo conceditur.
To haue a sadde mynde and loue is nat in one person.
There is no man At ons that can To love and to be wise.
To loue and to lyue well, is not graunted to Iupiter.
We can scarce both loue, and be wise together.
The gods themselves cannot be wise and loue.
O how hard it is to loue truely, and to be wise both to gether.
Whence came that vsuall saying, One cannot loue and be wise .. My Tenet is, One cannot truely loue, and not be wise.
It is not given us, to loue and to be wise.
He is bound by the Prouerb; 'Tis impossible to loue and be wise.
The prouerb holds—that to be wise, and love, Is hardly granted to the gods above.
Shakespeare Citations
But you are wise, Or else you love not; for to be wise and love Exceeds man's might: that dwells with gods above.
Cross References
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
Used under CC BY-NC 3.0.