What is this "Love" You Speak Of?

Do you know what love is? 'Cause apparently I don't. It seems to me that most of the world doesn't. Its an age old question...

Here are some ways people try to define it:
"One word frees us of all the weight and pain of this life: that word is love."
~Sophocles


"Attention is the most basic form of love; through it we bless and are blessed."
~John Tarrant

"Love is friendship set on fire."

"Love is the master key that opens the gates of happiness."
~Oliver Wendell Holmes

"Love is everything it's cracked up to be. That's why people are so cynical about it... It really is worth fighting for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you don't risk everything, you risk even more."
~Erica Jong

"Love stretches your heart and makes you big inside."
~Margaret Walker

"Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place."
~Zora Neale Hurston

So yeah. It's a bit confusing. There's only one quote I know of that actually lays it out well.

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud, it is not rude, it is not self seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."

Doesn't get much better than that. :)