Kiss. That one perfect word that captures the essence of something so enchanting, so bewitching, so utterly magnificent, that for those who have lived this ethereal kind of magic, almost every other experience (at times, even love making) pales in comparison. It is said, the word was created by the poets as a rhyme for “bliss,” but as Thomas Halliburton said: “The kiss is as old as the creation, and yet as young and fresh as ever. It pre-existed, still exists, and always will exist.”

Here are some of my favorite quotes from different books and poems about kissing:

“The decision to kiss for the first time is the most crucial in any love story. It changes the relationship of two people much more strongly than even the final surrender, because the kiss already has within it that surrender.”
Emil Ludwig, Of Life and Love

“I clasp thy waist; I feel thy bosom’s beat. O, kiss me into faintness, sweet and dim.”
Alexander Smith

“How did it happen that their lips came together? How does it happen that birds sing, that snow melts, that the rose unfolds, that the dawn whitens behind the stark shapes of trees on the quivering summit of the hill? A kiss, and all was said.”
Victor Hugo, Les Miserables

“And when my lips meet thine,
Thy very soul is wedded unto mine.”
H.H. Boyesen, Thy Gracious Face

“He glared at her a moment through the dusk, and the next instant she felt his arms about her and his lips on her own lips. His kiss was like white lightning, a flash that spread, and spread again, and stayed.”
Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady

“A man had given all other bliss,
And all his worldly worth for this,
To waste his whole heart in one kiss
Upon her perfect lips.”
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Sir Launcelot and Queen Guinevere

“When they kissed it seemed as if they did indeed imbibe each other, as if each other were wine to the other’s thirst.”
Robert Speaight, The Unbroken Heart

“She thought this must be flying, only better—like flying and feasting at the same time. He tasted of everything she’d always love... His mouth moved to her ear, and in that deep bewitching voice he growled her name, half plea, half prayer, and seemed to revel in the feel of her as she reeled in his taste...”
Jill Barnett, Bewitching

“Only he felt he could no more dissemble,
And kissed her, mouth to mouth, all in a tremble.”
Leigh Hunt, Story of Rimini

“They stood still under the trees, whilst his lips waited on her face, waited like a butterfly that does not move on a flower. She pressed her breast a little nearer to him, he moved, put both his arms around her and drew her close.
And then, in the darkness, he bent to her mouth, softly, and touched her mouth with his mouth. She was afraid, she lay still on his arm, feeling his lips on her lips. She kept still, helpless. Then his mouth drew near, pressing open her mouth, a hot drenching surge rose within her, she opened her lips to him, in pained poignant eddies she drew him nearer, she let him come further, his lips came and surging, surging, soft, oh soft, yet oh, like the powerful surge of water, irresistible, till with a little blind cry, she broke away.”
D.H. Laurence, The Rainbow

“Soul meets soul on lovers’ lips.”
Percy Bysshe Shelley, Prometheus Unbound

“She embraces me elaborately, casually as a breeze, softly as one caresses a flower; she kisses me as dispassionately as heaven kisses the sea, softly and quietly as dew kisses a flower, solemnly as the sea kisses the image of the moon.”
Soren Kierkegaard

“These kisses are what you live for. They make you literally ache with pleasure. They light you up and send shocks through your nerves for hours and days afterward. They have you laughing and crying and doubting your sanity and wanting to stay up all night just so you can remember them. The magic that transform these kisses is the stuff of romance.”
Willian Cane, The Book of Kisses

“I’m trying to decide if I should let myself enjoy the fireworks.”
“The fireworks won’t start for another half hour,” she said shakily, knowing perfectly well she was going to be kissed.
“I have a feeling,” he whispered, slowly lowering his head, “they’re going to start right now.”
And they did.
His hands shifted, one of them drifting down her spine to draw her closer, while the other slid behind her nape, and his mouth slowly opened on hers. Lost in the kiss, she moved her hands inside his tuxedo jacket, up his chest, over his broad shoulders, and then she wrapped her arms around his neck.
The minute she molded herself against him, his mouth opened farther, his tongue tracing across her lips, urging them to part, and then demanding it. The moment they did, his tongue plunged into her mouth, and the kiss exploded.
Judith McNaught, Paradise