Theirs was that substantial affection which arises (if any arises at all) when the two who are thrown together begin first by knowing the rougher sides of each other’s character, and not the best till further on, the romance growing up in the interstices of a mass of hard prosaic reality. This good- fellowship—camaraderie—usually occurring through similarity of pursuits, is unfortunately seldom superadded to love between the sexes, because men and women associate, not in their labours, but in their pleasures merely. Where, however, happy circumstances permit its development, the compounded feeling proves itself to be the only love which is strong as death—that love which many waters cannot quench, nor the floods drown, beside which the passion usually called by the name is evanescent as steam. -Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd

Drink to me with thine eyes alone; or if thou wilt, having put it to thy lips, fill the cup with kisses, and so give it me. -Philostratus, Epistles

O delicious kiss,
Why thou so sudden art gone?
Lost in the moment thou art won? -Peter Pindar

Her mouth's culled sweetness by thy kisses shed
On cheeks and neck and eyelids, and so led
Back to her mouth which answers there for all. -Dante Gabriel Rossetti

A kiss, when all is said, what is it?
...a rosy dot
Placed on the "i" in loving; 'tis a secret
Told to the mouth instead of to the ear. -Edmond Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac

Young gentlemen, pray recollect, if you please,
Not to make appointments near mulberry trees.
Should your mistress be missing, it shows a weak head
To be stabbing yourself, till you know she is dead.
Young ladies, you should not go strolling about
When your ancient mammas don't know you are out;
And remember that accidents often befall
From kissing young fellows through holes in the wall! -John Godfrey Saxe, Pyramus and Thisbe

Thou knowest the maiden who ventures to kiss a sleeping man, wins of him a pair of gloves. -Sir Walter Scott, The Fair Maid of Perth