Do you need love to survive?

Ok, a human needs food, water, and shelter and they can essentually survive. If you live on an island and you have food and water and shelter but no company, well, it would get lonely and boring. You might start thinking of ending your life after a while.


Imagine that no one loves you. There are plenty of people in the world who go to extremes, committing violent acts, all because I think in the end, they just wanted to be loved! I really do think you NEED love to live! I feel sorry for people who say no one loves them, because I imagine life isn't very nice for them. Thankfully I do have people who love me. I have been depressed before, and I wished I had the same things that other kids have. I've wanted to be cool and fit in, but really, I wanted to be loved by other people. Then I realize that my family loves me. It would be nice if more people in the world love me, but not everyone will. Still, the love of my family is very important to me. Even if I don't have a lot of friends, I have family to talk to. Some people loose their families and they don't have a lot of friends, but they can turn to a pet or to their faith for the love they need. The love is out there, if people seek it.

I also know that love is something no one can ever get. You just have to earn it. You have to also want it. You can't MAKE one person in the world love you. You just have to earn it. you can very easily make them hate you, without much effort at all. In one day the whole world could hate you, for something that took very little effort for you to do.

That is why love is so much stronger than hate. It is so much harder to make one person love you than to make the whole world hate you!

You can live very easily and happily without hate. Your life would be wonderful if no one did! But you can't truely live without love. Oh, you exist, but it isn't the same. You are alive, yet not really truely living! You are lonely and are miserable. Merope felt that misery and she tried to force love, which is wrong. Maybe she was dying inside and starving for love, but she made the wrong choice. If she had waited, maybe she would have found someone to love her just as she was.

Voldemort probably feels miserable inside, but he has no way of really understanding what it is that is missing from his life. He just thinks if everyone fears him and obeys him, he can be happy. But I think even with the horcruxes he is already dying inside, starving for love which he rejects. So his souls are separated, each starving on it's own. This farther weakens him. I think now that he has Harry's blood maybe he will start to sort of feel a void in his life, but not understand what that is.

I think he is going to die anyway, even if Harry dies, Voldemort isn't going to be able to live forever, because even with horcruxes, his souls are dying anyway. The peices are dying even if no one ever finds them!
I think in the end he will maybe want someone to love him, but it will be too late for that. I don't think he will want someone to love him because he wants love, I think he will want it so he won't die, which isn't the same. Anyway, he might try to make people love him, but it won't be the same, and he will still be dying. I don't know if he will ever have a moment when he will really truely want to be loved for love's sake. Maybe with Harry's blood in him he will be able to repent at the end, who knows?

If he doesn't I think no only will he die a bodily death, his very soul dies. It is like he was never alive at all. His soul just ceaces to exist at all. At the very last moment he will realize this, but it will be too late for him maybe. I wonder if he would beg for forgiveness if he realized his soul was dying too and that he would just ceace to exist at all? I would say no, he'd never do that, but if he is dying maybe he would.

i'm not sure what I feel about the rest of what you said but I do think its a curious point to make re: V having Harry's blood in him now. Will that make any difference? I do agree that love is necessary to true living but as I see it Voldemort personifies true evil and I don't imagine him waking up and wanting to be loved or even recognizing that it is something he lacks or needs.

Well I think of it like this, there are some minerals you need to survive. You may not be getting enough, and you may not even realize you are sick. You need it, and yet you aren't getting enough, so you could be slowly killing yourself and not know it. Later you might say, "I don't really care. I feel fine, so I won't worry about it." So you'd still be slowly dying, only you think you feel fine, so you don't worry about. Finally, you might start to feel sick, only then might you care to do anything about it, by which time it may already be too late.

So say you needed this mineral but you really hated to eat the foods you needed to get it. You might put it off to the last possible moment. Now say you really needed a certain fruit to get this nutrient, but the supplier of this says "You can't have it unless you earn it, and at the moment I don't really like you very much anyway. In fact, I hate you, so I don't think you'll be getting any from me, even if you are dying." That would make it tricky to get it, if not impossible. So anyway, the supplier of the fruit knows you only need it because you are dying and you really don't care about him, or the fruit, or how much work it takes to produce. He knows you only want it because you have to have it. He knows you aren't even going to enjoy eating it.
He may pity you, but then he'd give you an inferior product that wouldn't supply you with much, if any of the nutrient you want. If he does give you the inferior product (think of pity, instead of real love) it may turn you off of the real product itself, because the inferior product isn't so good. Or it may leave you a little hungry for more, but you'd always be unable to get it. So you'd always get a rotten apple instead of a fresh one. Or in Voldemort's case, he might get pity, which might be enough to keep him alive, but it wouldn't really last long or be very effective.

Ok, a human needs food, water, and shelter and they can essentually survive. If you live on an island and you have food and water and shelter but no company, well, it would get lonely and boring. You might start thinking of ending your life after a while.


Imagine that no one loves you. There are plenty of people in the world who go to extremes, committing violent acts, all because I think in the end, they just wanted to be loved! I really do think you NEED love to live! I feel sorry for people who say no one loves them, because I imagine life isn't very nice for them. Thankfully I do have people who love me. I have been depressed before, and I wished I had the same things that other kids have. I've wanted to be cool and fit in, but really, I wanted to be loved by other people. Then I realize that my family loves me. It would be nice if more people in the world love me, but not everyone will. Still, the love of my family is very important to me. Even if I don't have a lot of friends, I have family to talk to. Some people loose their families and they don't have a lot of friends, but they can turn to a pet or to their faith for the love they need. The love is out there, if people seek it.

I also know that love is something no one can ever get. You just have to earn it. You have to also want it. You can't MAKE one person in the world love you. You just have to earn it. you can very easily make them hate you, without much effort at all. In one day the whole world could hate you, for something that took very little effort for you to do.

That is why love is so much stronger than hate. It is so much harder to make one person love you than to make the whole world hate you!

You can live very easily and happily without hate. Your life would be wonderful if no one did! But you can't truely live without love. Oh, you exist, but it isn't the same. You are alive, yet not really truely living! You are lonely and are miserable. Merope felt that misery and she tried to force love, which is wrong. Maybe she was dying inside and starving for love, but she made the wrong choice. If she had waited, maybe she would have found someone to love her just as she was.

Voldemort probably feels miserable inside, but he has no way of really understanding what it is that is missing from his life. He just thinks if everyone fears him and obeys him, he can be happy. But I think even with the horcruxes he is already dying inside, starving for love which he rejects. So his souls are separated, each starving on it's own. This farther weakens him. I think now that he has Harry's blood maybe he will start to sort of feel a void in his life, but not understand what that is.

I think he is going to die anyway, even if Harry dies, Voldemort isn't going to be able to live forever, because even with horcruxes, his souls are dying anyway. The peices are dying even if no one ever finds them!
I think in the end he will maybe want someone to love him, but it will be too late for that. I don't think he will want someone to love him because he wants love, I think he will want it so he won't die, which isn't the same. Anyway, he might try to make people love him, but it won't be the same, and he will still be dying. I don't know if he will ever have a moment when he will really truely want to be loved for love's sake. Maybe with Harry's blood in him he will be able to repent at the end, who knows?

If he doesn't I think no only will he die a bodily death, his very soul dies. It is like he was never alive at all. His soul just ceaces to exist at all. At the very last moment he will realize this, but it will be too late for him maybe. I wonder if he would beg for forgiveness if he realized his soul was dying too and that he would just ceace to exist at all? I would say no, he'd never do that, but if he is dying maybe he would.

"Do you need love to survive?".....What an excellent philosophical question in relation to the HP themes of love and death! :tu:

I do think there is a grain of truth of what you said to something that will happen in book 7. Mainly because Dumbledore asks Harry after viewing Merope's plight in the pensieve, if he could possibly be feeling sorry for Voldemort. Harry answers no, but I do have intuition that in the very, very end of the book Voldemort will be a very weak being (being, as we don't know what form he'll be in by then).

I do not think for sure that lack of love in Voldemort's life has been killing him all along. With true evil or psychopathic minds it is capable for them to sustain life or thrive without a normal emotional life. Voldemort did not need love (as he has no belief of it, in his mind it does not exist). Therefore he did not survive on love. But...I am sure he needed socialization. Human beings are all social creatures, even evil men like Voldemort. He would not have risen to power without all the people surrounding him that he believes he may overpower. He will be eating his words though in the end...of when he said to Dumbledore that love is no power compared to his power with dark magic!

Imagine that no one loves you. There are plenty of people in the world who go to extremes, committing violent acts, all because I think in the end, they just wanted to be loved! I really do think you NEED love to live! I feel sorry for people who say no one loves them, because I imagine life isn't very nice for them. Thankfully I do have people who love me. I have been depressed before, and I wished I had the same things that other kids have. I've wanted to be cool and fit in, but really, I wanted to be loved by other people. Then I realize that my family loves me. It would be nice if more people in the world love me, but not everyone will. Still, the love of my family is very important to me. Even if I don't have a lot of friends, I have family to talk to. Some people loose their families and they don't have a lot of friends, but they can turn to a pet or to their faith for the love they need.
I'm not knocking your depressiong phase, but isn't wanting to be cool and loved by other people sound a bit selfish? I mean it might be how you are wording your thoughts, but I doubt people thinking you're cool really constitutes as love. Sure people might seem to like you, but for what reason? Because you're cool or because you're you?

I know that people need love to survive because we are social animals, but I do imagine there are few people out there that don't need it. Not because they are bad evil people, but sometimes they are better off that way. But to me...especially now that I am a bit older, it's very questionable the methods in which people search for love, accept love or interpret love.

you don't need love to survive, but you need to have it to live... thats what i believe any way. without it, you can stay alive but without it their really is no point. thou the hope of finding love could keep you going.

what a romantic question...

To say that you need Love to survive, for me, is rather exaggerated...because we all know what we need to survive...however, i think it's an implied or rather base-on-experience-and-observation idea...most people who do not have Love in their life seem like they're not living at all...but then they're physically alive...

with that said, We can not [abstractly] survive without Love[which is an abstract concept]...

i think that what everyone need to survive is to love himself. not general love,not to be loved,but to love himself. if you love yourself you can be loved and you can live peacefully ,otherwise not. AND if you put your own mood in the hands of people you think love you you'll be dependent from them. your happiness will depend from them,and this is not recommandable. obviously your family is the most important thing in the world,i'm not saying the contrary, but for everyone outside the family i think this is the rule. if you fall in love with someone and to be happy and not depressed you need to fill to be loved by him/her you are dependent, your life revolves around another person,and it's wrong,it has to revolve around you. only in this way you'll not be influenced too much from the others and you'll be happy and free to give love and not necessarily to be given.
voldemort for instance seems to love himself,but he does not,because he does not love his roots,his family, he does not accept the death,he is not able to love anybody,tthat's why he's not happy. and even if harry too lost his family he's able to love and on a consequence of this,to be loved.
too difficoult for me to explain these kind of thoughts in english :D sorry

to survive happily, yes.
to just survive. no
unless u count the eating animals (who would have been loved by their parents or plants that were loved by an insect etc) as love as well. then no. u can't survive w/out love.

Watching the Discovery Channel a long time ago - they had a special on monkees. One baby was put in with its mother, another was put in with a doll. The one that had a mother that loved him, held him, picked his nits, etc. was well developed and could socialize later when let into the monkee society. The other didn't take care of itself, wouldn't always eat, and remained a lone figure, always preferring to be off and away from the other monkees.

Do we need love? It has to be there somewhere.

We learn our emotions from our parents and our environment. If it's not there, then it's difficult for us to find it for ourselves.

That's why I know that Harry had a good foundation of love. The moment he saw Hagrid stand up for Dumbldore against the biggest bully he'd ever known, Uncle Vernon, Harry's life changed. He saw love and it stirred the love inside so that he could then stand up for others like himself, who have been bullied most of their lives.

Interesting question. But I would say that, as with so much else in the world, it varies between different people. You can't put everyone together as having a simple yes or no answer because everyone is different. Some people need to be social, others are perfectly alright alone.

Surviving and living are not the same thing. You might survive without love but can a person live without love?

You can survive without it, but you can't live without it.

I don't know if you need love to survive...but life might not be worth living if you don't have it.

I believe that emotionally, yes you must have love to live, but not necessarily do you need it physically. Although, your emotions can wear you down physically...

I guess my answer would be no, you don't. But having love gives you a richer, fuller life.

for me........definitely yes.Life wouldn't be worth it if u know that there is no one to love u

No-love is not a key factor in survival unless, you want a happy, substantial existence. Case in point-Voldemort. He never knew love, and yet still managed to stay alive.

... Everyone needs love to survive... Even people who concider themselves tough, and independant need someone to love them.. and they need someone to love back.. Living without love is kinda meaningless..

Ture that you can live without love, But be very lonely and unhappy. To live with love is wonderful. I think that you need it to servive.

Love is a need. And yes I believe it is a general need at least. Although Food, water, cloithing etc is a physical need, Love is an emotional need and it is a complex need.

I remember reading a medical book made in the 60's one idea it talked about was love. It badically said that a child with a serious illness who is given the right medical care, but has no parents no one to comfort and love him has more chances of detoriating and dying, than a child in the exact situation who experiences some sort of love and affection

The mind's a powerful tool in combating the needs of the body. If someone is experiencing depression, the body is effected. If a child is unloved the body becomes effected physcally, mentally and emotionally.

The truama of childhood, if it's not corrected will always be there in adult life... and that's how some of the most vile cruel acts have been created in history. Many unhappy, unloved child will grow up missing something in their lives and will continue being unhappy and unloved.

to physically survive humans do not need love
the quality of life i believe will suffer without love, but some people do not need a good quality of life. i personally need to be loved, and love because i firmly believe that love is one thing in this world that is still good, and truely magical.

in reference to the harry potter themes i believe harry will need love from others to survive against vold. love is what puts harry above vold, and able to defeat him, in my opinion. harry's love for others will give him the stength he will need to walk into a battle with vold knowing that he may die, but becuase he loves others and knows he has to protect/save them he will fight. Love is important for survival/victory over vold. in relation to harry and book 7. in my opinion :)

No, of course you don't need love to survive. But most of us need it to make surviving worth the effort. BTW, being liked, being cool, being popular - those are definitely not synonymous with being loved. As a matter of fact, 'cool' and 'popular' have very little to do with love at all. You are popular and cool because of the image you project to other people - what you appear to be, in other words. This is usually done to mask what is really inside of you. Love means someone cherishes WHO you are underneath all the layers of assumed identity. Love is dangerous. If someone rejects you because they don't like the mask you wear, they didn't really reject you. No big deal. But if they reject you after you've let them know what is beneath the mask, the real you - well, that is REAL rejection.

The Pope is celibate but never loves and generally they live to good ages, though you could argue they love their god.

Love comes in many forms though, the love of a parent, partner, friend, child, sibling, its an amazing thing. It's usually something thats there. Even violent people were probably loved, it's how it's shown to us that effects us.

The Pope is celibate but never loves and generally they live to good ages, though you could argue they love their god.

Love comes in many forms though, the love of a parent, partner, friend, child, sibling, its an amazing thing. It's usually something thats there. Even violent people were probably loved, it's how it's shown to us that effects us.

In the case of the Pope, you are confusing love with sex. You can have either without the other. I dare say that the Pope loves and is loved. Just not by a spouse.

No, of course you don't need love to survive. But most of us need it to make surviving worth the effort. BTW, being liked, being cool, being popular - those are definitely not synonymous with being loved. As a matter of fact, 'cool' and 'popular' have very little to do with love at all. You are popular and cool because of the image you project to other people - what you appear to be, in other words. This is usually done to mask what is really inside of you. Love means someone cherishes WHO you are underneath all the layers of assumed identity. Love is dangerous. If someone rejects you because they don't like the mask you wear, they didn't really reject you. No big deal. But if they reject you after you've let them know what is beneath the mask, the real you - well, that is REAL rejection.

well said, kinda scared me.

In the case of the Pope, you are confusing love with sex. You can have either without the other. I dare say that the Pope loves and is loved. Just not by a spouse.

Thats why i said there are other sorts of love, so it's rare that anybody wouldn't experience one side of love.

I believe you do need love to not necessarily survive but to want to live. Love makes life worth living and without it, what is the point of living. If in one's life they are not loved or give love to someone they become closed off and lonely. I believe love gives us a reason to go on because we know the other person loves us and wants us around.

I once had to try and live without love for a while-then I had to stop trying before I kill myself.
I don't know about you, but for me love is as essential for life as food.

Technically you shouldn't need it to survive, but according to see big influence psychologic reasons can have to your body, I'm actually not sure. Love (in any way) is not just a wonder, it's essential, too.

Love is a construct. It is nothing more than varying degrees of attachment. I will concede that all people have the desire to form these attachments, but they are not necessary for a human being to survive.

Ok, you can biologically stay alive, but not something more.

Ok, you can biologically stay alive, but not something more.

What more is there?

It has been studied that baby primates deprived from the love of their parents could fit in any monkey society, and that iv the same for us. We can't become balanced people if we don't get a minimum of love in our fisrt yearz of love, that answer broadly the question.


I also know that love is something no one can ever get. You just have to earn it. You have to also want it. You can't MAKE one person in the world love you. You just have to earn it. you can very easily make them hate you, without much effort at all. In one day the whole world could hate you, for something that took very little effort for you to do.
That does not include mother's love for her newborn, infant. The baby doesn't earn love, if their parents know what is love, even just if it is love with many obvious flaws, the child will get their share even before he offers back their first smile.

That is why love is so much stronger than hate. It is so much harder to make one person love you than to make the whole world hate you!I'm not sure about this, it is not becauve love is something you have to build slowly that it makes it stronger. Hate is a very powerful feeling that leads to every atrocity we see everywhere in the world. I would die for my children, but many people would die because they do hate someone or a country.

You can live very easily and happily without hate. Your life would be wonderful if no one did! But you can't truely live without love. Oh, you exist, but it isn't the same. You are alive, yet not really truely living! You are lonely and are miserable.some people are very happy living lost in nature being lonely.


Voldemort probably feels miserable inside, but he has no way of really understanding what it is that is missing from his life. He just thinks if everyone fears him and obeys him, he can be happy. But I think even with the horcruxes he is already dying inside, starving for love which he rejects. The search for power can make one think love is a weak feeling. Power is a very rewarding experience that can make llove useless.



I think in the end he will maybe want someone to love him, but it will be too late for that. .to me it doesn't fit with JKR's writing style. she depicted Voldemort as bad to the bone.

No, of course you don't need love to survive. But most of us need it to make surviving worth the effort. BTW, being liked, being cool, being popular - those are definitely not synonymous with being loved. As a matter of fact, 'cool' and 'popular' have very little to do with love at all. You are popular and cool because of the image you project to other people - what you appear to be, in other words. This is usually done to mask what is really inside of you. Love means someone cherishes WHO you are underneath all the layers of assumed identity. Love is dangerous. If someone rejects you because they don't like the mask you wear, they didn't really reject you. No big deal. But if they reject you after you've let them know what is beneath the mask, the real you - well, that is REAL rejection.

I don't think they meant that.

Thankfully I do have people who love me. I have been depressed before, and I wished I had the same things that other kids have. I've wanted to be cool and fit in, but really, I wanted to be loved by other people. Then I realize that my family loves me. It would be nice if more people in the world love me, but not everyone will.

I believe what they meant was that they were mistaking the fact that people didn't think there were cool for not being loved. Then they realised that they were in fact loved, by their family, and it had nothing to do with being cool. Just how I read it, though.

The search for power can make one think love is a weak feeling. Power is a very rewarding experience that can make llove useless.
I think you've hit the nail on the head as to why Voldemort is doing well in his life without love. Most of us need love to be happy and to be able to socialize. Voldemort, a sociopath, thrives on power.

I say he is a sociopath because he really works alone. His Death Eaters are mere minions who mean nothing to him personally. The only "socializing" he does is giving out orders, punishments, and rewards.

The response he gets from people, including his Death Eaters, is fear. This doesn't make him feel loved - it makes him feel powerful. His Death Eaters do not love him - they fear and, maybe, respect him. That is not love.

The world revolves around love and if you don't have love, then there's nothing worth living for. It's a powerful thing, love and it's the reason why even people who don't have hope left keep living.

Some people interpret 'love' as having a relationship but that's not true. Love is everywhere - family, friends, obsessions *cough*HarryPotter*cough*, anything you're deeply attached with. Imagine life without those. It's hard, isn't it?

I agree. Love gives people something to live for and keeps people going.

I think you need love to survive and live a happy life, but not to just exist.