"Eros" by Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882):

The sense of the world is short,–
Long and various the report,–
    To love and be beloved;
Men and gods have not outlearned it;
And, how oft soe’er they’ve turned it,
    ‘Tis not to be improved.

(Photo of the Head of Eros, 2nd century AD. Museum of Ephesus, Turkey, by Ian W Scott)