Though I speak in the tongues of men or of angels: if I
have no love, I am a clanging bell or a tinkling cymbal.
Though I prophesy and see into all the mysteries and all
hidden knowledge, and have faith enough to move mountains:
if I have no love, I am nothing.  And though I give away all
my possessions to feed the poor, and offer up my body to be
burned: if I have no love, I gain nothing.
     Love is patient and kind, is never envious or boastful
or conceited, does not act rudely or selfishly, is not
easily angered, does not count up offense, takes no pleasure
in injustice, but rejoices in the truth; includes all
things, has faith in all things, hopes for all things,
endures all things.
     Love never ends.  If there are prophecies, they will
disappear; if there is ecstasy, it will cease; if there is
knowledge, it will vanish . . . But faith, hope, and love
remain forever, these three; and the greatest of these is
love.

                      --Paul of Tarsus,
                        from The First Letter to the Corinthians
                        translated by Stephen Mitchell