To Josephine Bonaparte--
A few days ago I thought I loved you; but since I last saw you I feel I love you a thousand times more.
All the time I have known you I adore you more each day;
that just shows how wrong was La Bruyere's maxim that love comes all at once.
Everything in nature has its own life and different stages of growth.
I beg you, let me see some of your faults:
be less beautiful, less graceful, lees kind, less good...
--Napolean Bonaparte (1769-1821)
Editted to add: What a wonderful thread!