16. Love is never self-seeking.
17. Love never justifies itself.
18. Love always tells the truth.
19. Love never does evil.
20. Love never fails.

--
My words ran away from me, now I'm lost and they're out at sea, sailing away. They come and go, like the breeze.
Whisper sweet, burn like disease. They change with the day.

16. In every story where a man breaks up a wedding because he loves the bride, he is seeking HIS love.
17. Love is always justifiable... if the heart is in the right place.
18. Love sometimes must do terrible things to be kept alive... take the Phantom of the Opera. Although, a lie in love is as good as ashes in one's mouth.
19. Again, the Phantom of the Opera.
20. Love does fail... and that is sad. But, it does fail. I've seen it.

--
"Imagine a city where graffiti wasn't illegal, a city where everybody could draw wherever they liked. Where every street was awash with a million colours and little phrases..."
Banksy

Love does not fail. It moves. Like the wind and it is always changing. Sometimes hearts change together, and things work out. But more often than not, they change and they grow apart. That is not love's fault. That isn't a fault at all. It's just the way of the human heart.

And there is a difference between love and obsession. Love can be pure, and therefore fit the things I have told you. But when love is corrupt, either by the heart is inhabits or the souls it combines, then it is not a fault of love, but a fault of the hearts.

That is the nature of love.

--
My words ran away from me, now I'm lost and they're out at sea, sailing away. They come and go, like the breeze.
Whisper sweet, burn like disease. They change with the day.

Love can fail. Obsession has nothing to do with it. Someone can know they are in love and never get the chance to show it. It may never change. It is my honest believe that everyone has one person they can be the happiest with. The failure comes when it is never lived to the fullest extent possible... Time may be wasted. In the Rules of Romance, it is made perfectly clear that "Love must run it's course". If never given the chance, it has failed.
I've devoted my entire life to romance and the rules based around it. I am a romantic, and nothing can sway my opinions on this.

--
"Imagine a city where graffiti wasn't illegal, a city where everybody could draw wherever they liked. Where every street was awash with a million colours and little phrases..."
Banksy

I don't mean all this to sound rude if it ends up that way! So many people get offended by critique...I'm going to add it anyway, I figure you'll find it interesting to read whether or not you agree. I just got a tad offended I suppose to hear that as a romantic I had to follow these rules. I hardly follow any! I think that's part of romance really. It's mysterious and uncomfortably personal... with rules, it isn't so... romance deals with the heart and the heart is a wild, untamable part of the mind. To try to give the heart rules is crazy!! That's why our heads and hearts clash... our head looks for rules and what it is supposed to do and what fits with the story books and our morals and opinions but the heart just runs and clings onto whatever it wants and won't let go, no matter what the rules are. Romantics follow their hearts...and so, how can you put rules to it?

I believe that there is nothing but love and happiness in this world. And it's there for everyone. I truly believe that Chris.

But for everything else, it is only on what I have experienced. Only what I know. What I have seen. I have not seen differently. I have though, a firm belief, greater than any religion I know of, greater than any love I have ever felt, that if it was meant to be, it shall be. Love can come and go but that cannot change what was meant to be. I believe in karma and fate, and that's probably the reason I feel so strongly about that.

But I know many who do not believe in fate. They think you have to take what you can get. But honestly, I would have no faith in life if I couldn't believe there wasn't some higher being, looking out for me and my best interests. Life is too full of uncertainties enough to think there isn't a reason for everything we do. Cause and effect at it's basic principle, as it were.

--
My words ran away from me, now I'm lost and they're out at sea, sailing away. They come and go, like the breeze.
Whisper sweet, burn like disease. They change with the day.

The Romantic is bound by these rules. The heart, I agree, is not something that can simply be reasoned with or even put into context enough that rules would apply to it. The Romantic should abide by these rules in order to be considered a true and respectable Romantic. If one simply ignored these rules, then hearts would be broken. The heart takes chances (speaking before thinking) and the head challenges that impulse. We were given a mind and a heart to follow as closely and as truly as possible.
If someone considers themselves a conscious-thinking individual who listens to their heart, they must also consider the idea that they are not the only ones out there with a heart to be broken. Rule One is there to make sure that no person (who considers themselves a Romantic) steps in the way of a heart that is content.
EXAMPLE: Bobby likes Jane... Jane likes Ted and Ted likes Jane... Bobby must obey the 1st Rule of Romance and not step in the way of the mutual "like" of both Jane and Ted. - "You can never break one heart to save your own."
There are exceptions to many of the Rules (as there are exceptions to all rules). No two hearts are made the same, and therefore cannot be expected to live as equals.
But, these are the honourable boundaries set before me. I must obey these Rules of Romance to the best of my ability because it is what is right and noble in my mind. To bend or break these Rules would mean that I have failed myself (in my own mind) as a true Romantic as I have always claimed myself to be.
I do not believe that every heart must look at the world as I do. I simply wish to display the boundaries that I will find acceptable and noble in my eye.

--
"Imagine a city where graffiti wasn't illegal, a city where everybody could draw wherever they liked. Where every street was awash with a million colours and little phrases..."
Banksy

It's true, I do believe that everything happens for a reason. But, I can use every Rule to demonstrate that there is no need to break a Rule of Romance if you are to honestly call yourself a Romantic.
They are simply guidelines that I have set for myself and I will not let anyone else's views of romance become my own. I've lived by these rules and have found a content placing for myself in the romantic aspect. You may have found your own... One that works for you. These are the noble Rules that should become common among all those who call themselves men and women of hearts.

--
"Imagine a city where graffiti wasn't illegal, a city where everybody could draw wherever they liked. Where every street was awash with a million colours and little phrases..."
Banksy

Now you've personalized it, thank you ^_^ If they're personal rules, they work just fine.