Talk:if you love someone, set them free

RFD discussion: November 2017–January 2018

The following information has failed Wiktionary's deletion process (permalink).

It should not be re-entered without careful consideration.

---

if you love someone, set them free

Not buying this as a proverb, nor that it was coined by Sting. —Μετάknowledge^{discuss/deeds} 05:10, 21 November 2017 (UTC)

keep - seems proverbial enough to me - a formulaic piece of sage wisdom. My Googling didn't turn up anything prior to the 1980s, which surprised me. I seem to remember it from before then. Is there some other form of it? - Sonofcawdrey (talk) 07:42, 21 November 2017 (UTC)

I'm seeing references such as [1] to the fact that American author Richard Bach said: "If you love someone, set them free. If they come back they're yours; if they don't they never were." However, Google Books doesn't appear to indicate the actual work by Bach in which it appears; perhaps this quotation is inaccurate. — SGconlaw (talk) 07:48, 21 November 2017 (UTC)

It is also phrased as "If you love [someone, somebody, them], let them go". bd2412 T 19:14, 22 November 2017 (UTC)

Delete. --Barytonesis (talk) 16:13, 21 November 2017 (UTC)

Delete. Not dictionary material. Mihia (talk) 00:58, 26 November 2017 (UTC)

Move to Appendix:Mawkish platitudes. Equinox ◑ 02:39, 5 December 2017 (UTC)

Delete. Palaestrator verborum (loquier) 08:56, 24 December 2017 (UTC)

• RFD failed. —Μετάknowledge^{discuss/deeds} 05:51, 7 January 2018 (UTC)