Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, And therefore is wing’d Cupid painted blind.

These lines are spoken by Helena in Shakespeare’s comedy *A Midsummer Night’s Dream* as she reflects on the irrationality of romantic desire. In the early part of the play, Helena loves Demetrius despite his rejection, while he pursues Hermia; the lovers’ mismatched affections set the stage for the forest confusions that follow. Helena’s remark draws on a familiar Renaissance emblem: Cupid, the god of love, is often depicted blindfolded to signify love’s indiscriminate, unreasoning power. The speech occurs before the fairy magic intensifies the theme, framing love as something that disregards outward evidence and ordinary judgment.

Helena argues that love is not governed by sensory perception (“the eyes”) but by inward imagination and judgment (“the mind”). The claim is partly explanatory and partly bitter: love does not reliably track merit, beauty, or truth, but instead follows private fantasies and emotional compulsion. By invoking “wing’d Cupid painted blind,” she links personal experience to a cultural symbol—love as swift, impulsive, and heedless. In the play, the idea becomes comic as enchantment makes attraction visibly arbitrary; yet the lines also carry a serious insight about how desire can override reason and evidence, shaping what people think they see in others.

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,
And therefore is wing’d Cupid painted blind.
Nor hath Love’s mind of any judgement taste;
Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste:
And therefore is Love said to be a child,
Because in choice he is so oft beguil’d.