Few people have failed at love as spectacularly as the great philosophers Although we admire their wisdom history is littered with the romantic failures of the most sensible men and women of every age includingFriedrich Nietzsche Ah women They make the highs higher and the lows more frequent Rejected by everyone he proposed to even when he kept asking and askingJeanPaul Sartre There are of course ugly women but I prefer those who are pretty Adopted his mistress as his daughterLouis Althusser The trouble is there are bodies and worse still sexual organs Accidentally strangled his wife to deathAnd dozens of other great thinkers whose words we reverebut whose romantic decisions we should avoid at all costs