How would you know if a person truly loves you and not just showing empathy? If ever there's a way.

Uh, it is kinda hard to tell with so little to base this on... a lot of in is perception of body language and instinct. I hate saying you just know, but sometimes that really is the case. I would not necessarily act on it, but if I was certain I would find other ways to confirm (like get a spy... I mean friend... to ask them)

I'v always been able to tell if somebody truly loves me by the way they treat me and the things they say to me. Obvisouly if all they are talking about is "sex" or getting with you though.. thats all they are in for and they do not truly love you. But like Elara said try to get somebody to confirm if he truly loves you . Then you should know.

There is no single cookie-cutter mould in which you can accurately answer this question.

It would depend heavily on circumstances. What do you mean by "the person showing empathy or sympathy" exactly? It depends partially on their personality, for if the person is naturally kind and benevolent, then the line between sympathy and love is uncertain. I would guess that it depends heavily on what that person's extreme is and if they would go there for you.

Perhaps the best answer I can give is you is that you just got to judge yourself. More often than not it is simply an act of kindness, but sympathy and empathy could blossom.

Love's a fickle friend that you just got to roll with.

First of all, are we talking about love in a romantic way or just love as caring for friends etc? I'm asking this, because there are so many kinds of love, so I'd like to know what's this about, so I can do my best to help.
If it's about love in the romantic way there are many signs but you can never be sure, if it's in a romantic way, or if it's just friendly. In that case the best way is to use a "spy", as Elara said,lol
I only know something for sure, through my personal experience, that people who loves you for real (no matter the type of love), they'll be by your side through good and bad times. But if they just feel sympathy or empathy, they'll probably leave you or not support you so much during really hard times. Actually, when something bad happened to me, only then I realized who were my real friends, and who were those people, that were with me only because we had fun together.

noelia : You make a valid point, regarding the different aspects of love. It sort of ties in with what I said about there being no single cookie-cutter answer. I think, as well, you're right about us only knowing when we're finally in pain. Well, we need pain to grow stronger I suppose.

Redrunelord : Yeah, I agree with you. As for love, it has been always a "mystery" and a hard to answer about it topic, but I think all forms of love, not only the romantic one, are worthy to go through all this pain and agony in order to find out more about it, and how awesome and warm emotion it is

noelia : I never really had the warm happy parts of love, but the pain is there. Ah well, there is lots of life left, theoretically. Love is a fascinating topic, and there is a reason that authors and philosophers have been discussing as far back as written history goes.

Most of the ideologies I make is based upon logic and what I witnessed from people who have succeeded, and it is difficult to approach the topic of love in a logical sense. I always had a theory of "the four components of the human" to try and explain it though. In this theory, humans are composed of the mind, body, soul and heart. In the case of agnostic or atheist people, our emotions would fall under a subdivision of the mind. Basically the idea is certain parts of us sends certain messages to our core. What the mind may say may be different than the message that the heart sends. When there is conflict between these parts, we would have what causes us grief. Love falls under this theory in numerous categories. I would be glad to discuss it further, but I feel I'm rambling on now.

Time, that's the best answer I can give you. For all types of love too. It takes time to see how a friend or loved one will react in a given situation. Some people might love you right now, but that doesn't mean that a month from now they won't. People nowadays get like and love mixed up; they use them interchangeably, which is not how they should be used. Love is a long term commitment to someone and like can end at anytime. But anyways, over time you will definitely know who just likes you and who truly loves you.

I wish I knew. People are complex creatures. In my experience, I have never been able to tell how a woman feels about me. However, I've noticed that children lack a filter. They're usually very blunt. Even when they do lie, they make it obvious.

Sometimes you just need to be blunt and ask them if you really want to know. Sometimes you need help them to think of you a certain way (well, more like helping you).

Remember this. Love is tricky. We tend to go for the ones that are hard to get because we perceive them to be the most valued. However, as you get older, you'll hopefully realize what is important and understand that although a soul mate would sound nice, there's over 6 billion people in the world. What are the chances that you meet a soul mate in all that?

Be with someone who makes you happy and who deserves you. That goes for romantic and platonic relationships.