What is the difference between "I Love You" and "I Am In Love With You"?

“I love you” = I care about you. You mean a lot to me. I appreciate you. I’m here for you.

“I’m in love with you” = I have strong (romantic) feelings for you.

“I love you” = I care very much about you.
“I’m in love w/you” = You’re the one I need to make my life complete!

“I love you” is becoming overused; “I am in love with you” seems more sincere.

I love my brother, I’m in love with my boyfriend.

to me “i love you” means that we share a special bond and i care a lot about you. “i’m in love with you” means that we share an even deeper bond on an intimate level and i probably want to marry you.

“I Am In Love With You” is something for the early stages of a relationship.

I would have said that I am in love with you suggests mutual involvement and therefore a deeper sense of love… It hints that not only do I love you but I know that you love me also… we are together in it

I love you seems to be only an admission of one’s own feelings…

I love you- for friends & family

I am in love with you- for your romantic intimates

I also agree with @mattbrowne in that “I am in love with you” is usually said in the newness of a romantic relationship and evolves into “I love you”, maybe even “I believe in life with you”.

“I love you” = Warts and all, you’re the one
“I’m in love with you” = Our relationship is emotionally rewarding to me, and I want to share myself with you.

I agree with @mattbrowne that the later is for the early stages of the relationship. You have to really know someone in order to love them.

I believe that ” I Am In Love With You” is an infatuation love… whereas ” I Love You” is a long term love where one loves the person for the reality of who they are… not the “First Act of the Play”, if you will… where everyone is giving 1000% to sell themselves. . “I Am In Love with You” is chemcical to a degree, and loaded with neediness, and a matter of loving the fantasy of a person.. whereas ” I Love You” is a settlled, balanced, objective and genuine love… one has already learned all the good and the bad and seen the person as they truly are. Was curious as to what everyone else thought.

The best kind of love is when you love someone and you are also in love with them. I know a 93 year old man who says he was in love with his wife until the day she died. They were married for a very, very long time.

I’d say the difference is really that there’s no commonly accepted word that implies you’re so much more than a friend but your not my one and only. If you know someone well enough for them to be saying it you’re probably pretty sure what they mean, with a little perspective and thought.

To me, “I love you” means “I care more for your happiness than for my own.” Love is an action verb. “I’m in love with you” is a declaration of sentiment. A lot of people will use it as a prequisite to those three little words. If someone were to ask which phrase I’d rather hear, I would pick the first one, because the second one is a self-centered statement that says more abou the speaker’s emotional state. Being in love with someone is a mood, one that could pass as quickly as it came. But if one loves someone else, then one can still display loving actions even when the feeling of being in love has subsided.

i love you – care a lot, like you would your family
i am in love with you – much stronger feelings (romantic)

if saying it to a friend or family member, i’d say i love you. saying it to a boyfriend, id say i’m in love with you. As a girl, if my boyfriend were to say one of them to me, id much prefer im in love with you.

No difference, as far as my usage is concerned regarding humans. I love my cats but only one human has or will ever hear either from me.

Different degrees in blindness.
With I love you, You may need reading glasses and you’ll put them on time to time.
With I’m in love with you, short of a lobotomy (or eye transplant surgeon) you have a hard time telling whats shadow and whats solid.
or you can go with what AnonymousGirl said. LOL

I think of “I love you” as what you feel for your family and close friends.

Being in love with someone is a romantic thing and to me an indescribable feeling for them.

There is also a certain level of love i have for everyone, even people I don’t know. I wouldn’t just walk by a person who needs my help and I am able to give it to them

I love you = I love you like I love my brother
I’m in love with you = I want to rip off your clothes and make babies with you

In my opinion, so much of it comes down to sex. I know that seems shallow, but it’s the truth of it. I want to “share my life” with my immediate family just as much as I do my significant other. The only major difference is that I want to have sex with my significant other… otherwise, they’re just another (close) friend.