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About this quote

What does it mean?
True love involves making another person's well-being a core part of your own happiness.
In plain terms
You cannot be happy if the person you love is not.
What can you take from it?
Prioritize your partner's happiness as if it were your own.

Where it applies

  • romantic relationships
  • marriage
  • close friendships

Putting it to work

  • support partner goals
  • practice empathy
  • align priorities

Questions to consider

  • How do you balance your happiness with your partner's?
  • Is their happiness essential to yours?

Another view

This view can lead to neglecting one's own needs.

More from Robert A. Heinlein

  1. Correct morality can only be derived from what man is - not from what do-gooders and well-meaning aunt Nellies would like him to be.

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  2. Jealousy is a disease, love is a healthy condition. The immature mind often confuses one for the other, or assumes the greater the love, the greater the jealou…

    Permalink to quote #31
  3. Morals - all correct moral laws - derive from the instinct to survive. Moral behavior is survival behavior above the individual level.

    Permalink to quote #28

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