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About this quote

What does it mean?
Love is depicted as an unequal transaction where one party loves deeply while the other merely condescends to receive affection.
In plain terms
Love can be unfair when one loves and the other just accepts.
What can you take from it?
Unequal affection creates imbalance in love.

Where it applies

  • relationship dynamics
  • romantic advice
  • social commentary

Putting it to work

  • evaluating relationships
  • understanding power

Questions to consider

  • Is love always unequal?
  • How do you show affection?

Another view

It presents love cynically rather than mutually.

More from William Makepeace Thackeray

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  3. Here was a man who could not spell, and did not care to read - who had the habits and the cunning of a boor: whose aim in life was pettifogging: who never had …

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