Loving, not being loved

I know now, that it is by loving, and not by being loved, that one can come nearest the soul of another; yea, that, where two love, it is the loving of each other, and not the being beloved of each other, that oiginates and perfects and assures their blessedness. I knew that love gives to him that loveth, poer over any soul beloved, even if that soul know him not, bringing him inwardly close to that spirit; a power that cannot be but for good; for in the proportion as selfishness intrudes, the love ceases, and the power that springs therefrom dies. Yet all love will, one day, meet with its return. All true love will, one day, behold its own image in the eyes of the beloved, and be humbly glad.

Source: The Wind from the Stars ed. Gordon Reid1992 Harper Collins, p. 130