“There is no greater misfortune than not being loved.”Luc de Vauvenargues · Reflecții și maxime · 1746 · 1
No success is worth anything if you have no one to share it with.
Vauvenargues places the need for love above all other evils: poverty, illness, or failure wound less than the indifference of others. The mechanism is recognition: a person builds their worth through the gaze of others, and without love they face the world as if they did not matter. A concrete example is the successful person who, at the end of a triumphant day, has no one to share it with.
Why it matters It reminds anyone trading relationships for career or status that the price may be the highest one.