In fact it’s probably an important moment of maturation for any man to come to terms with the fact that, after having left boyhood, he can expect to receive unconditional self-sacrificial love from no one but God.

But while men cannot expect this particular form of love from a woman, they nonetheless obviously do need something reciprocal from her in a relationship. They can’t just sacrifice for her indefinitely for nothing.

— N.S. Lyons, The Self and the Soul