Here’s the hot and hard truth: Only your own loving behavior can make you feel worthy of love. It’s not rocket science. The only way to feel lovable is to be loving and compassionate.
Compassion is the most important emotion for forging intimate relationships. It contributes far more to happiness than love does. Relationships can be happy with low levels of love and high levels of compassion, but not the other way around.
— Steven Stosny, You Don’t Have to Take It Anymore, p. 207