Quote me...

"Gratitude, humility and praise are the way to kindle love in a good heart, ... But when gratitude and admiration are expressed constantly they can have the opposite effect.

They become a kind of drug for the one who is on the receiving end, who then starts to demand admiration and gratitude at all costs, by means of violence, blackmail or threats. In so doing you can cause the person on whom you shower gratitude and admiration to believe in his superiority and above all his superiority over you.

In place of a companion from whom you expect love you create yourself a master who regards himself as a good, who gives orders, takes decisions and issues pardons and rewards where appropriate. But all those functions belong to another Lord altogether. The human reward for gratitude and recognition tends to be ingratitude.

The person who has tried to obtain love by means of gratitude and service tends to receive the opposite."

The Ultimate Intimacy - Ivan Klima

This quote, or rather extract, I found rather interesting, not because I believe necessarily that I have suffered like the character, but I can empathise with her. It can definately be true in relationships that one can shower the other with love, praise and gratitude and that it not be respected or taken as love that should be returned in the same copious quantities that it is given.