“I feel spiritually satisfied knowing I’m doing a decent job at helping to relieve suffering in the world (in expectation). This is the most important goal in life, to which everything else has value only instrumentally. Even love – as magical as it is – can’t compare in intensity to the horrors of extreme suffering that we need to work against. [L]ove is a gift that life gives us as we pursue our real purpose in this world: reducing and preventing agony by the least fortunate sentient beings.”

— Brian Tomasik, Personal Thoughts on Romance: Universal Love