When we love a thing by desiring it we apprehend it as demanded by our well being; when we love another in friendship we wish good to him just as we wish it to ourselves, we apprehend our friend as our other self. St. Augustine remarks that well did a man say to his friend, "Thou half of my soul."
Love is like the efficient cause of real union, because it moves a person to seek and find the company of the beloved, who fits in as part of one's life. Love is the formal cause of the union of affection, because love itself is this bond.
-St. Thomas Aquinas
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