To Love Is To Find Pleasure

From the Confessio Philosophi ("A Philosopher's Creed"), an early dialogue Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz composed around 1672–73 while in Paris. In it he argues that the highest form of love is a disinterested benevolence — delight in another's happiness for its own sake, not as a means to one's own pleasure. This definition reappears throughout his mature work and is central to his theodicy: God, as the supremely loving being, creates the world that maximises the happiness of all possible creatures.