Aristotle, in this excerpt explains the difference between lover and beloved.
Why does love fade?
When does love endure?
Is it possible to love out of interest and will it last?
Aristotle correction these questions in this excerpt from theNicomachean Ethics:
Friendship reaches its maximum duration when the benefit that both parties mutually derive from it is the same, for example pleasure, and not only that, but also when its source is the same, as is the case with a friendship between people of mind, whereas it is quite different in the trade of the lover and the beloved. The latter, in fact, do not find their pleasure in the same things: for the one, pleasure consists in the sight of the beloved, and for the other, in receiving the little cares of the lover; and the flower of youth coming to wither, also love with ERs (to the one who loves, the sight of the beloved causes no pleasure, and to the beloved one renders no more Care); in many cases, on the other hand, love persists when intimacy has made the character of the other dear to each of them, being both of a similar character. But those whose love relations are based on reciprocity, not even of pleasure but only of utility, also feel a less lively and less lasting friendship. And friendship based on utility disappears along with profit: for these friends did not love each other, but loved only their own interest.
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Chapter V