If you care about somebody, you should want them to be happy. Even if you wind up being left out.

The line frames love as fundamentally unselfish: genuine care prioritizes another person’s well-being over one’s own desire to be included, chosen, or rewarded. It acknowledges a common emotional cost—being “left out”—and argues that this pain does not invalidate the duty (or moral aspiration) to want the other person’s happiness. The quote also gestures toward a mature, sometimes bittersweet ethic of affection: letting go, accepting changed relationships, and resisting possessiveness. In that sense, it contrasts attachment (needing someone for oneself) with compassion (willing their good even at personal loss), making it a succinct statement about selfless friendship or romantic love.