Love is never lost. If not reciprocated, it will flow back and soften and purify the heart.

The saying frames love as intrinsically valuable rather than transactional. Even when affection is not returned, it is not “wasted”; it rebounds inward, reshaping the lover’s character by making the heart gentler, more compassionate, and morally clarified (“soften and purify”). The idea shifts attention from external reward to internal transformation: love’s benefit lies in what it does to the person who gives it. Read this way, the line offers consolation for unrequited love and also a broader ethical claim—generosity of feeling refines the self, regardless of outcome. It treats love as a kind of moral energy that cannot be destroyed, only redirected.