Laenan Kite quotation - difference between BDSM and abuse

Laenan Kite is the protagonist in Catherine Webb's books "Mirror Dreams" and "Mirror Wakes". He's talking about power in a political sense here, but I think this captures pretty closely the essential distinction between abuse and D/s. I'm going to present it both in the original text, and in a form adapted for the specific use I wanted to make:

Half of man is the individual, the other half cooperation. Your scheme involves neither. You take all without asking, and give nothing in return.

Adapted for D/s (or indeed, any other form of consensual coupling of 2 or more lovers), I make it read thus:

Half of a relationship is the individuals, the other half cooperation. Abusers involve neither. They take all without asking, and give nothing in return.

I might add: "although sometimes they pretend to give, but this is just an illusion."

I think it's a beautiful way to describe what a consensual relationship looks like: half is the individuals, the other half cooperation. It might also be said that at times, it should be hard to tell which half is which.