When Love Sours

In an interview with Alvin P. Sanoff for U.S. News & World Report, Elie Wiesel offered a line I now hear repeated often: "The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference." Wiesel’s words capture something important; love and hate keep us emotionally attached, while indifference does not. Yet, I have never found the line entirely satisfying. Love and hate do seem like opposites, even if they share something that indifference doesn’t. Love can motivate us to protect and seek another person’s good. Hatred can direct that same attention in the opposite direction—toward punishment or harm.