“So beautiful and fortunate
You're the one who hates to love
But he's the one who loves to hate.”
Elvis Costello (1954) English singer-songwriter
Love For Tender
Song lyrics, Get Happy!! (1980)
"Was He Married?"
Selected Poems (1962)
“So beautiful and fortunate
You're the one who hates to love
But he's the one who loves to hate.”
Elvis Costello (1954) English singer-songwriter
Love For Tender
Song lyrics, Get Happy!! (1980)
N. K. Jemisin book The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
Source: The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (2010), Chapter 12 (p. 144)
Robert Ardrey book The Territorial Imperative
The Territorial Imperative: A Personal Investigation into the Animal Origins of Property and Nations (1966)
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
1960s, Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? (1967)
Context: I know that love is ultimately the only answer to mankind's problems. And I'm going to talk about it everywhere I go. I know it isn't popular to talk about it in some circles today. I'm not talking about emotional bosh when I talk about love, I'm talking about a strong, demanding love. And I have seen too much hate. I've seen too much hate on the faces of sheriffs in the South. I've seen hate on the faces of too many Klansmen and too many White Citizens Councilors in the South to want to hate myself, because every time I see it, I know that it does something to their faces and their personalities and I say to myself that hate is too great a burden to bear. I have decided to love. If you are seeking the highest good, I think you can find it through love. And the beautiful thing is that we are moving against wrong when we do it, because John was right, God is love. He who hates does not know God, but he who has love has the key that unlocks the door to the meaning of ultimate reality.
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
1950s, Loving Your Enemies (November 1957)
Context: The Greek language comes out with another word for love. It is the word agape. …agape is something of the understanding, creative, redemptive goodwill for all men. It is a love that seeks nothing in return. It is an overflowing love; it’s what theologians would call the love of God working in the lives of men. And when you rise to love on this level, you begin to love men, not because they are likeable, but because God loves them. You look at every man, and you love him because you know God loves him. And he might be the worst person you’ve ever seen. And this is what Jesus means, I think, in this very passage when he says, "Love your enemy." And it’s significant that he does not say, "Like your enemy." Like is a sentimental something, an affectionate something. There are a lot of people that I find it difficult to like. I don’t like what they do to me. I don’t like what they say about me and other people. I don’t like their attitudes. I don’t like some of the things they’re doing. I don’t like them. But Jesus says love them. And love is greater than like. Love is understanding, redemptive goodwill for all men, so that you love everybody, because God loves them. You refuse to do anything that will defeat an individual, because you have agape in your soul. And here you come to the point that you love the individual who does the evil deed, while hating the deed that the person does. This is what Jesus means when he says, "Love your enemy." This is the way to do it. When the opportunity presents itself when you can defeat your enemy, you must not do it.
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
1950s, Give Us the Ballot (1957)
Context: Now, I’m not talking about a sentimental, shallow kind of love. I’m not talking about eros, which is a sort of aesthetic, romantic love. I’m not even talking about philia, which is a sort of intimate affection between personal friends. But I'm talking about agape. I'm talking about the love of God in the hearts of men. I’m talking about a type of love which will cause you to love the person who does the evil deed while hating the deed that the person does. We've got to love.
“It is senseless to hate the one whom you love. Love actually. ”
John Lennon (1940–1980) English singer and songwriter
“All your life, you will be faced with a choice. You can choose love or hate…I choose love.”
Johnny Cash (1932–2003) American singer-songwriter
Henri Barbusse book Under Fire
Under Fire (1916), Ch. 24 - The Dawn
Context: I tell them that fraternity is a dream, an obscure and uncertain sentiment; that while it is unnatural for a man to hate one whom he does not know, it is equally unnatural to love him. You can build nothing on fraternity. Nor on liberty, either; it is too relative a thing in a society where all the elements subdivide each other by force.
But equality is always the same. Liberty and fraternity are words while equality is a fact. Equality should be the great human formula — social equality, for while individuals have varying values, each must have an equal share in the social life; and that is only just, because the life of one human being is equal to the life of another. That formula is of prodigious importance. The principle of the equal rights of every living being and the sacred will of the majority is infallible and must be invincible; all progress will be brought about by it, all, with a force truly divine. It will bring first the smooth bed-rock of all progress — the settling of quarrels by that justice which is exactly the same thing as the general advantage.
“They either love, love, love you, or hate, hate, hate you.”
Imelda Marcos (1929) Former First Lady of the Philippines
Quoted in " The day I met Imelda Marcos http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/1000140.stm at BBC News (31 October 2000). <br class="br">Context: When you reach a certain level of leadership, people cannot be neutral with you. They either love, love, love you, or hate, hate, hate you.