I have a very strong feeling that the opposite of love is not

“I have a very strong feeling that the opposite of love is not hate — it’s apathy. It’s not giving a damn.” — In this piercing declaration, Leo Buscaglia, the great “Doctor of Love,” spoke a truth that reaches to the core of the human spirit. For in these few words lies a profound revelation about the nature of love, hate, and the indifference that quietly poisons the heart. Love and hate, though they seem to stand opposed, are bound by passion — both burn, both feel, both recognize the existence of the other. But apathy is colder than hate; it is the frost that kills without flame. It is not the enemy that fights, but the void that forgets.

Buscaglia, a man who devoted his life to teaching love as the supreme force of human life, understood that the greatest danger to the soul is not in feeling too deeply, but in ceasing to feel at all. He taught in an age when the world was growing fast and restless, when men’s hearts were numbed by noise and their minds distracted by endless striving. His message came as a cry of remembrance — a call to awaken from indifference. For to love is to be alive, but to be apathetic is to be already half-dead.

The ancients would have understood his words well. In every age, sages and prophets have warned that the gravest sin is not rage, but coldness of heart. When a man hates, he still acknowledges the presence of the other; he is still bound, however tragically, to relationship. But the one who feels nothing — who looks upon suffering and shrugs, who witnesses injustice and turns away — such a soul has drifted far from humanity itself. Apathy is the silence of the spirit, the death of empathy, the dimming of divine fire within.

Consider the story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German pastor who resisted tyranny during the darkness of the Second World War. He saw clearly that it was not only the hatred of the wicked that allowed evil to triumph, but the apathy of the good — those who chose silence when conscience demanded speech, comfort when courage was required. “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil,” he said. And so he acted, though it cost him his life. Bonhoeffer’s fate reveals the terrible truth of Buscaglia’s warning: that not giving a damn can destroy more surely than hate itself, because it grants hate the freedom to grow unchecked.

Yet the message is not meant to condemn, but to awaken. For Buscaglia’s life was a celebration of compassion. He taught that love is not a feeling to be hoarded but a force to be shared — a living energy that requires attention, risk, and vulnerability. To love deeply is to expose oneself to pain, but also to joy. It demands effort, presence, and courage. To be apathetic is easier, but it is also emptier. Love asks much, but gives infinitely more.

In truth, apathy is the greatest betrayal of the soul, for it denies our divine capacity to care. When one ceases to “give a damn,” one surrenders the most human part of oneself. Apathy does not protect us — it imprisons us in walls of comfort and fear. Love, by contrast, breaks those walls and sets the heart aflame. It is love that weeps at another’s sorrow, that rejoices in another’s triumph, that refuses to stand idle while the world bleeds. Love is the pulse of life itself; without it, all meaning fades into grey.

So, dear listener, take this teaching into your life: do not grow indifferent. Feel — even when it hurts. Care — even when the world seems unworthy. Reach out, speak up, and let compassion disturb your peace. To love is to live fully, and to live fully is to suffer nobly, but also to create beauty wherever you walk. The opposite of love is not hate — it is the barren wasteland of apathy, where nothing grows, where the heart lies dormant.

Awaken, then, and give a damn. Let your life be a testament to passion and purpose. Look upon others with tenderness, for every soul is a mirror of your own. Love fiercely, forgive freely, and refuse to grow cold. For as Buscaglia knew well, it is love — and only love — that keeps the world from falling silent, and the human spirit from turning to stone.