The important thing is not the object of love, but the emotion itself.
Interpretation
Love is more about the feelings it evokes than the person or object we love.
Gore Vidal emphasizes that the essence of love lies not in whom or what we love, but in the powerful emotions and experiences that love creates within us. This perspective highlights the subjective nature of love, suggesting that it is the emotion itself that defines our relationships and enriches our lives, rather than the specific individuals or things that elicit those feelings.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of emotional connections in relationships.
We must declare ourselves, become known; allow the world to discover this subterranean life of ours which connects kings and farm boys, artists and clerks. Let them see that the important thing is not the object of love, but the emotion itself.
American writers want to be not good but great; and so are neither.
Writing fiction has become a priestly business in countries that have lost their faith.
For the average American, freedom of speech is simply the freedom to repeat what everyone else is saying and no more.
Ayn Rand's 'philosophy' is nearly perfect in its immorality, which makes the size of her audience all the more ominous and symptomatic as we enter a curious new phase in our society.... To justify and extol human greed and egotism is to my mind not only immoral, but evil.
Envy is the central fact of American life.
And she looked at him and saw the grave tenderness in his eyes, and yet knew, for she was bred among men of war, that here was one whom no Rider of the Mark could outmatch in battle.
His kiss was like white lightning, a flash that spread, and spread again, and stayed.
He stopped, turned. He cupped his hands around his mouth. ''For you a thousand times over!'' he said. Then he smiled his Hassan smile and disappeared around the corner.
When I experience Love I must go to God. When I experience non-attachment God must come to me.
Those were the words she wanted to hear and she finally surrendered to the temptation of believing them.
Although the act of nurturing another's spiritual growth has the effect of nurturing one's own, a major characteristic of genuine love is that the distinction between oneself and the other is always maintained and preserved.
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