Can this be right? Does Tolstoy really mean this? The quote actually comes from a conversation in the novel, Anna Karenina. Was she right? Is respect a substitute for love?
Since love is displayed in so many forms, every manifestation of love must be absent in order for respect to appear, if this were true. Respect would be a curios invention indeed, especially since respect has value. Wouldn’t it be correct to say that respect is actually a form of love? It’s been argued that love is private and respect is public. In the novel, the speaker depending on this, has lost in both arenas and is desperately grasping. So, not so great a sentiment, is it?
It would be correct to say that disrespect fills the empty place where love should be. Both are found in the context of relationships. Every display of disrespect spreads chaos, is without honor, careless, selfish, loveless. Love invents. Disrespect destroys.
Tolstoy wasn’t wrong. Anna was.
