In a world that is quick to label, divide, and condemn, hatred has now become the easy default, because for some it is far easier to point fingers than to extend a hand, to spotlight what is wrong rather than to work toward what is right, but this ease comes at a cost, resentment grows, trust vanishes, and solutions drift further out of reach.

The Stoics knew there was a better way; they understood that love, not the sentimental kind, but the active, disciplined choice to seek common ground was the only force strong enough to overcome bitterness. As Booker T. Washington once said, “Great men cultivate love, only little men cherish a spirit of hatred.” His words, forged in the fires of hardship, remind us that greatness demands we reject the smallness of hate and embrace the harder, higher road of love.

Choosing The Unity of Love Over Division

It is easy to stir up resentment; because it usually  takes no effort to point out what is wrong, criticize the “other side,” and widen the gap between people. What is hard, what requires real discipline and courage is building common ground. In today’s political and social differences, we have chosen the easier path, and it shows. The result is division, frustration, and a growing hopelessness about solving our most pressing problems. But what is needed is strength, grace and love. 

Lessons from Booker T. Washington on Strength and Grace

The Stoics would have none of this finger-pointing and enemy-making; they understood that bitterness shrinks the soul, while love enlarges it. Booker T. Washington, a man born in the final days of slavery, knew this truth deeply; he faced unimaginable racism and adversity, yet he famously said, “Great men cultivate love, only little men cherish a spirit of hatred.”

Here was a man with every reason to choose resentment but he chose the higher road instead; not because it was easy, but because it was the only path that led anywhere worth going. Greatness, as Washington reminds us, is not found in holding grudges but in extending with strength, grace and love, even to those who may not deserve it because love is the only path to true peace.

Why Love Is the Only Path to True Peace

If we are honest, we most times find ways to justify our own resentment; we think our anger is righteous; we believe our cause gives us permission to treat others with contempt, and when we indulge in this smallness, what do we gain? Really what d o we gain?

Even if playing to divisions gets us attention, even if outrage earns us social media likes, does it make us better? Does it bring us peace? Of course it does not. Resentment only rots the spirit and even the body, but love renews it.

The Stoic call is simple but demanding:

• Love other people, even when they wrong you.
• Love your righteous path, even when it feels difficult.
• Love your fate, even when it is difficult.
• Love your obstacles, because they are your teachers.
  

The ancient term for this is amor fati, love of one’s fate, and mind you, it is not passive acceptance; it is active embrace; it is looking at life in all its chaos and hardship and saying, “This too, I will love.”

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Conclusion

Hatred is easy, love is hard, and division is simple, but unity takes work; the easy road may feel satisfying in the short term, but it leaves us smaller, lonelier, and weaker. The hard road; the one of love, compassion, and understanding, stretches us, shapes us, and strengthens us.

So to you my dearest readers, ask yourself: What excuse do you have to be small? What would happen if, instead of feeding resentment, you fed love? You might find that it not only transforms others, it also very very much transforms you.

Love! Love! Love! Because in the end, it is the only way.