Human feelings will always be flimsy because they are reversible – what was once endearing can easily become detestable by any given catalyst. This is because they cannot, no matter how idealized, be regarded beyond their being conditional.
As such, human emotions are best measured (and expressed) not according to their current side of the dichotomy – love or disgust? – but to their relative location in the spectrum that runs the gamut of neutral affective intensities. Neutral, because experiences only really color them, not because they have any intrinsic quality prior to the contexts in which they are summoned.
To say that one strongly feels for another – as opposed to exclusively expressing only either affection or disgust, for instance – is more comprehensive as it gives due credit to the complexity (and simplicity) that informs human expression and invokes the universal duality of things, instead of presupposing color onto everything thereby mistakenly regarding them as pure (in their color). It simply recognizes the ability of everything to be regarded both ways, as a source of both elation and misery.
Apart from recognizing duality, such an understanding will also render it unnecessary to resort to reversals – for instance, eventually demonizing what was once pure (and vice versa), or hating what was once endearing (and vice versa), when certain circumstances arise to effect such changes in regard. It eliminates having to “turn bitter” as per request by sturdily built defense mechanisms in lieu of a more enlightened manner of seeing.
As for the quip most brandished by individuals who think it clever mainly for its opposition to a cliche (which, unknown to some, has placed it on the very same rank with the number of people “cleverly” echoing it):
Love is not the opposite of indifference. Love is a colored affective intensity on one side of the dichotomy. Indifference is a level of emotive intensity. Therefore, the opposite of love is hate. And the opposite of indifference is a deep, substantial regard for something or someone, whether it be colored by specific human experience as love or hate.
Embracing the duality of your affections makes it easier to embrace the duality of the object of your affection, invariably making it easier to accept the qualities that hurt you, time and again, at every reversal.
Because most things, when they happen, are irreversible. And all things, regardless of human regard, perish.