We don't love qualities, we love persons; sometimes by reason of their defects as well as of their qualities.

Maritain distinguishes personal love from mere appreciation of attributes. To “love qualities” is to treat the beloved as a bundle of admirable traits—something closer to admiration, taste, or utility. To “love persons” is to affirm the other as a whole, irreducible subject, whose dignity exceeds any list of virtues. The striking addition—loving “by reason of their defects as well as of their qualities”—suggests that genuine love can deepen through vulnerability, limitation, and the concrete history that makes someone this particular person. Defects do not become good in themselves, but they can become part of the intimate reality one embraces rather than a condition that cancels love.