“Don’t we forgive everything of a lover? We forgive selfishness, desire, guile. As long as we are the motive for it.”
Source: The English Patient
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Michael Ondaatje44
Canadian writer 1943Related quotes
Cosimo de' Medici (1389–1464) First ruler of the Medici political dynasty
Attributed to Cosimo de' Medici, Duke of Florence, in Apothegms by Francis Bacon, (1624) No. 206
“We often forgive those who bore us, but we cannot forgive those whom we bore.”
François de La Rochefoucauld book Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims
Nous pardonnons souvent à ceux qui nous ennuient, mais nous ne pouvons pardonner à ceux que nous ennuyons.
Maxim 304.
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665–1678)
Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830–1916) Austrian writer
Wir sollen immer verzeihen, dem Reuigen um seinetwillen, dem Reuelosen um unseretwillen.
Source: Aphorisms (1880/1893), p. 25.
Margaret Atwood (1939) Canadian writer
Source: The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), Chapter 30 (pp. 194-195)
Context: (She is reciting the Lord’s prayer) Now we come to forgiveness. Don’t worry about forgiving me right now. There are more important things. For instance: keep the others safe, if they are safe. Don’t let them suffer too much. If they have to die, let it be fast. You might even provide a Heaven for them. We need You for that. Hell we can make for ourselves.
“We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet
Paul Tillich (1886–1965) German-American theologian and philosopher
Chap. 1: "To Whom Much is Forgiven..."
The New Being (1955)
“We are chained to that which we do not forgive”
Richard Paul Evans (1962) American writer
Source: The Locket