“The man who forgets does not forgive, he only loses the remembrance of the harm inflicted on him; forgiveness is the offspring of a feeling of heroism, of a noble heart, of a generous mind, whilst forgetfulness is only the result of a weak memory, or of an easy carelessness, and still oftener of a natural desire for calm and quietness. Hatred, in the course of time, kills the unhappy wretch who delights in nursing it in his bosom.”
Memoirs of J. Casanova de Seingalt (1894)
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Giacomo Casanova 55
Italian adventurer and author from the Republic of Venice 1725–1798Related quotes
“Man forgets. God forgives. Man forgets God's Truth. God forgives man's ignorance.”
Songs of the Soul (1971)
Source: 1840s, Works of Love (1847), p. 296
“Forgiveness is too easy. I can forget by indifference, but not forgive. I prefer revenge.”
Source: Sundays at Tiffany's
“Surely it is much more generous to forgive and remember, than to forgive and forget.”
"An Essay on the Noble Science of Self-Justification"; Tales and Novels, vol. 1, p. 213.
"Personal Conduct" http://books.google.com/books?id=IYOcAQAAQBAJ&q=%22The+stupid+neither+forgive+nor+forget+the+na%C3%AFve+forgive+and+forget+the+wise+forgive+but+do+not+forget%22&pg=PA177#v=onepage, p. 51. http://openlibrary.org/works/OL15151528W/The_Second_Sin
The Second Sin (1973)
Source: The Moon and Sixpence (1919), Ch. 41, p. 142
“Do not feel ashamed to forgive and forget.”
Nahj al-Balagha, Letter 53: An order to Malik Al-Ashtar
Variant: The best deed of a great man is to forgive and forget.