“Forgiveness is too easy. I can forget by indifference, but not forgive. I prefer revenge.”
Karl Lagerfeld (1933–2019) German fashion designer
Source: My Double Life (1907), Ch. 33 <!-- p. 369 -->
Context: Life is short, even for those who live a long time, and we must live for the few who know and appreciate us, who judge and absolve us, and for whom we have the same affection and indulgence. The rest I look upon as a mere crowd, lively or sad, loyal or corrupt, from whom there is nothing to be expected but fleeting emotions, either pleasant or unpleasant, which leave no trace behind them. We ought to hate very rarely, as it is too fatiguing; remain indifferent to a great deal, forgive often and never forget.
“Forgiveness is too easy. I can forget by indifference, but not forgive. I prefer revenge.”
Karl Lagerfeld (1933–2019) German fashion designer
Gregory Balestrero (1947) American industrial engineer
Balestrero (2008) quoted in: "America the Innovator The New Rules for Global Market Growth" http://www.forbesspecialsections.com/SectionPDFs/PMIAmericaInnov.pdf By Karen A. Edelman. Forbes : A Special Advertising Section. Accessed 3 Dec 2008. <br class="br">2000s
Herbert Spencer (1820–1903) English philosopher, biologist, sociologist, and prominent classical liberal political theorist
Pt. I, The Unknowable; Ch. I, Religion and Science; quoting from "There is some soul of goodness in things evil / Would men observingly distil it out", William Shakespeare, Henry V, act iv. sc. i
First Principles (1862)
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
“A mistake is always forgivable, rarely excusable, and never acceptable.”
Robert Fripp (1946) English guitarist, composer and record producer
Guitar Craft Monograph III: Aphorisms, Oct. 27 1988
“They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate.”
Edmund Burke (1729–1797) Anglo-Irish statesman
“Society often forgives the criminal; it never forgives the dreamer.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet