“Don’t we forgive everything of a lover? We forgive selfishness, desire, guile. As long as we are the motive for it.”

— Michael Ondaatje , book The English Patient

Source: The English Patient

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Don’t we forgive everything of a lover? We forgive selfishness, desire, guile. As long as we are the motive for it." by Michael Ondaatje?

Michael Ondaatje 44

Canadian writer 1943

Related quotes

“We don’t forgive being as we are.”

Antonio Porchia (1885–1968) Italian Argentinian poet

Voces (1943)

“We read that we ought to forgive our enemies; but we do not read that we ought to forgive our friends.”

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)

“We should always forgive. We should forgive the repentant for their sake, the unrepentant for our sake.”

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.

“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.”

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.