“I cannot forgive, but I understand.”

“Forgive my rudeness. I cannot abide useless people.”

“I believe that time, with its infinite understanding, will one day forgive me.”

“I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself.”

“By refusing to forgive, I give up all illusions. Why should I forgive, when no one is asking me to? I mean, my parents refuse to understand and to know what they did to me. So why should I go on trying to understand and forgive my parents and whatever happened in their childhood, with things like psychoanalysis and transactional analysis? What's the use? Whom does it help? It doesn't help my parents to see the truth. But it does prevent me from experiencing my feelings, the feelings that would give me access to the truth. But under the bell-jar of forgiveness, feelings cannot and may not blossom freely.”

“I do not understand! I understand nothing! I cannot understand nor do I want to understand! I want to believe! To Believe!”

“I cannot forgive my friends for dying; I do not find these vanishing acts of theirs at all amusing.”

“Dear Lord, please show me everything I need to understand about forgiveness and surrender”

“There is a saying that to understand is to forgive, but that is an error, so Papa used to say. You must forgive in order to understand. Until you forgive, you defend yourself against the possibility of understanding.”

“I can understand companionship. I can understand bought sex in the afternoon, but I cannot understand the love affair.”