“We say of some things that they can't be forgiven, or that we will never forgive ourselves. But we do--we do it all the time.”

— Alice Munro

Source: Dear Life: Stories

Last update Oct. 3, 2023. History

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Alice Munro 38

Canadian novelist 1931

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Variant: We need to forgive ourselves. For all the things we didn't do. All the things we should have done. You can't get stuck on the regrets of what should have happened.
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“Existence is so bitter for every one of us! Ought we not forgive others much, my friend, if we wish to be forgiven ourselves?”

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Nana (1880).

“Surely in a matter of this kind we should endeavor to do something, that we may say that we have not lived in vain, that we may leave some impress of ourselves on the sands of time.”

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Attributed

“I do not believe in forgiveness as it is preached by the church. We do not need the forgiveness of God, but of each other and of ourselves.”

Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) Union United States Army officer

"What Must We Do To Be Saved?" (1880) http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38801/38801-h/38801-h.htm Section XI, "What Do You Propose?"
Context: I do not believe in forgiveness as it is preached by the church. We do not need the forgiveness of God, but of each other and of ourselves. If I rob Mr. Smith and God forgives me, how does that help Smith? If I, by slander, cover some poor girl with the leprosy of some imputed crime, and she withers away like a blighted flower and afterward I get the forgiveness of God, how does that help her? If there is another world, we have got to settle with the people we have wronged in this. No bankrupt court there. Every cent must be paid.

“If we did all the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.”

Thomas Edison (1847–1931) American inventor and businessman

As quoted in Motivating Humans : Goals, Emotions, and Personal Agency Beliefs (1992) by Martin E. Ford, p. 17.
Date unknown
Variant: If we did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves.