G. K. Chesterton on forgiveness

‘My country, right or wrong’ is a thing that no patriot would think of saying, except in a desperate case. It is like saying, ‘My mother, drunk or sober’.

The first two facts which a healthy boy or girl feels about sex are these: first that it is beautiful and then that it is dangerous.

The Declaration of Independence dogmatically bases all rights on the fact that God created all men equal; and it is right; for if they were not created equal, they were certainly evolved unequal. There is no basis for democracy except in a dogma about the divine origin of man.

Love, while always forgiving of imperfections and mistakes, can never cease to will their removal.

C. S. Lewis1898–1963

• Love
• Theology

To err is human, to forgive divine.

Alexander Pope1688–1744An Essay on Criticism (1711)In context

Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heal that has crushed it.

Mark Twain1835–1910

• Virtue