A Quote by Mary McCarthy

Understanding is often a prelude to forgiveness, but they are not the same, and we often forgive what we cannot understand (seeing nothing else to do) and understand what we cannot pardon.

Mary McCarthy

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Cannot Else Forgive Forgiveness Nothing Often Pardon Prelude Same Seeing Understand Understanding We Cannot

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Mary McCarthy
American - Novelist
June 21, 1912 - October 25, 1989

It is the duty of the human understanding to understand that there are things which it cannot understand, and what those things are. Human understanding has vulgarly occupied itself with nothing but understanding, but if it would only take the trouble to understand itself at the same time it would simply have to posit the paradox.

Soren Kierkegaard

I don't believe that to understand is necessarily to pardon, but I feel that to understand makes one forget that one cannot pardon.

Rebecca West

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. ... If you forgive, he would say, you may indeed still not understand, but you will be ready to understand, and that is the posture of grace.

Marilynne Robinson

You cannot learn a lesson of profound forgiveness unless you understand what it is to be wounded and forgive that which has wounded you.

Ben Kingsley

Training is needed in order to love properly; and to be able to give happiness and joy, you must practice DEEP LOOKING directed toward the other person you love. Because if you do not understand this person, you cannot love properly. Understanding is the essence of love. If you cannot understand, you cannot love. That is the message of the Buddha.

Nhat Hanh

It is the duty of the human understanding to understand that there are things which it cannot understand.

Soren Kierkegaard

if you understand something, you don't forgive it, you are the thing itself: forgiveness is for what you don't understand.

Doris Lessing

To see nothing is to perceive the Way, and to understand nothing is to know the Dharma, because seeing is neither seeing nor not seeing, and because understanding is neither understanding nor not understanding.

Bodhidharma

To see nothing is to perceive the Way, and to understand nothing is to know the Dharma, because seeing is neither seeing nor not seeing and because understanding is neither understanding nor not understanding.

Bodhidharma

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

Franz Kafka

This world has been connected...tied to the darkness...soon to be completely eclipsed...there is very much to learn...you understand so little...a meaningless effort...one who knows nothing cannot understand nothing.

Shiro Amano

You cannot escape from your past! But you can understand it! And once you understand it, you don't have to escape from it any longer! Understanding liberates you!

Mehmet Murat Ildan

I can understand that memory must be selective, else it would choke on the glut of experience. What I cannot understand is why it selects what it does.

Virgilia Peterson

It is taken care of. Nothing will not break into my Pit or the Far Reaches! I cannot speak for the other parts of the House, but we have Nothing well in hand here. I understand Nothing as no one else does! - Grim Tuesday

Garth Nix

There are many sorts of love. And when you love a man who is less than you dreamed, you have to make allowances for the difference between a real man and a dream. Sometimes you have to forgive him. Perhaps you even have to forgive him often. But forgiveness often comes with love.

Philippa Gregory

You can't understand light unless you understand darkness, because that's where life is most often lived - somewhere between the two. It's messy and it's beautiful all at the same time.

Bebo Norman

A Quote by Mary McCarthy

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