Topic
Forgiveness in this collection is consistently described as something you do for yourself as much as for the person you forgive. Twain's forgiveness-as-the-fragrance-the-violet-sheds-on-the-heel-that-crushed-it is the most beautiful entry: forgiveness is not capitulation but the release of a quality that belongs to the forgiver rather than the forgiven. Fuller on forgiveness-as-the-bridge-you-need-yourself is the self-interest argument: withholding forgiveness doesn't protect you from needing it. La Rochefoucauld on forgiving-to-the-degree-that-one-loves connects the capacity for forgiveness to investment: we forgive most easily where we have most at stake. Wilde on enemies-and-the-annoyance-of-forgiving-them is the social comedy of forgiveness: its most destabilizing effect is on the person being forgiven. Nietzsche on something-to-condemn-in-everything gives forgiveness its intellectual limit: even the most generous account of another's behavior cannot pretend that no error was made. Bierce on success-as-the-one-unpardonable-sin gives the collection its bleakest entry: the most difficult thing to forgive, in practice, is someone else's success.