"What characterizes the human race more,’ Karla once asked me, ‘cruelty or the capacity to feel shame for it?’ I thought the question was acutely clever then, when I first heard it, but I’m lonelier and wiser now, and I know that it isn’t cruelty or shame that characterizes the human races. It’s forgiveness that makes us what we are. Without forgiveness, our species would’ve annihilated itself in endless retributions. Without forgiveness there would be no history. Without that hope, there would be no art, for every work of art is in some way an act of forgiveness. Without that dream, there would be no love, for every act of love is in some way a promise to forgive. We live on because we can love, and we love because we can forgive."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Imported from EN Wikiquote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Shantaram
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Shantaram
86 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Shantaram →
Related Quotes
"Fate gives all of us three teachers, three friends, three enemies, and three great loves in our lives. But these twel…"
"That's how we keep this crazy place together - with the heart.... India is the heart. It's the heart that keeps us to…"
"The past reflects eternally between two mirrors - the bright mirror of words and deeds, and the dark one, full of thi…"
"It took me a long time and most of the world to learn what I know about love and fate and the choices we make, but th…"
"I was a revolutionary who lost his ideals in heroin, a philosopher who lost his integrity in crime, and a poet who lo…"
"There is a difference between the dishonest bribe and the honest bribe. The dishonest bribe is the same in every coun…"
"I was going through deep and silent water. Nothing and no-one could make me happy. Nothing and no-one could make me s…"
"There's a truth deeper than experience. It's beyond what we see, or even what we feel. It's an order of truth that se…"
"Most loves are like that ... You heart starts to feel like an overcrowded lifeboat. You throw your pride out to keep …"
"I stood in the harsh electric light of that new tunnel, in Bombay's Arthur Road Prison, and I wanted to laugh. Hey gu…"