Alice Munro Quotes

Men never forgive those in whom there is nothing to pardon.

Come not, when I am dead, To drop thy foolish tears upon my grave, To trample round my fallen head, And vex the unhappy dust thou wouldst not save. There let the wind sweep and the plover cry; But thou, go by. Child, if it were thine error or thy crime I care no longer, being all unblest; Wed whom thou wilt, but I am sick of Time, And I desire to rest. Pass on, weak heart, and leave me where I lie: Go by, go by.

Maybe some things are better left broken and scattered Veiled in darkness, secret bitterness and self-doubt I should have known better Than to start something that I couldn't finish That I couldn't care about That I couldn't remember starting in the first place I don't want to know you You went years without me You might as well keep going.

In love, you pay as you leave.

Now that we are cool, he said, and regret that we hurt each other, I am not sorry that it happened.

I don't have any gnawing guilt over contributing to any unhappiness suffered by my husbands. They were as much to blame as I was.

Sometimes there's just no room for apologies.

I've had friendships and relationships in the past where things weren't working out for either of us, but I still found it really hard to let go.

I have always been interested in how strange it is, when you date someone and break up, and then you both move on and continue your lives. What do you owe them, if anything, for that time intimate time spent together? What does that time mean, if anything?

I know about forgiving people and loving them anyway, even after they hurt you.

The pride that keeps us from forgiving is the same pride which keeps us from accepting forgiveness.

Do i really want him dead? What i want... what i want is to have him back.

What was the point of being able to forgive, when deep down, you both had to admit you'd never forget?

If people don't hold grudges, it means they just don't care what people do.

I must go down to the seas again to find where I buried the hatchet with Yesterday.

What we forgive too freely doesn't stay forgiven.

By the time she got back to work, the only thing Gabby knew for certain was that as forgiving as he'd been, she'd never live down what she'd done, and since there wasn't a rock large enough to crawl under, it was in her best interest to find a way to avoid him.

Alice: It's the only way to leave. "I don't love you anymore. Goodbye." Dan: Supposing you do still love them? Alice: You don't leave.

The crazy thing about it is she'd take him back, but the fool in him that walked out is the fool who just won't ask.

It made me wonder how many times we forgive just because we don't want to lose someone, even if they don't deserve our forgiveness.

I have this theory: If you forgive someone, they can't hurt you anymore.

No one teaches you how to walk away from someone who you know loves you. NO one teaches you how to say good-bye.

And I will forget her, yes. That which came together will fall apart slowly, but she will forgive my forgetting, just as I forgive her for forgetting me and the Colonel and nothing but herself and her mom in those last moments as she spent as a person.

I thought I knew who you were, but I see now you were a lesson to learn, and all I am to you now is a bridge that’s been burned.

There comes a day when, for someone who has persecuted us, we feel only indifference, a weariness at his stupidity. Then we forgive him.