"It may be an infinitely less evil to murder a man than to refuse to forgive him. The former may be the act of a moment of passion; the latter is the heart's choice." -George MacDonald
George MacDonald was a Scottish minister who also wrote fantasy novels. His works inspired both C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, and MacDonald is sometimes regarded as the forefather of the entire fantasy genre. This quote is from his Unspoken Sermons, in which MacDonald argues that there are only two unforgivable sins, and denial of forgiveness to one's neighbor is one of them. "It is spiritual murder, the worst, to hate, to brood over the feeling that excludes, that, in our microcosm, kills the image, the idea of the hated," he wrote. "We listen to the voice of our own hurt pride or hurt affection... In as far as we can, we quench the relations of life between us; we close up the passages of possible return."
