The Handmaid's Tale

by Margaret Atwood

We lived, as usual, by ignoring. Ignoring isn’t the same as ignorance, you have to work at it.

ignoring

Sanity is a valuable possession; I hoard it the way people once hoarded money. I save it, so I will have enough, when the time comes.

sanity

But remember that forgiveness too is a power. To beg for it is a power, and to withhold or bestow it is a power, perhaps the greatest.

Forgiveness as power