The Sunflower Quotes

“To forgive without justice is a self-satisfying weakness. Justice without love is a simulation of strength.”
― Hans Habe, The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness

“The law of God is the law of love. We are created in order to love one another, and, when the law of love is broken, God's nature is frustrated. Such bonds when broken should be reforged as soon as possible. We are under obligation to forgive our neighbor even though he has offended against us seventy times seven.”
― Christopher Hollis, The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness

“But, unfortunately, the injured in this case (six million martyred dead) are incapable of exercising such prerogative or indeed if expressing any opinion at all.

And if the dead can’t forgive, neither can the living.”
― Mark Goulden, The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness

“You are summoned for no reason other than that you are a Jew, as if "Jew" were a mass term comparable, say, to "water" or "salt." Here is a bit of water, we say, and any sample of it will do. All water manifests itself the same interchangeable water properties. That a Nazi should think this way about Jews is not in the least surprising. Mass terms, mass murders, mass graves: they are all of a piece.”
― Rebecca Goldstein, The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness

“For him we were as good as dead; each of us was carrying around his own death certificate, from which only the date was missing.”
― Simon Wiesenthal, The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness

“you will find that in the history of man since the beginning of Creation, love and justice have opposed each other. At one period justice was the human ideal, at another, love. The divine idea of justice in love, love in justice, mankind has magnanimously left to the Creator.”
― Simon Wiesenthal, The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness

“It would have been to know himself as having forfeited forever any questionable right to “die in peace.” Perhaps then, and only then, in knowing his absolute unforgivability, would it even be conceivable that he be granted forgiveness—and then only by those three burning souls, multiplied by millions.”
― Simon Wiesenthal, The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness

“The crux of the matter is, of course, the question of forgiveness. Forgetting is something that time alone takes care of, but forgiveness is an act of volition, and only the sufferer is qualified to make the decision.”
― Simon Wiesenthal, The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness

“And I reflect that people like him are still being born, people who can be indoctrinated with evil. Mankind is ostensibly striving to avert catastrophes; medical progress gives us hope that one day disease can be conquered, but will we ever be able to prevent the creation of mass murderers?”
― Simon Wiesenthal, The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness

“Arthur said: “A superman has asked a subhuman to do something which is superhuman. If you had forgiven him, you would never have forgiven yourself all your life.”
― Simon Wiesenthal, The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness

“I stood up and looked in his direction, at his folded hands. Between then there seemed to rest a sunflower.
At last I made up my mind and without a word I left the room.”
― Simon Wiesenthal, The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness

“Look,’ he said, ‘those Jews died quickly, they did not suffer as i do—though they were not as guilty as I am.”
― Simon Wiesenthal, The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness

“Did he know already that he would get a sunflower when he was buried? The murderer would own something even when he was dead…And I?”
― Simon Wiesenthal, The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness