Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
All sins, except a sin against itself, Love should forgive. All lives, save loveless lives, true Love should pardon.
In plain terms
Love forgives every sin except self‑destruction and spares all lives except loveless ones.
What can you take from it?
Love is forgiving, but its limits are self‑harm and lack of love.

Where it applies

  • relationship counseling
  • moral philosophy

Putting it to work

  • practice compassionate forgiveness
  • avoid self‑destructive actions

Questions to consider

  • Can love truly forgive self‑harm?
  • What defines a loveless life?

Another view

The phrasing is confusing and mixes moral and existential claims.

More from Oscar Wilde

  1. Women have a wonderful instinct about things. They can discover everything except the obvious.

    Permalink to quote #181
  2. Fashion is what one wears oneself. What is unfashionable is what other people wear.

    Permalink to quote #183
  3. I love talking about nothing, father. It is the only thing I know anything about.

    Permalink to quote #180

Related quotes

  1. I am not yet born; forgive me For the sins that in me the world shall commit, my words When they speak me, my thoughts when they think me, My treason engendere…

    Louis MacNeiceLouis MacNeice quote #5
  2. Had I not sinned what would there be for you to pardon. My fate has given you the opportunity for mercy.

    OvidOvid quote #57
  3. The absurd and execrable doctrine of vengeance, in all its shapes, seems to have been contemplated by this great moralist with the profoundest disapprobation; …

    Percy Bysshe ShelleyPercy Bysshe Shelley quote #182