“The individual psychological stages in the lives of most people are:
1. To be hurt as a small child without anyone recognizing the situation as such
2. To fail to react to the resulting suffering with anger
3. To show gratitude for what are supposed to be good intentions
4. To forget everything
5. To discharge the stored-up anger onto others in adulthood or to direct it against oneself”
― For Your Own Good: Hidden Cruelty in Child-Rearing and the Roots of Violence
1. To be hurt as a small child without anyone recognizing the situation as such
2. To fail to react to the resulting suffering with anger
3. To show gratitude for what are supposed to be good intentions
4. To forget everything
5. To discharge the stored-up anger onto others in adulthood or to direct it against oneself”
― For Your Own Good: Hidden Cruelty in Child-Rearing and the Roots of Violence
“We deliberately forget because forgetting is a blessing. On both an emotional level and a spiritual level, forgetting is a natural part of the human experience and a natural function of the human brain. It is a feature, not a bug, one that saves us from being owned by our memories. Can a world that never forgets be a world that truly forgives?”
― The Next Story: Life and Faith after the Digital Explosion
― The Next Story: Life and Faith after the Digital Explosion
“If you want to forget something or someone, never hate it, or never hate him/her. Everything and everyone that you hate is engraved upon your heart; if you want to let go of something, if you want to forget, you cannot hate.”
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“Part of the function of memory is to forget; the omni-retentive mind will break down and produce at best an idiot savant who can recite a telephone book, and at worst a person to whom every grudge and slight is as yesterday's.”
― Love, Poverty, and War: Journeys and Essays
― Love, Poverty, and War: Journeys and Essays
silverbirds’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at silverbirds’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
Favorite Genres
Polls voted on by silverbirds
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