Forgiveness Quotes
This proverb is so old that Rabbi Elazar quoted it in the Midrash. It is frequently quoted in Israeli jurisprudence.
“Liberalism” was a catch all Chinese term at the time which was very derogatory in Communist vernacular very much like the negative connotation of liberalism to American Conservatives at the turn of the millennium 1990-2010.
There is a corollary to this proverb, that frequently reflects itself in Arab culture. It is that one who is not strong must never concede. To concede out of strength is manly and noble. To concede out of weakness is cowardly and base. Middle Eastern International politics is totally irrational to Westerners when a badly defeated country of group will often not even meet with the victors to discuss peace or terms of surrender. It is the victors only who can make concessions without losing dignity and respect.
It is this verse that for some Muslims justifies terrorism against non-Muslims. See {584354} for a specific example. There are similar provisions in the Old Testament which a few extremely conservative Jews and Christians have used to advocate for blasphemy being a capital crime. Note that if an unbeliever repents and becomes a Muslim, he should be spared.
This is a very interesting quotation in that it began as a bogus quotation. Someone made it up and posted it on the internet. Soon it had been picked up by many of the Internet quotation sites which just “scrape” other sites and do no research themselves. Soon it was all over the internet. When he appeared on Meet the Press, Tim Russert asked him about the attribution. He then embraced the quotation as representing his real feelings. In the area of the Internet, this phenomenon has been possible and in this case actually happened.
