Not forgiving is like drinking rat poison and then waiting for the rat to die.

The aphorism frames unforgiveness as a form of self-harm: resentment is imagined as a toxin the injured person consumes, while the offender remains unaffected. Its force lies in reversing the usual moral calculus—refusing to forgive feels like punishing the other, but in practice it prolongs the sufferer’s own distress, keeping them psychologically tethered to the injury. The image also suggests that forgiveness can be understood pragmatically rather than sentimentally: it is less an exoneration of wrongdoing than a decision to stop ingesting corrosive anger. In this sense, the quote aligns forgiveness with self-preservation and emotional freedom.