without being forgiven, released from the consequences of what we have done,
our capacity to act would, as it were, be confined to one single deed from which
we would never recover, not unlike the sorcerer's apprentice who lacked the formula
to break the spell. without being bound to the fulfillment of promises, we would never be able to keep our identities; we would be condemned to wander helplessly and without direction in the darkness of each one's lonely heart, caught in the contradictions and equivocalities- a darkness which only the light shed over the public realm through the presence of others, who confirm the identity between the one who promises and the one who fulfills, can dispel.

hannah arendt
the human condition