The Rules of Love, 3rd Edition

RULE 93

Forgive

Relationships don’t work well if they’re inherently unequal. I mean this from a moral perspective. They can work fine if one person is more knowledgeable, or more skilled or more talented – and even better if the other one can balance this in another field. But if one person is indebted to the other in any way, the relationship will be damaged. It may take time, it may become bitter or simply distant, but it’s not sustainable in the long term.

So if you want any friendship to last, you have to be able to forgive your friend for any offence you feel. This can be little stuff – the irritation of always being late, or never remembering to ask how you’re feeling – or it can be bigger stuff: ruining the dress you lent them, not turning ...