You can't talk your way out of a situation you acted you way into.
Apology may be scorned, but it retains its inherent value.
Progress occurs one apology at a time.
Apology is both transactional, in that it restores what has been broken to what it was before, and transformational, in that it creates opportunities that didn't exist before.
We value apology in the abstract, but turn our backs on it in practice.
Apology sends the clearest signal that we have the strength of character to reconcile ourselves with the truth.