quotations about forgiveness
Forgiveness is like money. We want to get it, not give it.
JENTEZEN FRANKLIN
Love Like You've Never Been Hurt
When our anger turns to bitterness it becomes like a weed in the garden of our heart. If we pull the weeds, our garden can stay healthy and alive. But if we allow bitter weeds to grow, eventually our garden becomes ugly and weeds choke the life out of the vegetables in our garden. Forgiveness is like pulling out the weeds.
MICHAEL E. MCCULLOUGH
To Forgive Is Human: How to Put Your Past in the Past
Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.
JOHN F. KENNEDY
attributed, Mayor
Forgotten is forgiven.
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
The Crack-Up
People find it far easier to forgive others for being wrong than being right.
J. K. ROWLING
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Never does the human soul appear so strong as when it foregoes revenge, and dares to forgive an injury.
EDWIN HUBBELL CHAPIN
attributed, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers
Forgiveness is an absolute necessity for continued human existence.
DESMOND TUTU
attributed, Pastoral Care for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Healing the Shattered Soul
He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love.
MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
1957
The offender never pardons.
GEORGE HERBERT
Jacula Prudentum
Never forgive an injury or an insult so long as the offending parties have it in their power to make reparation; since, if they are able to do so, and will not, whatever they may pretend to others, they, up to that time, are only laughing at you, and triumphing in secret. If, however, they have not the power to neutralize an impertinence by explanation, or a fraud by restitution, forgive and forget either--as soon as you can.
CHARLES WILLIAM DAY
The Maxims
There is an ugly kind of forgiveness in this world--a kind of hedgehog forgiveness, shot out like quills.
HENRY WARD BEECHER
Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit
Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
JESUS
Luke 11:4
Forgiveness, that noblest of all self-denial, is a virtue, which he alone that can practice in himself, can willingly believe in another.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON
Lacon
Forgiveness ought to be like a cancelled note, torn in two and burned up, so that it never can be shown against the man.
HENRY WARD BEECHER
Life Thoughts
Forgiveness is healing ... especially forgiving yourself.
ALYSON NOËL
Evermore
Forgiveness is like catching a little fish. You reel it in, and you make a decision to keep it or let it go. With the little ones, you take the hook out of its mouth and throw it back in. The scar from the hook doesn't go away and the fish ought to remember not to repeat the mistake. But the fish is back in the creek and free to do whatever fish do. The purpose of forgiveness is freedom, like being thrown back into the creek.
DAVID RYDER
The Hound of Tooty River
Remember, the purpose of forgiveness is to release yourself from the emotional attachment to the event. Forgiveness is like getting out of jail.
JIM BROWN
Spiritual Breadcrumbs from the Universe
It is right for him who asks forgiveness for his offenses to grant it to others.
HORACE
Satires
Willingness to forgive frees the soul to laugh and cry and be The Beloved.
GITA BELLIN
The Flourishing Mind
But remember that forgiveness too is a power. To beg for it is a power, and to withhold or bestow it is a power, perhaps the greatest.
MARGARET ATWOOD
The Handmaid's Tale