quotations about forgiveness
Nothing inspires forgiveness quite like revenge.
SCOTT ADAMS
attributed, Dictionary of Quotations
Forgiveness must be immediate, whether or not a person asks for it. Trust must be rebuilt over time. Trust requires a track record.
RICK WARREN
The Purpose Driven Life
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
I love you and I forgive you. I am like you and you are like me. I love all people. I love the world. I love creating. Everything in our life should be based on love.
RAY BRADBURY
"Sci-fi Legend Ray Bradbury on God, Monsters and Angels", CNN: Living, August 2, 2010
Forgiveness does not mean ignoring what has been done or putting a false label on an evil act. It means, rather, that the evil act no longer remains as a barrier to the relationship. Forgiveness is a catalyst creating the atmosphere necessary for a fresh start and a new beginning.
MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
1957
Forgiveness is a strange thing. It can sometimes be easier to forgive our enemies than our friends. It can be hardest of all to forgive people we love. Like all of life's important coping skills, the ability to forgive and the capacity to let go of resentments most likely take root very early in our lives.
FRED ROGERS
The World According to Mister Rogers
Forgiveness is an absolute necessity for continued human existence.
DESMOND TUTU
attributed, Pastoral Care for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Healing the Shattered Soul
Forgiveness is like money. We want to get it, not give it.
JENTEZEN FRANKLIN
Love Like You've Never Been Hurt
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
Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.
JOHN F. KENNEDY
attributed, Mayor
Forgiveness is like a magic slate -- it gives us a fresh start.
ROBERT C. KAUSEN
We've Got to Start Meeting Like This!
Forgotten is forgiven.
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
The Crack-Up
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
People find it far easier to forgive others for being wrong than being right.
J. K. ROWLING
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
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
The offender never pardons.
GEORGE HERBERT
Jacula Prudentum
"Forgive and forget" goes the expression, and for our idealized magnanimous selves, that was all you needed. But for our actual selves the relationship between those two actions wasn't so straightforward. In most cases we had to forget a little bit before we could forgive; when we no longer experienced the pain as fresh, the insult was easier to forgive, which in turn made it less memorable, and so on.
TED CHIANG
"The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling", Subterranean Press Magazine
Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
JESUS
Luke 11:4
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