quotations about forgiveness
Forgotten is forgiven.
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
The Crack-Up
He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love.
MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
1957
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
If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him.
JESUS
Luke 17:3
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
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
Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?" Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times (or seventy times seven)."
JESUS
Matthew 18:21
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
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
Unpacking forgiveness is like relocating a family. While you may move on a particular day, unpacking takes a lot longer. It's a process. Boxes remain packed for months, years even.
CHRIS BRAUNS
Unpacking Forgiveness
Willingness to forgive frees the soul to laugh and cry and be The Beloved.
GITA BELLIN
The Flourishing Mind
For there are two kinds of forgiveness in the world: the one you practice because everything really is all right, and what went before is mended. The other kind of forgiveness you practice because someone needs desperately to be forgiven, or because you need just as badly to forgive them, for a heart can grab hold of old wounds and go sour as milk over them.
CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE
The Fairyland Series
It is right for him who asks forgiveness for his offenses to grant it to others.
HORACE
Satires
The offender never pardons.
GEORGE HERBERT
Jacula Prudentum
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
Forgiveness is like the gentle zephyrs wafting the dew of heaven over field, farm and woodland, rendering the landscape beautiful to behold.
C.L.W.
"Forgiveness", The Juvenile Instructor, Volume 25
He who forgives readily only invites offense.
PIERRE CORNEILLE
Cinna
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