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Forgiveness
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“... I'd like to say I'm a big fan of forgiveness as long as I'm given the opportunity to get even first.”
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“... the unforgivable was usually the most easily forgiven.”
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“... we can forgive anything as long as it isn't done to us.”
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“To forgive freely, is what we owe to our enemy; to forget not, is what we owe to ourselves.”
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“I have seen that every one forgives much in themselves that they find unpardonable in other people.”
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“Forgiveness doesn't happen to be a weakness of mine!”
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“Many people believe in turning the other cheek, especially when it is your cheek.”
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“Forgiveness is the act of admitting we are like other people. We are prone to make mistakes that cause confusion, inflict pain, and miscommunicate our intentions ... The only choice we have is to reconcile ourselves to our own flaws and the flaws of other people, or withdraw from the community.”
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“... if we don't forgive, we stay emotionally handcuffed to the person who hurt us ... ”
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“ Herein is all the peace of heaven: / To know we have failed and are forgiven. ”
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“Forgiveness is the one unpardonable sin.”
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“Without being forgiven, released from the consequences of what we have done, our capacity to act would, as it were, be confined to one single deed from which we could never recover.”
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“I know now that patriotism is not enough; I must have no hatred and bitterness toward anyone.”
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“God may pardon you, but I never can.”
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“... forgive what you can't excuse ... ”
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“She intended to forgive. Not to do so would be un-Christian; but she did not intend to do so soon, nor forget how much she had to forgive.”
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“It is very easy to forgive others their mistakes; it takes more grit and gumption to forgive them for having witnessed your own.”
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“You ought certainly to forgive them as a Christian, but never to admit them in your sight, or allow their names to be mentioned in your hearing.”
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“... surely it is much more generous to forgive and remember, than to forgive and forget. ”
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“If someone does me injury I must desire that this injury shall not degrade me. I must desire this out of love for him who inflicts it, in order that he may not really have done evil. ”
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“I don't believe that to understand is necessarily to pardon, but I feel that to understand makes one forget that one cannot pardon.”
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“Forgiveness should be an act, but this is a state with him.”
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“... it's easier to forgive your enemies than to forgive your friends.”
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“Forgiveness is the economy of the heart. ... Forgiveness saves expense of anger, the cost of hatred, the waste of spirits.”
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“... she had never yet been guilty of so mean and pitiful a weakness as to forgive any one; for to pardon an injury always showed either want of spirit to feel it, or want of power to resent it.”
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“... resentment is an evil so costly to our peace that we should find it more cheap to forgive even were it not more right.”
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“It makes you feel very virtuous when you forgive people, doesn't it?”
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“We all need the waters of the Mercy River. Though they don't run deep, there's usually enough, just enough, for the extravagance of our lives.”
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“One should hate very little, because it's extremely fatiguing. One should despise much, forgive often and never forget. Pardon does not bring with it forgetfulness; at least not for me.”
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“It is by forgiving that one is forgiven.”
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“It is said that the offender never forgives. Certainly it is quite explicitly hard for the one in the wrong to do so. And it takes more spiritual asset than continued alcohol often leaves.”
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“'I always excuse everybody,' says Mrs. Wilding-Weekes, 'I'm bound to — they have always such a lot to excuse in me.'”
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“They buried the hatchet, but in a shallow, well-marked grave.”
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“In taking revenge upon our enemies, we are only even with them; in passing over their malice we are superior.”
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“Who was it who said that forgiveness is giving up all hope of having had a different past?”
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“... not forgiving is like drinking rat poison and then waiting for the rat to die.”
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“Who understands much forgives much. To understand everything makes us very forgiving ...”
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“Few things are more aggravating than to be forgiven when one has done no wrong.”
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“When God forgives He forgets. He buries our sins in the sea and puts a sign on the bank saying, 'No Fishing Allowed.'”
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“Once a woman has forgiven her man, she must not reheat his sins for breakfast.”
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“There is only one path which leads to the house of forgiveness — that of understanding.”
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“To be forgiven is not enough; we must put an end to the very need to be forgiven.”
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“... the heart that is truly virtuous is ever inclined to pity and forgive the errors of its fellow-creatures.”
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“It is, alas, only the first forgiveness which is difficult.”
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“In a man they forgive anything. In a woman nothing.”
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“Unforgiveness is the most prolific cause of disease. It will harden arteries or liver, and affect the eye-sight. In its train are endless ills.”
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“Forgiveness is the path to healing.”
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“My sins like a mountain reached to the skies, black as sack cloth of hair and the heavens was as brass against my prayers ... in this moment of despair the cloud bursted, the heavens was clear, and the mountain was gone. My spirit was light, my heart was filled with love for God and all mankind. And the lightning, which was a moment ago the messenger of death, was now the messenger of peace, joy, and consolation. And I rose from my knees, ran down stairs, opened the door to let the lightning in the house, for it was like sheets of glory to my soul.”
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“... in our relations with the people around us, we forgive them more readily for what they do, which they can help, than for what they are, which they cannot help.”
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“When we forgive, we free ourselves from the bitter ties that bind us to the one who hurt us.”
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“... if you understand something, you don't forgive it, you are the thing itself: forgiveness is for what you don't understand.”
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“Holding on to anger, resentment and hurt only gives you tense muscles, a headache and a sore jaw from clenching your teeth. Forgiveness gives you back the laughter and the lightness in your life.”
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“As long as you don't forgive, who and whatever it is will occupy rent-free space in your mind.”
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“I guess I'm not the forgiving type. I got it honestly. Mama always said, 'When you've got your foot on a rattlesnake's neck is not the time to get religion.'”
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“That first year [of teaching] taught me that it's better to ask for forgiveness than to beg for permission.”
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“... forgiveness doesn't make the other person right, it makes you free ...”
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“We forgive, if we are wise, not for the other person, but for ourselves. We forgive, not to erase a wrong, but to relieve the residue of the wrong that is alive within us. We forgive because it is less painful than holding on to resentment. We forgive because without it we condemn ourselves to repeating endlessly the very trauma or situation that hurt us so. We forgive because ultimately it is the smartest action to take on our own behalf. We forgive because it restores to us a sense of inner balance.”
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“A happy marriage is the union of two forgivers.”
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“I have resigned myself to the fact that Rick is always going to hate me because he has committed a grave offense against me, for which he will never forgive me.”
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“Forgiveness lives alone and far off down the road, but bitterness and art are close, gossipy neighbors, sharing the same clothesline, hanging out their things, getting their laundry confused.”
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“Forgiveness is a little thing when love is there.”
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“... I discovered that forgiveness is a path to freedom.”
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“You should forgive your enemies and if you haven't any, just forgive a few of your friends.”
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“Forgiving is not forgetting. It is remembering and letting go.”
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“The person who can meet an apology more than halfway and forgive with a graciousness that makes the aggressor feel almost glad that the trouble occurred, but very certain that it shall never occur again, is the one who will make beautiful and lifelong friendships.”
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“... I learned that true forgiveness includes total acceptance.”
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“Forgive you? — Oh, of course, dear, / A dozen times a week! / We women were created / Forgiveness but to speak. / ... / And one day you'll be grieving, / And chiding me, no doubt, / Because so much forgiving / Has worn a great love out.”
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“... if you haven't forgiven yourself something, how can you forgive others?”
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“ Is it for you to forgive me? Is it for me to forgive you? Is it for God to forgive us all, and for what? Where there's no judging on one side or the other, there's no forgiveness wanted.”