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226 Trending Forgiveness Quotes

Most popular quotes in Forgiveness category.

To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.

Lewis B. Smedes

How unhappy is he who cannot forgive himself.

Publilius Syrus

One of the secrets of a long and fruitful life is to forgive everybody everything everynight before you go to bed.

Bernard Baruch

It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.

William Blake

Beware of the man who does not return your blow: he neither forgives you nor allows you to forgive yourself.

George Bernard Shaw

Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.

Mark Twain

Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.

John F. Kennedy

When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realised that the Lord doesn't work that way so I stole one and asked Him to forgive me.

Emo Philips

Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them.

Bruce Lee

Acceptance and tolerance and forgiveness, those are life-altering lessons.

Jessica Lange

Forgive many things in others; nothing in yourself.

Ausonius

Forgiveness says you are given another chance to make a new beginning.

Desmond Tutu

The lesson is that you can still make mistakes and be forgiven.

Robert Downey, Jr.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

For me, forgiveness and compassion are always linked: how do we hold people accountable for wrongdoing and yet at the same time remain in touch with their humanity enough to believe in their capacity to be transformed?

bell hooks

Forgiveness is not always easy. At times, it feels more painful than the wound we suffered, to forgive the one that inflicted it. And yet, there is no peace without forgiveness.

Marianne Williamson

Many promising reconciliations have broken down because while both parties come prepared to forgive, neither party come prepared to be forgiven.

Charles Williams

The practice of forgiveness is our most important contribution to the healing of the world.

Marianne Williamson

As we know, forgiveness of oneself is the hardest of all the forgivenesses.

Joan Baez

Selfishness must always be forgiven you know, because there is no hope of a cure.

Jane Austen

Forgiveness is like faith. You have to keep reviving it.

Mason Cooley

Forgiveness is a funny thing. It warms the heart and cools the sting.

William Arthur Ward

It is often easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission.

Grace Hopper

Forgiveness is the key to action and freedom.

Hannah Arendt

Sins cannot be undone, only forgiven.

Igor Stravinsky

The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget.

Thomas Szasz

It's not an easy journey, to get to a place where you forgive people. But it is such a powerful place, because it frees you.

Tyler Perry

Genuine forgiveness does not deny anger but faces it head-on.

Alice Miller

I invite everyone to chose forgiveness rather than division, teamwork over personal ambition.

Jean-Francois Cope

Forgiveness is the remission of sins. For it is by this that what has been lost, and was found, is saved from being lost again.

Saint Augustine

We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Forgiveness is the answer to the child's dream of a miracle by which what is broken is made whole again, what is soiled is made clean again.

Dag Hammarskjold

We are not forgiven because we are good. We are forgiven because Christ bore our sins.

Joseph Prince

Inner peace can be reached only when we practice forgiveness. Forgiveness is letting go of the past, and is therefore the means for correcting our misperceptions.

Gerald Jampolsky

Forgiveness is the final form of love.

Reinhold Niebuhr

To understand is to forgive, even oneself.

Alexander Chase

To err is human; to forgive, divine.

Alexander Pope

Because forgiveness is like this: a room can be dank because you have closed the windows, you've closed the curtains. But the sun is shining outside, and the air is fresh outside. In order to get that fresh air, you have to get up and open the window and draw the curtains apart.

Desmond Tutu

Forgiveness is God's command.

Martin Luther

Before we can forgive one another, we have to understand one another.

Emma Goldman

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned.

Francis of Assisi

You will know that forgiveness has begun when you recall those who hurt you and feel the power to wish them well.

Lewis B. Smedes

Forgiveness is a virtue of the brave.

Indira Gandhi

It's one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive. Forgive everybody.

Maya Angelou

I learned a long time ago that some people would rather die than forgive. It's a strange truth, but forgiveness is a painful and difficult process. It's not something that happens overnight. It's an evolution of the heart.

Sue Monk Kidd

Nothing inspires forgiveness quite like revenge.

Scott Adams

Forgiveness is the economy of the heart... forgiveness saves the expense of anger, the cost of hatred, the waste of spirits.

Hannah More

Forgiveness is not a feeling - it's a decision we make because we want to do what's right before God. It's a quality decision that won't be easy and it may take time to get through the process, depending on the severity of the offense.

Joyce Meyer

Always forgive your enemies - nothing annoys them so much.

Oscar Wilde

When you forgive, you in no way change the past - but you sure do change the future.

Bernard Meltzer

Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart.

Corrie Ten Boom

Life is an adventure in forgiveness.

Norman Cousins

Forgive, son; men are men; they needs must err.

Euripides

God's forgiveness allows us to be honest with ourselves. We recognize our imperfections, admit our failures, and plead to God for clemency.

Jonathan Sacks

Forgiveness is the giving, and so the receiving, of life.

George MacDonald

Forgiveness is not to give the other person peace. Forgiveness is for you. Take that opportunity.

Mackenzie Phillips

I like second chances. I've given people second chances. You have fall-outs with friends, and forgiveness is a great thing to have. It's not easy to forgive. I definitely don't forget, but I do forgive.

Odette Annable

God will forgive me. It's his job.

Heinrich Heine

There is no revenge so complete as forgiveness.

Josh Billings

When a deep injury is done us, we never recover until we forgive.

Alan Paton

I think it is important that we rebuild an atmosphere of forgiveness and civility in every aspect of our lives.

T. D. Jakes

Forgiveness is the needle that knows how to mend.

Jewel

He that cannot forgive others, breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass if he would ever reach heaven; for everyone has need to be forgiven.

George Herbert

Never forget the three powerful resources you always have available to you: love, prayer, and forgiveness.

H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Forgotten is forgiven.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Forgive, O Lord, my little jokes on Thee, and I'll forgive Thy great big joke on me.

Robert Frost

A winner rebukes and forgives; a loser is too timid to rebuke and too petty to forgive.

Sydney J. Harris

He that cannot forgive others breaks the bridge over which he must pass himself; for every man has need to be forgiven.

Thomas Fuller

God forgive you, but I never can.

Elizabeth I

The people who did you wrong or who didn't quite know how to show up, you forgive them. And forgiving them allows you to forgive yourself too.

Jane Fonda

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.

Mahatma Gandhi

Thank you, God, for this good life and forgive us if we do not love it enough.

Garrison Keillor

Never does the human soul appear so strong as when it foregoes revenge and dares to forgive an injury.

Edwin Hubbel Chapin

Anger begets more anger, and forgiveness and love lead to more forgiveness and love.

Mahavira

I shall be an autocrat: that's my trade. And the good Lord will forgive me: that's his.

Catherine the Great

Forgive yourself for your faults and your mistakes and move on.

Les Brown

We win by tenderness. We conquer by forgiveness.

Frederick William Robertson

I place an enormous premium on loyalty. If someone betrays me, I can forgive them rationally, but emotionally I have found it impossible to do so.

Richard E. Grant

How does one know if she has forgiven? You tend to feel sorrow over the circumstance instead of rage, you tend to feel sorry for the person rather than angry with him. You tend to have nothing left to say about it all.

Clarissa Pinkola Estes

I never forgive, but I always forget.

Arthur Balfour

A mistake is always forgivable, rarely excusable and always unacceptable.

Robert Fripp

Humanity is never so beautiful as when praying for forgiveness, or else forgiving another.

Jean Paul

Man has two great spiritual needs. One is for forgiveness. The other is for goodness.

Billy Graham

I do not bring forgiveness with me, nor forgetfulness. The only ones who can forgive are dead; the living have no right to forget.

Chaim Herzog

Forgiveness is a gift you give yourself.

Suzanne Somers

The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone.

Harriet Beecher Stowe

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.

Joan Lunden

We cannot embrace God's forgiveness if we are so busy clinging to past wounds and nursing old grudges.

T. D. Jakes

If there is something to pardon in everything, there is also something to condemn.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge.

William Shakespeare

Forgive, forget. Bear with the faults of others as you would have them bear with yours.

Phillips Brooks

In the Bible it says they asked Jesus how many times you should forgive, and he said 70 times 7. Well, I want you all to know that I'm keeping a chart.

Hillary Clinton

Forgiveness is important in families, especially when there are so many secrets that need to be healed - for the most part, every family's got them.

Tyler Perry

It's toughest to forgive ourselves. So it's probably best to start with other people. It's almost like peeling an onion. Layer by layer, forgiving others, you really do get to the point where you can forgive yourself.

Patty Duke

The ineffable joy of forgiving and being forgiven forms an ecstasy that might well arouse the envy of the gods.

Elbert Hubbard

If there are occasions when my grape turned into a raisin and my joy bell lost its resonance, please forgive me. Charge it to my head and not to my heart.

Jesse Jackson

The remedy for life's broken pieces is not classes, workshops or books. Don't try to heal the broken pieces. Just forgive.

Iyanla Vanzant

It's said in Hollywood that you should always forgive your enemies - because you never know when you'll have to work with them.

Lana Turner

Let us not listen to those who think we ought to be angry with our enemies, and who believe this to be great and manly. Nothing is so praiseworthy, nothing so clearly shows a great and noble soul, as clemency and readiness to forgive.

Marcus Tullius Cicero