Forgiveness Quotes and Sayings

Forgiveness Quotes

I can forgive, but I cannot forget, is only another way of saying, I will not forgive. Forgiveness ought to be like a cancelled note — torn in two, and burned up, so that it never can be shown against one. ~Henry Ward Beecher

Forgiving is rediscovering the shining path of peace that at first you thought others took away when they betrayed you. ~Dodinsky, www.dodinsky.com

Once a woman has forgiven her man, she must not reheat his sins for breakfast. ~Marlene Dietrich

It’s easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission. ~Grace Hopper

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

To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you. ~Lewis B. Smedes, "Forgiveness — The Power to Change the Past," Christianity Today, 1983 January 7th (Thanks, Donna)

Forgiveness is a funny thing. It warms the heart and cools the sting. ~William Arthur Ward

Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future. ~Paul Boese

If you can’t forgive and forget, pick one. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com

You can make up a quarrel, but it will always show where it was patched. ~Edgar Watson Howe, Country Town Sayings, 1911

It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend. ~William Blake, Jerusalem

Forgiveness is the sweetest revenge. ~Isaac Friedmann

[A]ll forgiveness is a gift to yourself. ~A Course in Miracles

Forgive all who have offended you, not for them, but for yourself. ~Harriet Nelson

He who cannot forgive breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass. ~George Herbert

There’s no point in burying a hatchet if you’re going to put up a marker on the site. ~Sydney Harris

Nobody forgets where he buried the hatchet. ~Frank McKinney "Kin" Hubbard, Abe Martin’s Broadcast, 1930

Yes, this is what good is: to forgive evil. There is no other good. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin

Some forgive and forget, more forgive and remember, most forgive and remind. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com

The man who forgives is far stronger than the man who fights. ~Nathan Croall

Life is an adventure in forgiveness. ~Norman Cousins

 

   

 

Life becomes easier when you learn to accept an apology you never got. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com

What we forgive too freely doesn’t stay forgiven. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic’s Notebook, 1960

It’s far easier to forgive an enemy after you’ve got even with him. ~Olin Miller

Forgiving is love’s toughest work, and love’s biggest risk. If you twist it into something it was never meant to be, it can make you a doormat or an insufferable manipulator. Forgiving seems almost unnatural. Our sense of fairness tells us people should pay for the wrong they do. But forgiving is love’s power to break nature’s rule. ~Lewis B. Smedes

To truly forgive is to allow the other person to forget. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com

      Our divine religion, the truth of which (if any history be true) is abundantly proved by historical evidence, has no need of such aids, as many are willing to give it, by asserting, that the wisest men of this world were ignorant of the two great maxims that we must act in respect of others, as we should with them to act in respect of ourselves, and that, instead of returning evil for evil, we should confer benefits even on those who injure us.... Pandits... would cite the beautiful Aryá couplet, which was written at least three centuries before our era, and which pronounces the duty of a good man, even in the moment of his destruction, to consist not only in forgiving, but even in a desire of benefiting, his destroyer, as the Sandal-tree, in the instant of its overthrow, sheds perfume on the axe, which fells it.... ~Sir William Jones, "On the Philosophy of the Asiaticks" (eleventh anniversary discourse, delivered 1794 February 20th)

      [See also] The Bard, triumphant o’er the frowns of fate,

Want, Envy, Calumny, the Tyrant’s hate,

Can conquer all things—save that inward foe,

’Tis Man’s to fight—but God’s to overthrow;

All that Revenge or Malice can contrive,

He can endure, and what is more—forgive!...

The falling Sandal-Tree sheds fragrance round,

Perfumes the axe that fells it to the ground; *

Some through their tortured trunks a balm supply,

And to give life to their destroyer—die;

And Earth’s torn, mangled breast, but yields the more,

And pours from deepest wounds her richest store.

~Charles Caleb Colton, Hypocrisy, 1812 (*citing Jones)

      [See also] Forgiveness is the perfume which flowers give when trampled upon. ~Quoted in The Sacred Circle, Volume I, edited by Judge Edmonds, Dr. Dexter, and O.G. Warren, 1855

      [See also] If, as a blind Indiana child once wrote, "forgiveness is the perfume of the violet on the heel that crushed it," gratitude may safely be characterized as the perfume of the rose on the hand that caressed it. ~Quoted in The Judge, 1916 January 8th

      There is no substantive evidence that Mark Twain crafted this metaphor. Poems with this symbolism are following a well-trodden flower-filled path. Please be careful. ~Garson O’Toole (The Quote Investigator), Forgiveness Is the Fragrance the Violet Sheds on the Heel That Has Crushed It

There is no revenge so complete as forgiveness. ~Josh Billings

Without forgiveness life is governed by... an endless cycle of resentment and retaliation. ~Roberto Assagioli

One thing you will probably remember well is any time you forgive and forget. ~Franklin P. Jones

Forgive. It doesn’t erase their crime but why should you do the time. Let go of resentment. ~Dodinsky, www.dodinsky.com

Never does the human soul appear so strong as when it forgoes revenge, and dares forgive an injury. ~E.H. Chapin

Always forgive your enemies — nothing annoys them so much. ~Oscar Wilde