quotations about forgiveness
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
Willingness to forgive frees the soul to laugh and cry and be The Beloved.
GITA BELLIN
The Flourishing Mind
When you forgive, you love. And when you love, God's light shines upon you.
JON KRAKAUER
Into the Wild
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
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
There comes a day when, for someone who has persecuted us, we feel only indifference, a weariness at his stupidity. Then we forgive him.
CESARE PAVESE
This Business of Living
The willingness to forgive is a sign of spiritual and emotional maturity. It is one of the great virtues to which we all should aspire. Imagine a world filled with individuals willing both to apologize and to accept an apology. Is there any problem that could not be solved among people who possessed the humility and largeness of spirit and soul to do either -- or both -- when needed?
GORDON B. HINCKLEY
Standing for Something
Surely it is much more generous to forgive and remember, than to forgive and forget.
MARIA EDGEWORTH
"An Essay on the Noble Science of Self-Justification", Tales and Novels
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
It is easier to forgive an Enemy than to forgive a Friend.
WILLIAM BLAKE
Jerusalem
I also am other than what I imagine myself to be. To know this is forgiveness.
SIMONE WEIL
"Void and Compensation", Gravity and Grace
Forgiveness ought to be like a cancelled note, torn in two and burned up, so that it never can be shown against the man.
HENRY WARD BEECHER
Life Thoughts
Forgiveness is like a magic slate -- it gives us a fresh start.
ROBERT C. KAUSEN
We've Got to Start Meeting Like This!
Forgiveness is an absolute necessity for continued human existence.
DESMOND TUTU
attributed, Pastoral Care for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Healing the Shattered Soul
For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
MATTHEW 6:14
Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
JESUS
Luke 23:34
It is right for him who asks forgiveness for his offenses to grant it to others.
HORACE
Satires
I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded; not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night.
KHALED HOSSEINI
The Kite Runner
It's easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission.
GRACE HOPPER
interview, "Only the Limits of Our Imagination", Chips Ahoy, July 1986
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