quotations about forgiveness
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
It is right for him who asks forgiveness for his offenses to grant it to others.
HORACE
Satires
Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.
JOHN F. KENNEDY
attributed, Mayor
People find it far easier to forgive others for being wrong than being right.
J. K. ROWLING
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
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
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
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
The offender never pardons.
GEORGE HERBERT
Jacula Prudentum
Forgive, and you will be forgiven.
JESUS
Luke 6:37
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
Forgotten is forgiven.
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
The Crack-Up
Forgiveness is healing ... especially forgiving yourself.
ALYSON NOËL
Evermore
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
He who forgives readily only invites offense.
PIERRE CORNEILLE
Cinna
Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
JESUS
Luke 11:4
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
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
Forgiveness is a strange thing. It can sometimes be easier to forgive our enemies than our friends. It can be hardest of all to forgive people we love. Like all of life's important coping skills, the ability to forgive and the capacity to let go of resentments most likely take root very early in our lives.
FRED ROGERS
The World According to Mister Rogers
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
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