Forgiveness Quotes

Here are some of the best forgiveness quotes that I could find. True forgiveness is tough business. These quotes are great reminders of the importance of forgiveness.


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


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


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, 7 January 1983 (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


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


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


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


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


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


To err is human, to forgive, divine.
~ Alexander Pope



To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.
~ Lewis B. Smedes


Holding resentment is like eating poison and waiting for the other person to keel over.
~ Unknown


A heart filled with anger has no room for love.
~ Unknown


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


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


To forgive is the highest, most beautiful form of love. In return, you will receive untold peace and happiness.
~ Robert Muller


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

To forgive and not to forget is like burying the hatchet with the handle sticking out.
~ Unknown


Anger makes you smaller, while forgiveness forces you to grow beyond what you were.
~ Cherie Carter-Scott

Forgiveness means letting go of the past.
~ Gerald Jampolsky


We may not know how to forgive, and we may not want to forgive; but the very fact we say we are willing to forgive begins the healing practice.
~ Louise Hay


Let us forgive each other - only then will we live in peace.
~ Leo Tolstoy


There is no love without forgiveness, and there is no forgiveness without love.
~ Bryant H. McGill

Forgive many things in others; nothing in yourself. - Ausonius

If you haven't forgiven yourself something, how can you forgive others? - Dolores Huerta

To err is human; to forgive, infrequent. - Franklin P. Adams (1881 - 1960)

'Tis the most tender part of love, each other to forgive. - John Sheffield

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

Forgiveness is almost a selfish act because of its immense benefits to the one who forgives. - Lawana Blackwell

The hatred you're carrying is a live coal in your heart - far more damaging to yourself than to them. Lawana Blackwell

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong. - Mahatma Gandhi
Life is an adventure in forgiveness. - Norman Cousins


Forgiveness is the healing of wounds caused by another. You choose to let go of a past wrong and no longer be hurt by it. Forgiveness is a strong move to make, like turning your shoulders sideways to walk quickly on a crowded sidewalk. It's your move. Real Live Preacher

It really doesn't matter if the person who hurt you deserves to be forgiven. Forgiveness is a gift you give yourself. You have things to do and you want to move on. Real Live Preacher

No one forgives with more grace and love than a child. - Real Live Preacher

It is easier to get forgiveness than permission. - Stuart's Law of Retroaction


Pray you now, forget and forgive. - William Shakespeare




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

Know all and you will pardon all. --Thomas A’Kempis

We are all full of weakness and errors; let us mutually pardon each other our follies
--Voltaire

A mature Christian has capacity to absorb the offenses and weaknesses of others, not just demand they perform up to the code of ideals. --Stephen Crosby

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

Anger makes you smaller, while forgiveness forces you to grow beyond what you were. --Cherie Carter-Scott

The offender never pardons. --George Herbert

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

Resentment is like a glass of poison that a man drinks; then he sits down and waits for his enemy to die.—Unknown

Many people are afraid to forgive because they feel they must remember the wrong or they will not learn from it. The opposite is true. Through forgiveness, the wrong is released from its emotional stranglehold on us so that we can learn from it. Through the power and intelligence of the heart, the release of forgiveness brings expanded intelligence to work with the situation more effectively. -- David McArthur & Bruce McArthur

A Christian will find it cheaper to pardon than to resent. Forgiveness saves the expense of anger, the cost of hatred, and the waste of spirit. --Hannah More

Forgiveness means that you've decided not to let it keep festering inside even if it only comes up once in awhile. --Doc Childre and Howard Martin

Sincere forgiveness isn't colored with expectations that the other person apologize or change. Don't worry whether or not they finally understand you. Love them and release them. Life feeds back truth to people in its own way and time—just like it does for you and me. --Sara Paddison

Forgiveness is giving up the possibility of a better past. --Unknown

Not the power to remember, but its very opposite, the power to forget, is a necessary condition for our existence. -Sholem Asch

Forgiveness is a funny thing. It warms the heart and cools the sting. --William A. Ward

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

We frequently forgive those who bore us, but cannot forgive those whom we bore. –Francois, Duc de La Rochefoucauld

It is very easy to forgive others their mistakes; it takes more grit and gumption to forgive them for having witnessed your own. --Jessamyn West

Wrongs are often forgiven, but contempt never is. Our pride remembers it forever.
--Lord Chesterfield

Don't tell friends their social faults; they will cure the fault and never forgive you. --Logan Pearsall Smith

Forgiveness is . . . accepting God's sovereign use of people and situations to strip you of self importance, and humiliate your self love. --Martha Kilpatrick

Without deep humility, true forgiveness is impossible…and will never happen. --Martha Kilpatrick

Forgiveness is me giving up my right to hurt you for hurting me. --Anonymous

Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heal that has crushed it.
--Mark Twain


Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?-- Abraham Lincoln

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

The glory of Christianity is to conquer by forgiveness. --William Blake

Yes, this is what good is: to forgive evil. There is no other good. --Antonio Porchia

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

Forgiveness is choosing to love. It is the first skill of self-giving love. --Mahatma Gandhi

We are told that people stay in love because of chemistry, or because they remain intrigued with each other, because of many kindnesses, because of luck . . . But part of it has got to be forgiveness and gratefulness. --Ellen Goodman

A happy marriage is the union of two good forgivers. --Robert Quillen

Forgiveness is the final form of love. --Reinhold Niebuhr

One forgives to the degree that one loves. --Francois de La Rochefoucauld


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

We are all on a life long journey and the core of its meaning, the terrible demand of its centrality is forgiving and being forgiven. --Martha Kilpatrick

Forgiveness is the giving, and so the receiving, of life. --George MacDonald

Not to forgive is to be imprisoned by the past, by old grievances that do not permit life to proceed with new business. Not to forgive is to yield oneself to another's control... to be locked into a sequence of act and response, of outrage and revenge, tit for tat, escalating always. The present is endlessly overwhelmed and devoured by the past. Forgiveness frees the forgiver. It extracts the forgiver from someone else's nightmare. - Lance Morrow