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Forgiveness

16 quotes

Forgiveness is to deal with our emotions by sending them away—by denying ourselves the dark pleasures of venting them or fondling them in our minds… Forgiveness is more than a matter of refusing to hate someone. It is also a matter of choosing to demonstrate love and acceptance to the offender… Pain is the consequence of sin; there is no easy way to deal with it. Wood, nails, and pain are the currency of forgiveness, the love that heals.
— Dan Hamilton · this quote
He that returns good for evil obtains the victory.
— Thomas Fuller · this quote
Forgiveness is the well from which we draw the water to wash
— D Siler · this quote
Don't hate, it's too big a burden to bear.
— Martin Luther King Jr. · this quote
“And what of regrets? I shall live with them. I shall accept my regrets as part of my life, to be numbered among my self-inflicted wounds. But I will not endlessly gaze at them. I shall allow the memories to prod me into doing better with those still living. And I shall allow them to sharpen the vision and intensify the hope for that Great Day coming when we can all throw ourselves into each other's arms and say, "I'm sorry.”
— Nicholas Wolterstorff, Lament for a Son · this quote
That's why I loved you, for your magnanimous heart! And you do not need my forgiveness, nor I yours; it's all the same whether you forgive or not, all my life you will remain a wound in my soul, and I in yours—that's how it should be...
— Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov — Katerina Ivanovna, Epilogue · this quote
People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered; Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, they may accuse you of being selfish, ulterior motives; Be kind anyway. If you are successful you will win some false friends and true enemies; Succeed anyway. If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; Be honest and frank anyway. What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight; Build anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous; Be happy anyway. The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough; Give the world the best you've got anyway. You see, in the end, it is between you and God; It was never between you and them anyway.
— Kent M. Keith, The Paradoxical Commandments (1968) · this quote
He hoped this would make his father more forgiving about Ove losing his job, once they were reunited. He had to sit on the wooden
— Fredrik Backman, A Man Called Ove · this quote
“They say the best men are born out of their faults and that they often improve later on, more than if they’d never done anything wrong,” she’d said gently.
— Fredrik Backman, A Man Called Ove · this quote
In families, there are no crimes beyond forgiveness.
— Pat Conroy, The Prince of Tides · this quote
To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.
— Lewis B. Smedes, Forgive and Forget: Healing the Hurts We Don't Deserve · this quote
Forgiving does not erase the bitter past. A healed memory is not a deleted memory. Instead, forgiving what we cannot forget creates a new way to remember. We change the memory of our past into a hope for our future.
— Lewis B. Smedes, The Art of Forgiving · this quote
There is no rest in my bones, because of my sin; transfer my sins, with which thou art so displeased, upon him with whom thou art so well pleased, Christ Jesus, and there will be rest in my bones.
— John Donne, Devotions upon Emergent Occasions (1624) · this quote
Jesus is God's promise that no matter what we do, we can be forgiven and no matter who we are, we can be transformed.
— Philip Yancey, Q&A: Faith and Doubt, philipyancey.com (2009) · this quote
To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.
— Lewis B. Smedes,, Forgive and Forget: Healing the Hurts We Don’t Deserve (1984) · this quote
He is a forgiving God who recreates our pasts by forgiving them. He is a promising God who controls our future by making and keeping promises.
— Lewis B. Smedes, Christianity Today (January 1983) · this quote

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