Forgiveness Quotes

“I can forgive you for leaving, but not for coming back.”
― Jonathan Safran Foer

“But when someone does wrong, when we make mistakes, we don’t say we’re sorry. We promise to make amends.”
“I will.”
“Mati en sheva yelu. This action will have no echo. It means we won’t repeat the same mistakes, that we won’t continue to do harm.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Crooked Kingdom

“In the bible it says you have to forgive seventy times seven. I want you all to know, I'm keeping a chart.”
― Hillary Rodham Clinton

“Forgiveness is not something you do for someone else; it's something you do for yourself. To forgive is not to condone, it is to refuse to continue feeling bad about an injury.”
― Jim Beaver, Life's That Way

“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

“Truth is beauty”
― Lisi Harrison

“With time and perspective we recognize that such problems in life do come for a purpose, if only to allow the one who faces such despair to be convinced that he really does need divine strength beyond himself, that she really does need the offer of heaven’s hand. Those who feel no need for mercy usually never seek it and almost never bestow it. Those who have never had a heartache or a weakness or felt lonely or forsaken never have had to cry unto heaven for relief of such personal pain. Surely it is better to find the goodness of God and the grace of Christ, even at the price of despair, than to risk living our lives in a moral or material complacency that has never felt any need for faith or forgiveness, any need for redemption or relief.”
― Jeffery R. Holland

“Love is without a doubt the laziest theory for the meaning of life, but when it actually comes a time to do it we find just enough energy to over-complicate life again. Any devil can love, whom he himself sees as, a good person who has treated him well, but to love also the polar opposite is what separates love from fickle emotions.”
― Criss Jami, Venus in Arms

“I was wrong. I should have never doubted you. I do trust you. I love you, and I can't do this anymore. I don't want to be..." He struggled to find the right words. "...without you." And then, finally, his arms slackened, releasing her, giving her the choice again. She felt his shoulders slump, and his heart shudder. "Please...”
― Kimberly Derting, Desires of the Dead

“I'm not perfect. Remember that, and try to forgive me when I fail you.”
― Elizabeth Lowell, Sweet Wind, Wild Wind

“People seem able to love their dogs with an unabashed acceptance that they rarely demonstrate with family or friends. The dogs do not disappoint them, or if they do, the owners manage to forget about it quickly. I want to learn to love people like this, the way I love my dog, with pride and enthusiasm and a complete amnesia for faults. In short, to love others the way my dog loves me.”
― Ann Patchett, This is the Story of a Happy Marriage

“Sometimes what a person needs most is to be forgiven.”
― Jennifer McMahon, Island of Lost Girls

“Nina, you taught me to be something better. They could be taught, too.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Six of Crows

“Forgiveness is not a one off decision; it is a journey and a process that takes time, determination, and persistence. Forgiveness is not forgetting; it is simply denying your pain the right to control your life.”
― Corallie Buchanan, Watch Out! Godly Women on the Loose

“People in general would rather die than forgive. It's that hard. If God said in plain language. "I'm giving you a choice, forgive or die," a lot of people would go ahead and order their coffin.”
― Sue Monk Kidd

“Matthew held out his hands. “Pax,” he said, wheedlingly. “Let it be peace between us. You can pour the rest of the port on my head.”
James’ mouth curved up into a smile. It was impossible to stay angry with Matthew. It was almost impossible to get angry at Matthew.”
― Cassandra Clare, Chain of Gold

“There is a hard law. When an injury is done to us, we never recover until we forgive. ”
― Alan Paton

“There are many ways that I have hurt and harmed others, have betrayed or abandoned them, caused them suffering, knowingly or unknowingly, out of my pain, fear, anger, and confusion.

Let yourself remember and visualize the ways you have hurt others. See the pain you have caused out of your own fear and confusion. Feel your own sorrow and regret. Sense that finally you can release this burden and ask for forgiveness. Take as much time as you need to picture each memory that still burdens your heart. And then as each person comes to mind, gently say:
I ask for your forgiveness, I ask for your forgiveness.”
― Jack Kornfield, The Art of Forgiveness, Lovingkindness, and Peace

“Cultivo una rosa blanca,
En julio como en enero,
Para el amigo sincero
Que me da su mano franca.
Y para el cruel que me arranca
El corazon con que vivo,
Cardo ni oruga cultivo
Cultivo una rosa blanca.

I have a white rose to tend
In July as in January;
I give it to the true friend
Who offers his frank hand to me.
And to the cruel one whose blows
Break the heart by which I live,
Thistle nor thorn do I give:
For him, too, I have a white rose.”
― José Martí, Versos Sencillos: Simple Verses (Recovering the Us Hispanic Literary Heritage) (Pinata Books for Young Adults)

“To punish the oppressors of humanity is clemency; to forgive them is cruelty.”
― Maximilien de Robespierre

“Whores and writers, Mahound. We are the people you can't forgive.”
― Salman Rushdie, Midnight’s Children

“You go on by doing the best you can. You go on by being generous. You go on by being true. You go on by offering comfort to others who can't go on. You go on by allowing the unbearable days to pass and allowing the pleasure in other days. You go on by finding a channel for your love and another for your rage.”
― Cheryl Strayed, Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar

“My brother asked the birds to forgive him: that sounds senseless, but it is right; for all is like an ocean, all is flowing and blending; a touch in one place sets up movement at the other end of the earth. It may be senseless to beg forgiveness of the birds, but birds would be happier at your side –a little happier, anyway– and children and all animals, if you yourself were nobler than you are now. It’s all like an ocean, I tell you. Then you would pray to the birds too, consumed by an all-embracing love in a sort of transport, and pray that they too will forgive you your sin.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

“We don't forgive people because they deserve it. We forgive them because
they need it--because we need it. I'm sure you felt much better after forgiving your son.”
― Bree Despain

“You are not limited to this body, to this mind, or to this reality—you are a limitless ocean of Consciousness, imbued with infinite potential. You are existence itself.”
― Joseph P. Kauffman, The Answer Is YOU: A Guide to Mental, Emotional, and Spiritual Freedom

“The dead don't desire revenge, but the happiness of the livng. To dirty your small hands would bring joy to no one.
-Kenshin to Eiji”
― Watsuki Nobuhiro

“There is a saying that to understand is to forgive, but that is an error, so Papa used to say. You must forgive in order to understand. Until you forgive, you defend yourself against the possibility of understanding. ... If you forgive, he would say, you may indeed still not understand, but you will be ready to understand, and that is the posture of grace.”
― Marilynne Robinson

“Forgiveness is the one gift you don't give to others. Rather, it is the gift you give yourself, so you can finally be free.”
― Shannon Alder

“God knows I've got so many frailties myself, I ought to be able to understand and forgive them in others. But I don't.”
― Ava Gardner, Ava: My Story

“For I hope my Friends will pardon me, when I declare, I know none of them without a Fault; and I should be sorry if I could imagine, I had any Friend who could not see mine. Forgiveness, of this Kind, we give and demand in Turn.”
― Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling