Forgiveness

"Put from you the belief that "I have been wronged", and with it will go the feeling. Reject your sense of injury, and the injury itself disappears."

"They who forgive most shall be most forgiven."

"There is no revenge so complete as forgiveness."

"Forgiveness does not change the past but it does enlarge the future."

"The gospel comes to the sinner at once with nothing short of complete forgiveness as the starting-point of all his efforts to be holy. It does not say, "Go and sin no more, and I will not condemn thee." It says at once, "Neither do I condemn thee: go and sin no more.""

"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."

"Good, to forgive; Best to forget."

"He abused me, he struck me, he overcame me, he robbed me' -- in those who do not harbor such thoughts hatred will cease."

"Life, that ever needs forgiveness, has, for its first duty, to forgive."

"The fairest action of our human life Is scorning to revenge an injury; For who forgives without a further strife, His adversary's heart to him doth tie: And 'tis a firmer conquest, truly said, To win the heart than overthrow the head."

"Never does the human soul appear so strong as when it foregoes revenge, and dares to forgive an injury."

""Forgive and forget" goes the expression, and for our idealized magnanimous selves, that was all you needed. But for our actual selves the relationship between those two actions wasn’t so straightforward. In most cases we had to forget a little bit before we could forgive; when we no longer experienced the pain as fresh, the insult was easier to forgive, which in turn made it less memorable, and so on."

"Krishna said in the Gita that forgiveness is one of the characteristics of one born for a divine state. It is noteworthy that he distinguishes those good traits from those he considered to be demoniac, such as pride, self-conceit and anger (Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 16, verse 3)."

"Qui pardonne aisément invite à l'offenser."

"We read that we ought to forgive our enemies; but we do not read that we ought to forgive our friends."

"Alas! if my best Friend, who laid down His life for me, were to remember all the instances in which I have neglected Him, and to plead them against me in judgment, where should I hide my guilty head in the day of recompense? I will pray, therefore, for blessings on my friends, even though they cease to be so, and upon my enemies, though they continue such."

"Disagreements don't cause disunity, a lack of forgiveness does."

"Take forgiveness. Two levels here. One level: forgiveness means you shouldn't develop feelings of revenge. Because revenge harms the other person, therefore it is a form of violence. With violence, there is usually counterviolence. This generates even more violence — the problem never goes away. So that is one level. Another level: forgiveness means you should try not to develop feelings of anger toward your enemy. Anger doesn't solve the problem. Anger only brings uncomfortable feelings to yourself. Anger destroys your own peace of mind. Your happy mood never comes, not while anger remains. I think that's the main reason why we should forgive. With calm mind, more peaceful mind, more healthy body. An agitated mind spoils our health, very harmful for body. This is my feeling."

"Thou whom avenging pow'rs obey, Cancel my debt (too great to pay) Before the sad accounting day."

"Forgiveness to the injured does belong, But they ne'er pardon who have done the wrong."

"She hugged the offender, and forgave the offense, Sex to the last."

"Surely it is much more generous to forgive and remember, than to forgive and forget."

"His heart was as great as the world, but there was no room in it to hold the memory of a wrong."

"Behold affronts and indignities which the world thinks it right never to pardon, which the Son of God endures with a Divine meekness! Let us cast at the feet of Jesus that false honor, that quick sense of affronts, which exaggerates every thing, and pardons nothing, and, above all, that devilish determination in resenting injuries."

"Bear and forbear."

"While a man was walking along a road, he became very thirsty and found a well. He lowered himself into the well, drank, and came out. Then [he saw] a dog protruding its tongue out with thirst. The man said: "This dog has become exhausted from thirst in the same way as I." He lowered himself into the well again and filled his shoe with water. He gave the dog some water to drink. He thanked God, and [his sins were] forgiven. The Prophet was then asked: "Is there a reward for us in our animals?" He said: "There is a reward in every living thing."

"Meekness is the grace which, from beneath God's footstool, lifts up a candid and confiding eye, accepting God's smile of Fatherly affection, and adoring those perfections which it cannot comprehend."

"Forgiveness breaks the chain of causality because he who 'forgives' you — out of love — takes upon himself the consequences of what you have done. Forgiveness, therefore, always entails a sacrifice."

"When Moses had proclaimed every command of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people. He said, “This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep.” In the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle and everything used in its ceremonies. In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. It was necessary, then, for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these."

"One should forgive one's enemies, but not before they are hanged."

"I've been tryin' to get down to the Heart of the Matter But my will gets weak And my thoughts seem to scatter But I think it's about forgiveness Forgiveness Even if, even if you don't love me anymore."

"That he that cannot forgive others, breaks the bridge over which he must pass himself; for every man had need to be forgiven."

"The offender never pardons."

"It's easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission."

"Æquum est Peccatis veniam poscentem reddere rursus."

"Some of the most poignant passages in [the memoir book] “Battle for Survival[: 4,536 Days in Captivity]” are those where [deprogramming survivor Toru] Goto reflects on the complexity of forgiveness. He does not vilify his family wholesale; he mourns their loss of humanity. With genuine sorrow, he wonders what led them to betray him so completely. And this capacity for emotional nuance elevates the memoir from mere documentation to literature—it is as much an exploration of family, memory, and broken bonds as it is an indictment of religious persecution."

"Ultimately, mercy constitutes perhaps the purest act of love — forgiving someone not necessarily because they deserve it, but because we want to bring out the best in them and in ourselves."

""Again Jesus said [to the disciples], "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven."

"Forgive, and you will be forgiven."

"Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us."

"If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him."

"Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."

"And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins."

"Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors."

"If ye forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you."

"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).""

"In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."

"Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you."

"Ex humili magna ad fastigia rerum Extollit, quoties voluit fortuna jocari."

"Wilt Thou indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Peradventure there are fifty righteous within the city; wilt Thou indeed sweep away and not forgive the place for the fifty righteous that are therein? That be far from Thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked, that so the righteous should be as the wicked; that be far from Thee; shall not the Judge of all the earth do justly? … Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the LORD, who am but dust and ashes. Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous; wilt Thou destroy all the city for lack of five? … Oh, let not the LORD be angry, and I will speak yet but this once. Peradventure ten shall be found there?"