Forgiveness Quotes
Forgiveness is the intentional and voluntary process by which a victim undergoes a change in feelings and attitude regarding an offense, and overcomes negative emotions such as resentment and vengeance. Forgiveness can be a powerful opportunity for reconnection both with the offender and with ourselves.
In this article, you will find an array of forgiveness quotes to inspire you to soften your heart and let go of the pain that haunts you from the unfairness you’ve experienced. We hope these quotes will inspire you to be a forgiving individual.
60 Inspirational Quotes About Forgiveness
“In love, everyone does things that hurt the other person, so there is really no ‘Right’ and ‘Wrong’. You just have to decide what you’re willing to forgive.”– Yvonne Wood
“Anger makes you smaller, while forgiveness forces you to grow beyond what you are.”– Cherie Carter-Scott
“A happy marriage is the union of two good forgivers.”– Robert Quillen
“If we really want to love we must learn how to forgive.”– Mother Teresa
“Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.”– Mark Twain
“It can be hard to forgive and let go but it’s important to remember that harboring the resentment and holding a grudge can hurt you even more. The word ‘forgive’ really means to give something up for yourself not for them.”– Jack Canfield
“Forgiveness is the key to action and freedom.”– Hannah Arendt
“When a deep injury is done to us, we never heal until we forgive.” – Nelson Mandela
“Forgiveness should start now. Putting off forgiving only deepens the wound. Clinging to bitterness postpones happiness. Life is short, time is fleeting. Today is the day to forgive.”– Wilfred Peterson
There is no love without forgiveness, and there is no forgiveness without love.— Bryant H. McGill
“Sometimes what a person needs most is to be forgiven.”– Jennifer McMahon
“To forgive is wisdom, to forget is genius. Because it’s true. It’s a new world every heartbeat.”– Joyce Cary
“Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them.”– Bruce Lee
To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.— Lewis B. Smedes
“Forgive me. Forgive this fool. Sorry that I acted so cruel. I love you and love only you. Take my hand and let’s start anew.”– Gabrielle Yana Concepcion
“Forgiveness is a sign that the person who has wronged you means more to you than the wrong they have dealt.”– Ben Greenhalgh
“Forgiveness is not a feeling; it is a commitment. It is a choice to show mercy, not to hold the offense up against the offender. Forgiveness is an expression of love.”– Gary Chapman
“Forgive, forget. Bear with the faults of others as you would have them bear with yours.”– Phillips Brooks
“Forgiving what we cannot forgive creates a new way to remember. We change the memory of our past into a hope for our future.”– Lewis Smedes
“Forgiveness has nothing to do with absolving a criminal of his crime. It has everything to do with relieving oneself of the burden of being victim — letting go of the pain and transforming oneself from victim to survivor.”– C. R. Strahan
“Don’t ever underestimate the power of forgiveness. I’ve seen it free people. I’ve seen it life burdens that had weighed them down and kept them from moving on.”– Buffy Andrews
“I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded; not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night.”– Khaled Hosseini
“Forgive others as quickly as you expect God to forgive you.” Anonymous
“Let us forgive each other — only then will we live in peace.”– Leo Tolstoy
“In this life, when you deny someone an apology, you will remember it at time you beg forgiveness.”– Toba Beta
Always forgive your enemies – nothing annoys them so much.— Oscar Wilde
“Just let it go, then forgive, it’s the better way to live. A grudge is like a cancer, true, it might just be the death of you. Forgive. Forget. Set it free. Let the wind carry it out to sea.” Anonymous
Forgiveness is a funny thing. It warms the heart and cools the sting.— William Arthur Ward
“Be the one who nurtures and builds. Be the one who has an understanding and a forgiving one who looks for the best in people. Leave people better than you found them.”– Marvin J. Ashton
“Forgiveness is not always easy. At times it feels more painful than the wound we suffered, to forgive the one that inflicted it. And yet, there is no peace without forgiveness.”– Marianne Williamson
“Forgiveness liberates the soul. It removes fear. That is why it is such a powerful weapon.”– Nelson Mandela
“Blame keeps wounds open. Only forgiveness heals.”– Thomas S. Manson
“Listen. Slide the weight from your shoulders and move forward. You are afraid that you might forget, but you never will. You will forgive and remember.”– Barbara Kingsolver
“True forgiveness is when you can say, ‘Thank you for that experience.’”– Oprah Winfrey
“Forgiveness is the name of love practiced among people who love poorly. The hard truth is that all people love poorly. We need to forgive and be forgiven every day, every hour increasingly. That is the great work of love among the fellowship of the weak that is the human family.”– Henri J. M. Nouwen
“When you choose to forgive those who have hurt you, you take away their power.” Anonymous
“I’m not perfect. Remember that, and try to forgive me when I fail you.”– Elizabeth Lowell
It takes a strong person to say sorry, and an ever stronger person to forgive.”– Unknown
“Certainly people make mistakes in their life. I’m no different, I’ve made mistakes. When people mess up, forgive them. When I mess up, I ask for forgiveness.”– Michele Bachmann
The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget.
— Thomas Szasz
— Thomas Szasz
“Forgiveness is the final form of love.”– Reinhold Niebuhr
“When you forgive, you in no way change the past — but you sure do change the future.”– Bernard Meltzer
“There is nobility in compassion, a beauty in empathy, a grace in forgiveness.”– John Connolly
“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”– Mahatma Gandhi
“Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart.”– Corrie Ten Boom
“Forgiveness is me giving up my right to hurt you for hurting me.”– Anonymous
“Like a loving spouse who occasionally doesn’t feel so loving, we ask for forgiveness and come back into relationship.”– Laurie Penner
“Forgiveness is giving up the hope that the past could have been any different.” Oprah Winfrey
“Never forget the nine most important words of any family — I love you. You are beautiful. Please forgive me.”– H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
“We ask for forgiveness. And we forgive others who ask us. In that way we can experience healing, healing in our souls.”– Ed Dobsons
You can’t forgive without loving. And I don’t mean sentimentality. I don’t mean mush. I mean having enough courage to stand up and say, ‘I forgive. I’m finished with it.’— Maya Angelou
Before we can forgive one another, we have to understand one another.— Emma Goldman
Forgiveness is the remission of sins. For it is by this that what has been lost, and was found, is saved from being lost again.— Saint Augustine
It’s not an easy journey, to get to a place where you forgive people. But it is such a powerful place, because it frees you.— Tyler Perry
“A broken friendship that is mended through forgiveness can be even stronger than it once was.”– Stephen Richards
“Forgive others not because they deserve forgiveness, but because you deserve peace.”– Jonathan Huie
“Forgiveness is a virtue of the brave.”– Indira Gandhi
“Forgiveness is not an occasional act; it is a permanent attitude.”– Martin Luther King, Jr.
“To err is human; to forgive is divine.”– Alexander Pope
“Grudges are for those who insist that they are owed something; forgiveness, however, is for those who are substantial enough to move on.”– Criss Jami