“When we get even the slightest glimpse of the unity of life, we realize that in tearing others down we are tearing ourselves down too. When you sit in judgment on other people ..., you’re training your mind to sit in judgment on yourself. As we forgive others, we are teaching the mind to respond with forgiveness everywhere, even to the misdeeds and mistakes of our own past.”
“To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.”
“When you hold resentment toward another, you are bound to that person or condition by an emotional link that is stronger than steel. Forgiveness is the only way to dissolve that link and get free.”
Forgiveness Offers Everything I Want
"What could you want forgiveness cannot give? Do you want peace? Forgiveness offers it. Do you want happiness, a quiet mind, a certainty of purpose, and a sense of worth and beauty that transcends the world? Do you want care and safety, and the warmth of sure protection always? Do you want a quietness that cannot be disturbed, a gentleness that never can be hurt, a deep abiding comfort, and a rest so perfect it can never be upset?
“Forgiveness is a funny thing. It warms the heart and cools the sting.”
“Forgiveness is the fragrance the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.”
“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.”
“Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future.”
“Forgiveness is like faith. You have to keep reviving it.”
“There is no love without forgiveness, and there is no forgiveness without love.”
“All this forgiveness offers you, and more. It sparkles on your eyes as you awake, and gives you joy with which to meet the day. It soothes your forehead while you sleep, and rests upon your eyelids so you see no dreams of fear . . . And when you wake again, it offers you another day of happiness and peace. All this forgiveness offers you, and more.”
“When somebody you’ve wronged forgives you, you’re spared the dull and self-diminishing throb of a guilty conscience. When you forgive somebody who has wronged you, you’re spare the dismal corrosion of bitterness and wounded pride. For both parties, forgiveness means the freedom again to be at peace inside their own skins and to be glad in each other’s presence. ”
“As long as you don’t forgive, who and whatever it is will occupy a rent-free space in your mind.”
“Forgive all who have offended you, not for them, but for yourself.”
“The quality of human life on our planet is nothing more than the sum total of our daily interactions with one another. Each time we help, and each time we harm, we have a dramatic impact on our world. Because we are human, some of our interactions will go wrong, and then we will hurt or be hurt, or both. It is the nature of being human, and it is unavoidable. Forgiveness is the way we set those interactions right. It is the way we mend tears in the social fabric. It is the way we stop our human community from unraveling ”
“When you hold resentment toward another, you are bound to that person or condition by an emotional link that is stronger than steel. Forgiveness is the only way to dissolve that link and get free.”
“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.”
“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”
“Without forgiveness life is governed by... an endless cycle of resentment and retaliation.”
“He who cannot forgive breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass.”
“It’s one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive. Forgive everybody.”
“If you can’t forgive and forget, pick one.”
“Anger makes you smaller, while forgiveness forces you to grow beyond what you were.”
“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.”
“Forgiveness is one of the really difficult things in life. The logic of receiving hurt seems to run in the direction of never forgetting either the hurt or the hurter. When you forgive, some deeper, divine generosity takes over. When you forgive, then you are free. When you cannot forgive, you are a prisoner of the hurt done to you. If you are really disappointed in someone and you become embittered, you become incarcerated inside that feeling. Only the grace of forgiveness can break the straight logic of hurt and embitterment. It gives you a way out... You begin to see and understand the conditions, circumstances, or weakness that made the other person act as they did. ”