Forgiveness Quotes

I can forgive, but I cannot forget, is only another way of saying, I will not forgive. Forgiveness ought to be like a cancelled note - torn in two, and burned up, so that it never can be shown against one. ~Henry Ward Beecher


Forgiveness is the fragrance the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it. ~Mark Twain


Once a woman has forgiven her man, she must not reheat his sins for breakfast. ~Marlene Dietrich


It's easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission. ~Grace Hopper


The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong. ~Mahatma Gandhi


To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you. ~Lewis B. Smedes, "Forgiveness - The Power to Change the Past," Christianity Today, 7 January 1983 (Thanks, Donna)


Forgiveness is a funny thing. It warms the heart and cools the sting. ~William Arthur Ward


Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future. ~Paul Boese


You can make up a quarrel, but it will always show where it was patched. ~Edgar Watson Howe, Country Town Sayings, 1911


It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend. ~William Blake, Jerusalem


Forgiveness is the sweetest revenge. ~Isaac Friedmann


Forgive all who have offended you, not for them, but for yourself. ~Harriet Nelson


He who cannot forgive breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass. ~George Herbert


There's no point in burying a hatchet if you're going to put up a marker on the site. ~Sydney Harris


Nobody forgets where he buried the hatchet. ~Frank McKinney "Kin" Hubbard, Abe Martin's Broadcast, 1930


Yes, this is what good is: to forgive evil. There is no other good. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin


What we forgive too freely doesn't stay forgiven. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960


It's far easier to forgive an enemy after you've got even with him. ~Olin Miller


There is no revenge so complete as forgiveness. ~Josh Billings


Without forgiveness life is governed by... an endless cycle of resentment and retaliation. ~Roberto Assagioli


One thing you will probably remember well is any time you forgive and forget. ~Franklin P. Jones


Never does the human soul appear so strong as when it forgoes revenge, and dares forgive an injury. ~E.H. Chapin


Always forgive your enemies - nothing annoys them so much. ~Oscar Wilde