228 quotes
Only the brave know how to forgive... a coward never forgave; it is not in his nature.
Laurence Sterne
Novelist · Irish · 1713 – 1768
There is no love without forgiveness, and there is no forgiveness without love.
Bryant H. McGill
Poet · American · b. 1969
Parents forgive their children least readily for the faults they themselves instilled in them.
Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach
Novelist · Austrian · 1830 – 1916
Our past is a story existing only in our minds. Look, analyze, understand, and forgive. Then, as quickly as possible, chuck it.
Marianne Williamson
Author · American · b. 1952
One of the secrets of a long and fruitful life is to forgive everybody everything everynight before you go to bed.
Bernard Baruch
Businessman · American · 1870 – 1965
Thank you, God, for this good life and forgive us if we do not love it enough.
Garrison Keillor
Writer · American · b. 1942
He, who cannot forgive a trespass of malice to his enemy, has never yet tasted the most sublime enjoyment of love.
Johann Kaspar Lavater
Theologian · German · 1741 – 1801
To forgive oneself? No, that doesn't work: we have to be forgiven. But we can only believe this is possible if we ourselves can forgive.
Dag Hammarskjold
Diplomat · Swedish · 1905 – 1961
It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.
William Blake
Poet · English · 1757 – 1827
The world can forgive practically anything except people who mind their own business.
Margaret Mitchell
Novelist · American · 1900 – 1949
We all like to forgive, and love best not those who offend us least, nor who have done most for us, but those who make it most easy for us to forgive them.
Samuel Butler
Poet · British · 1835 – 1902
Forgive, son; men are men; they needs must err.
Euripides
Poet · Greek
The best way to get along is never to forgive an enemy or forget a friend.
Walter Winchell
Journalist · American · 1897 – 1972
Strength of character means the ability to overcome resentment against others, to hide hurt feelings, and to forgive quickly.
Lawrence G. Lovasik
Clergyman
Forgiveness leads to love, and love leads to forgiveness.
Darren L. Johnson
Author · American
Forgiveness is the key to action and freedom.
Hannah Arendt
Historian · German · 1906 – 1975
Of course God will forgive me; that's His job.
Heinrich Heine
Poet · German · 1797 – 1856
God will forgive me; that's his business.
When you are happy you can forgive a great deal.
Princess Diana
Royalty · British · 1961 – 1997
I can have peace of mind only when I forgive rather than judge.
Gerald Jampolsky
Psychologist · American
Forgive, O Lord, my little jokes on Thee, and I'll forgive Thy great big joke on me.
Robert Frost
Poet · American · 1874 – 1963
Forgive me for not writing but this man is exhausting.
Wallis Simpson
Royalty · American · 1895 – 1986
People who truly love us can be divided into two categories: those who understand us, and those who forgive us our worst sins. Rarely do you find someone capable of both.
Jonathan Carroll
Author · American · b. 1949
God forgive me if I do wrong in following with ardor the strongest instincts of my nature.
Julia Ward Howe
Activist · American · 1819 – 1910
You can forgive people who do not follow you through a philosophical disquisition; but to find your wife laughing when you had tears in your eyes, or staring when you were in a fit of laughter, would go some way towards a dissolution of the marriage.
Robert Louis Stevenson
Writer · Scottish · 1850 – 1894
God will forgive me. It's his job.
Inner peace can be reached only when we practice forgiveness. Forgiveness is letting go of the past, and is therefore the means for correcting our misperceptions.
We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Leader · American · 1929 – 1968
I learned to forgive myself, and that enabled me to forgive my mother as a person.
Amy Tan
Novelist · American · b. 1952
We're going to have to forgive a great deal of the Soviet era debt. There's no question about that. Let's face up to that. We're going to have to put in money if Russia is really going to consolidate a democracy.
Jeffrey Sachs
Economist · American · b. 1954
Keep all your personalities out of your work. Forget and forgive.
Ford Frick
Journalist · American · 1894 – 1978
I can't forgive my friends for dying; I don't find these vanishing acts of theirs at all amusing.
Logan Pearsall Smith
Critic · American · 1865 – 1946
Children are excellent observers, and will often perceive your slightest defects. In general, those who govern children, forgive nothing in them, but everything in themselves.
Francois Fenelon
Clergyman · French
Forgiveness is the final form of love.
Reinhold Niebuhr
Theologian · American · 1892 – 1971
Only the brave know how to forgive; it is the most refined and generous pitch of virtue human nature can arrive at.
Laurence Stern
Clergyman · Irish · 1713 – 1768
If there are occasions when my grape turned into a raisin and my joy bell lost its resonance, please forgive me. Charge it to my head and not to my heart.
Jesse Jackson
Activist · American · b. 1941
If Jesus Christ was who He claimed to be, and He did die on a cross at a point of time in history, then, for all history past and all history future it is relevant because that is the very focal point for forgiveness and redemption.
Josh McDowell
Writer · American · b. 1939
I am much chastened and profoundly remorseful. I can only hope that the Almighty and those whom I have wronged will forgive me my trespasses.
Jack Abramoff
Criminal · American · b. 1958
There is no forgiveness in nature.
Ugo Betti
Playwright · Italian · 1892 – 1953
I really don't think life is about the I-could-have-beens. Life is only about the I-tried-to-do. I don't mind the failure but I can't imagine that I'd forgive myself if I didn't try.
Nikki Giovanni
Poet · American · b. 1943
Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I will not forget you. Love me and I may be forced to love you.
William Arthur Ward
Writer · American
Forgiveness is indifference. Forgiveness is impossible while love lasts.
Mary Chesnut
d. 1886
There are so many factors when you think of your own films. You think of the people you worked on it with, and somehow forget the movie. You can't forgive the movie for a long time. It takes a few years to look at it with any objectivity and forgive its flaws.
George A. Romero
Director · American · b. 1940
Man, born of woman, has found it a hard thing to forgive her for giving him birth. The patriarchal protest against the ancient matriarch has borne strange fruit through the years.
Lillian Smith
Novelist · American
'Tis the most tender part of love, each other to forgive.
John Sheffield
Poet · English · 1648 – 1721
When I am able to resist the temptation to judge others, I can see them as teachers of forgiveness in my life, reminding me that I can only have peace of mind when I forgive rather than judge.
In the evening of life we shall be judged on love, and not one of us is going to come off very well, and were it not for my absolute faith in the loving forgiveness of my Lord I could not call on him to come.
Madeleine L'Engle
Novelist · American · 1918 – 2007
The Christian life is not a constant high. I have my moments of deep discouragement. I have to go to God in prayer with tears in my eyes, and say, 'O God, forgive me,' or 'Help me.'
Billy Graham
Clergyman · American · b. 1918
