“There is a false sense of self-protection in harboring an offense. It keeps you from seeing your own character flaws, because the blame is deferred to another.” ——John Bevere
“Forgiveness is the oil of relationships.” ——Josh McDowell
“There is no thirst of the soul so consuming as the desire for pardon. The sense of its bestowal is the starting-point of all goodness. It comes bringing with it, if not the freshness of innocence, yet a glow of inspiration that nerves feeble hands for hard tasks, a fire of hope that lights anew the old high ideal, so that it stands before the eye in clear relief, beckoning us to make it our own. To be able to look into God’s face, and know with the knowledge of faith that there is nothing between the soul and Him, is to experience the fullest peace the soul can know. Whatever else pardon may be, it is above all things admission into full fellowship with God.” ——Charles H. Brent
“Do not desire crosses, unless you have borne well those laid on you; it is an abuse to long after martyrdom while unable to bear an insult patiently.” ——Francis de Sales
“Ask for divine help in your struggle to forgive. The God of the Judeo-Christian tradition has an ancient reputation for compassion and mercy. Try praying for your enemy. Don’t just ask for a change in that person’s heart or behavior; really pray for him or her. You may find it hard to find words for such a prayer, but words are not necessary to the God who knows your mind and heart. Just stand before God with that person at your side, and let God’s love wash over both of you until it penetrates your heart.” ——Carol Luebering
“A Christian will find it cheaper to pardon than to resent. Forgiveness saves the expense of anger, the cost of hatred, and the waste of spirit.” ——Hannah More
“An apology is a good way to have the last word.” ——Author Unknown
“Forgiveness is choosing to love. It is the first skill of self-giving love.” ——Mohandas Gandhi
“There are often bound to us, in the closest intimacy of social or family ties, natures hard and ungenial, with whom sympathy is impossible, and whose daily presence necessitates a constant conflict with an adverse influence. There are, too, enemies — open or secret — whose enmity we may feel yet cannot define. Our Lord, going before us in this hard way, showed us how we should walk. It will be appropriate to the solemn self-examination of the period of Lent to ask ourselves, Is there any false friend or covert enemy whom we must learn to tolerate, to forbear with, to pity and forgive? Can we in silent offices of love wash their feet as our master washed the feet of Judas? And, if we have no real enemies, are there any bound to us in the relations of life whose habits and ways are annoying and distasteful to us? Can we bear with them in love? Can we avoid harsh judgments, and harsh speech, and the making known to others our annoyance? The examination will probably teach us to feel the infinite distance between us and our divine Ideal, and change censoriousness of others into prayer for ourselves.” ——Jean Ingelow
“Heavenly Father: Teach us that love and forgiveness are essential bridges that span the chasms of resentment and bitterness. Also, teach us that feeling gratitude without expressing it is like wrapping a gift and not giving it.” ——Author Unknown
“In the midst of forgiving comes a celebration: we see the beauty of people who quite often are considered marginal by society. With forgiveness and celebration, community becomes the place where we call forth the gifts of other people, lift them up, and say, ‘You are the beloved daughter and the beloved son.’” ——Henri J.M. Nouwen
“Forgiveness is the key which unlocks the door of resentment and the handcuffs of hatred. It breaks the chains of bitterness and the shackles of selfishness.” ——Corrie Ten Boom
“If I find myself half-carelessly taking lapses for granted, ‘Oh, that’s what they always do,’ ‘Oh, of course she talks like that, he acts like that,’ then I know nothing of Calvary love.” ——Amy Carmichael
“Forgiveness is our command. Judgement is not.” ——Neil Strait
“We all agree that forgiveness is a beautiful idea until we have to practice it.” ——C. S. Lewis
“Forgiveness is not an emotion… Forgiveness is an act of will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart.” ——Corrie Ten Boom
“The rule is: we cannot really forgive ourselves unless we look at the failure in our past and call it by its right name.” ——Lewis B. Smedes
“Jesus embodies the rule of God in which no one is beyond God’s forgiveness no matter who they are or what they have done. The answer to my parishioner’s burning question about divine forgiveness was, of course: No, you cannot be too bad to be forgiven. You can only be too good — too self-righteous to be humble, compassionate, or receptive to God’s spirit.” ——Byron L. Rohrig
“Forgiveness ought to be like a canceled note — torn in two and burned up, so that it can never be shown against one.” ——Henry Ward Beecher
“Forgiveness is like letting go of a bell rope. If you have ever seen a country church with a bell in the steeple, you will remember that to get the bell ringing you have to tug awhile. Once it has begun to ring, you merely maintain the momentum. As long as you keep pulling, the bell keeps ringing. Forgiveness is letting go of the rope. It is just that simple. But when you do so, the bell keeps ringing. Momentum is still at work. However, if you keep your hands off the rope, the bell will begin to slow and eventually stop.” ——Corrie Ten Boom
“It is impossible for a man to be freed from the habit of sin before he hates it, just as it is impossible to receive forgiveness before confessing his trespasses.” ——Ignatius
“If I cast up a confessed, repented, and forsaken sin against another, and allow my remembrance of that sin to colour my thinking and feed my suspicions, then I know nothing of Calvary love.” ——Amy Carmichael
“Our wickedness shall not overpower the unspeakable goodness and mercy of God; our dullness shall not overpower God’s wisdom, nor our infirmity God’s omnipotence.” ——John of Kronstadt
“Who does not know what it is to rise up from a fault — perceived, confessed, and forgiven — with an almost joyous sense of new energy, strength, and will to persevere?” ——Sidney Lear
“However many and however great and burdensome your sins may be, with God there is greater mercy. Just as His majesty is, so likewise is His mercy.” ——Tikhon
“If I am content to heal a hurt slightly, saying ‘Peace, peace,’ where is no peace; if I forget the poignant word ‘Let love be without dissimulation’ and blunt the edge of truth, speaking not right things but smooth things, then I know nothing of Calvary love.” ——Amy Carmichael
“Such phrases as ‘I forgive you,’ ‘I release you from retribution for your deeds,’ are very powerful. They are words of your power. A tremendously powerful image is that you are anointed as a peacemaker. You have the power to bring peace into your world. That is enormous power. No longer the victim, you have reclaimed your agency.” ——Author Unknown
“By letting go, the offended refuses to let herself be held captive by the offender’s unwillingness to repent.” ——Carolyn Holderread Heggen
“Love means to love that which is unlovable, or it is no virtue at all; forgiving means to pardon that which is unpardonable, or it is no virtue at all.” ——G.K. Chesterton
“Forgiveness is the well from which we draw the water to wash others’ feet.” ——D. Siler
“Charles Williams has said of the Lord’s Prayer, ‘No word in English carries a greater possibility of terror than the little word ‘as’ in that clause.’ What makes the ‘as’ so terrifying? The fact that Jesus plainly links our forgiven-ness by the Father with our forgiving-ness of fellow human beings. Jesus’ next remark could not be more explicit: ‘If you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.’” ——Philip Yancey
“A happy marriage is the union of two good forgivers.” ——Robert Quillen
“‘The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love… He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.’ (Psalm 103:8, 10) Can you think of one person in your life who ‘deserves’ whatever you could dish out? On the other hand, can you imagine if we got what we deserved? But instead, God sent His Son to save us. Thank heaven we got what we never could deserve.” ——Author Unknown
“When we choose to forgive the victory is attainable. When bad things happen, good CAN come out of it! Romans 8:28 declares it is so! My life declares it is so and I am not alone in that statement. So many people have looked evil in the face and said, ‘I will find good in this.’ Sometimes the evil and bad things are changed or converted, and sometimes it is US that is changed. But ALL things work for good and can bring about change for the good.” ——Elizabeth Fabiani
“Those who say they will forgive but can’t forget, simply bury the hatchet but leave the handle out for immediate use.” ——Dwight L. Moody
“Forgiveness is the fragrance that the flower leaves on the heel of the one that crushed it.” ——Author Unknown
“If we want other people to give us something that only God can give, we become a demon. We say, ‘Love me!’ and before you know it we become violent and demanding and manipulative. It’s so important that we keep forgiving one another — not once in a while, but every moment of life.” ——Henri J. M. Nouwen
“To excuse what can really produce good excuses is not Christian charity; it is only fairness. To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you. This is hard. It is perhaps not so hard to forgive a single injury. But to forgive the incessant provocations of daily life — to keep on forgiving the bossy mother-in-law, the bullying husband, the nagging wife, the selfish daughter, the deceitful son — how can we do it? Only, I think, by remembering where we stand, by meaning our words when we say in our prayers each night, ‘Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.’ We are offered forgiveness on no other terms. To refuse it means to refuse God’s mercy for ourselves. There is no hint of exceptions and God means what He says.” ——C.S. Lewis
“Gather up the stones flung at you with malice and build from them an altar of love to your Father in Heaven; fit them together with forgiveness and intercession for those who seek to hurt you.” ——Rick Cruz Torres
“We can no longer harbor unforgiveness and hurt for later use against the other person. We must surrender the wound or injustice that may have become a cherished, if bitter, possession. Letting go of this vengeful possession, we lose a painful advantage we have been savoring, but we regain the personal energy that has been dissipated as we nourished this hurt.” ——Evelyn Whitehead
“Spoken forgiveness, no matter how heartfelt, works best when we do not demand the response we want. I mean that when we tell people we forgive them, we must leave them free to respond to our good news however they are inclined. If the response is not what we hoped for, we can go home and enjoy our own healing in private.” ——Lewis B. Smedes
“We ought not to keep score of the number of times others have hurt us. God keeps records, and vengeance belongs to him.” ——Lehman Strauss
“The obsession we sometimes have with our past sins is one of the worst afflictions of the soul. It turns us into victims of our own abuse. This obsession with the past condemns us to forced labor in a cemetery where we are repeatedly exhuming skeletons only to bury them and exhume them again.” ——Albert Haase
“God has cast our confessed sins into the depths of the sea, and He’s even put a ‘No Fishing’ sign over the spot.” ——Dwight L. Moody
“We all need love, but we need it most when we deserve it least — when we have sinned against someone, when we have made poor choices, when we have failed. In these situations, ordinary love must become extra-ordinary love.” ——Barbara Rosberg
“Forgiveness brings freedom — freedom from being controlled by the past, freedom from the emotional ties to the offender, freedom from the continual inner conflicts of bitterness and hate, freedom to become whole and enjoy the fullness of life.” ——Jeanette Vought
“Never forgive, never forget. Four words that spread death everywhere.” ——Gary Amirault
“If you will want to walk with Jesus, you will be on the road to forgiveness.” ——Gary Amirault