Forgiveness is of high value, yet it costs nothing.
—Unknown
Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.
—Unknown
The only unforgivable sin: Being unforgiving.
—Malcolm S. Forbes (1919–1990) American Publisher, Businessperson
To what extent is any given man morally responsible for any given act? We do not know.
—Alexis Carrel (1873–1944) American Surgeon, Biologist
Remorse sleeps during prosperity but awakes bitter consciousness during adversity.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78) Swiss-born French Philosopher
He who forgiveth, and is reconciled unto his enemy, shall receive his reward from God; for he loveth not the unjust doers.
—The Holy Quran Sacred Scripture of Islam
Forgiveness is more satisfying than revenge.
—Arabic Proverb
Hath any wronged thee? Be bravely revenged.—Slight it, and the work is begun; forgive it, and it is finished.—He is below himself that is not above any injury.
—Francis Quarles (1592–1644) English Religious Poet
Forgiveness is a pillar of justice.
—Russian Proverb
Let us forget and forgive injuries.
—Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish Novelist
To forgive is the highest, most beautiful form of love. In return, you will receive untold peace and happiness.
—Robert Muller (1923–2010) United Nations Civil Servant
Forgiveness is better than bitterness because not only does it taste sweeter, but it doesn’t make you sick to your stomach!
—Guy Finley
Life that ever needs forgiveness has for its first duty to forgive.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
If the other person injures you, you may forget the injury; but if you injure him, you will always remember.
—Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese-born American Philosopher, Poet, Painter, Theologian, Sculptor
Poverty is a sin that the rich never forgive.
—Russian Proverb
Amendment is repentance.
—Thomas Fuller (1608–61) English Cleric, Historian
A fool-proof method for sculpting an elephant: first, get a huge block of marble; then you chip away everything that doesn’t look like an elephant.
—Unknown
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.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
A Christian will find it cheaper to pardon than to resent. Forgiveness saves the expense of anger, the cost of hatred, the waste of spirits.
—Hannah More
It is much easier to repent of sins that we have committed than to repent of those that we intend to commit.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw) (1818–85) American Humorist, Author, Lecturer
Of him that hopes to be forgiven it is required that he forgive.—On this great duty eternity is suspended; and to him that refuses to practice it the throne of mercy is inaccessible, and the Saviour of the world has been born in vain.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Every man should have a fair-sized cemetery in which to bury the faults of his friends.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
It is easier to forgive an enemy than a friend.
—Dorothee Luzy Dotinville (1747–1830) French Dancer, Actress
A sin confessed is half forgiven.
—French Proverb
If men wound you with injuries, meet them with patience: hasty words rankle the wound, soft language dresses it, forgiveness cures it, and oblivion takes away the scar. It is more noble by silence to avoid an injury than by argument to overcome it.
—Francis Beaumont (1584–1616) English Dramatist
What power has love but forgiveness?
In other words
by its intervention
what has been done
can be undone.
What good is it otherwise?
—William Carlos Williams (1883–1963) American Poet, Novelist, Cultural Historian
He who forgives a thief is a thief himself.
—Spanish Proverb
And if your friend does evil to you, say to him, “I forgive you for what you did to me, but how can I forgive you for what you did to yourself?”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
Without forgiveness, there’s no future.
—Desmond Tutu (b.1931) South African Clergyman
To love means loving the unlovable. To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable. Faith means believing the unbelievable. Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
In a controversy the instant we feel anger we have already ceased striving for the truth, and have begun striving for ourselves.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
We cannot love unless we have accepted forgiveness, and the deeper our experience of forgiveness is, the greater is our love.
—Paul Tillich (1886–1965) American Lutheran Theologian, Philosopher
Love thy neighbor as thyself: Do not to others what thou wouldst not wish be done to thyself: Forgive injuries. Forgive thy enemy, be reconciled to him, give him assistance, invoke God in his behalf.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
Those that do you a very ill deed will never forgive you.
—Common Proverb
Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
—The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith
Those who can’t forget are worse off than those who can’t remember.
—Unknown
The heart has always the pardoning power.
—Sophie Swetchine (1782–1857) Russian Mystic, Writer
True penitence condemns to silence. What a man is ready to recall he would be willing to repeat.
—F. H. Bradley (1846–1924 ) British Idealist Philosopher
He who forgives ends the quarrel
—Anonymous
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
Hatred does not cease through hatred at any time. Hatred ceases through love. This is an unalterable law.
—Buddhist Teaching
Forgiving is love’s toughest work, and love’s biggest risk. If you twist it into something it was never meant to be, it can make you a doormat or an insufferable manipulator. Forgiving seems almost unnatural. Our sense of fairness tells us people should pay for the wrong they do. But forgiving is love’s power to break nature’s rule.
—Lewis B. Smedes (1921–2002) American Christian Author, Ethicist, Theologian, Academic
This is a fantastic time to be entering the business world, because business is going to change more in the next 10 years than it has in the last 50
—Bill Gates (b.1955) American Businessperson, Entrepreneur, Philanthropist, Author
Who would care to question the ground of forgiveness or compassion?
—Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) Polish-born British Novelist
Forgiveness is a virtue of the learned. To err is human, to forgive divine.
—Subhashita Manjari Sanskrit Anthology of Proverbs
A man who takes away another man’s freedom is a prisoner of hatred, he is locked behind the bars of prejudice and narrow-mindedness. I am not truly free if I am taking away someone else’s freedom, just as surely as I am not free when my freedom is taken from me. The oppressed and the oppressor alike are robbed of their humanity.
—Nelson Mandela (1918–2013) South African Political leader
Forgiveness is the economy of the heart… Forgiveness saves the expense of anger, the cost of hatred, the waste of spirits.
—Hannah More
The Irish forgive their great men when they are safely buried.
—Irish Proverb
Women and fools never forgive.
—Chinese Proverb
God will forgive me, that’s his business.
—Heinrich Heine (1797–1856) German Poet, Writer