108 Powerful Quotes On Forgiveness

In a world often marked by misunderstandings and conflicts, forgiveness stands as a transformative act that fosters healing and reconciliation. Whether it's forgiving others or oneself, this profound gesture unshackles us from the burdens of anger and resentment, allowing space for growth and peace. The following collection of 108 powerful quotes on forgiveness offers wisdom and inspiration from diverse voices and cultures. These words encourage us to embrace forgiveness as a path towards emotional freedom and stronger, more empathetic relationships. Dive into this curated selection and discover the profound impact forgiveness can have on your heart and life journey.

1. “I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded; not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night.” - Khaled Hosseini

2. “Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.” - John F. Kennedy

3. “Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart.” - Corrie Ten Boom

4. “I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine.” - Jane Austen

5. “Do not be concerned with the faults of other persons. Do not see others' faults with a hateful mind. There is an old saying that if you stop seeing others' faults, then naturally seniors and venerated and juniors are revered. Do not imitate others' faults; just cultivate virtue. Buddha prohibited unwholesome actions, but did not tell us to hate those who practice unwholesome actions.” - Zen Master Dogen

6. “Dumbledore says people find it far easier to forgive others for being wrong than being right.” - J.K. Rowling

7. “To be wronged is nothing, unless you continue to remember it.” - Confucius

8. “I guess forgiveness, like happiness, isn’t a final destination. You don’t one day get there and get to stay.” - Deb Caletti

9. “Love may forgive all infirmities and love still in spite of them: but Love cannot cease to will their removal.” - C.S. Lewis

10. “With friends, if you keep making an effort to reach out and you keep getting hurt, you eventually stop trying. But it's much harder to give up on family. Somewhere deep down you want it to work so badly that you keep making the same mistake over and over again.” - Tori Spelling

11. “Forgiveness means it finally becomes unimportant that you hit back.” - Anne Lamott

12. “I believe in the forgiveness of sin and the redemption of ignorance.” - Adlai E. Stevenson II

13. “We need repentance. You see, repentance is not only going to a priest and confessing. We must free ourselves from the obsession of thoughts. We fall many times during our life, and it is absolutely necessary to reveal everything [in Confession] to a priest who is a witness to our repentance.Repentance is the renewal of life. This means we must free ourselves from all our negative traits and turn toward absolute good. No sin is unforgivable except the sin of unrepentance.” - Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica

14. “We don't forgive people because they deserve it. We forgive them because they need it—because we need it.” - Bree Despain

15. “Forgiveness is God's greatest gift” - Dan Brown

16. “If truth doesn't set you free, generosity of spirit will.” - Katerina Stoykova Klemer

17. “It is important that we forgive ourselves for making mistakes. We need to learn from our errors and move on.” - Steve Maraboli

18. “A Great Rabbi stands, teaching in the marketplace. It happens that a husband finds proof that morning of his wife's adultery, and a mob carries her to the marketplace to stone her to death.There is a familiar version of this story, but a friend of mine - a Speaker for the Dead - has told me of two other Rabbis that faced the same situation. Those are the ones I'm going to tell you.The Rabbi walks forward and stands beside the woman. Out of respect for him the mob forbears and waits with the stones heavy in their hands. 'Is there any man here,' he says to them, 'who has not desired another man's wife, another woman's husband?'They murmur and say, 'We all know the desire, but Rabbi none of us has acted on it.'The Rabbi says, 'Then kneel down and give thanks that God has made you strong.' He takes the woman by the hand and leads her out of the market. Just before he lets her go, he whispers to her, 'Tell the Lord Magistrate who saved his mistress, then he'll know I am his loyal servant.'So the woman lives because the community is too corrupt to protect itself from disorder.Another Rabbi. Another city. He goes to her and stops the mob as in the other story and says, 'Which of you is without sin? Let him cast the first stone.'The people are abashed, and they forget their unity of purpose in the memory of their own individual sins. ‘Someday,’ they think, ‘I may be like this woman. And I’ll hope for forgiveness and another chance. I should treat her as I wish to be treated.’As they opened their hands and let their stones fall to the ground, the Rabbi picks up one of the fallen stones, lifts it high over the woman’s head and throws it straight down with all his might it crushes her skull and dashes her brain among the cobblestones. ‘Nor am I without sins,’ he says to the people, ‘but if we allow only perfect people to enforce the law, the law will soon be dead – and our city with it.’So the woman died because her community was too rigid to endure her deviance.The famous version of this story is noteworthy because it is so startlingly rare in our experience. Most communities lurch between decay and rigor mortis and when they veer too far they die. Only one Rabbi dared to expect of us such a perfect balance that we could preserve the law and still forgive the deviation. So of course, we killed him.-San Angelo Letters to an Incipient Heretic” - Orson Scott Card

19. “Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.” - Nelson Mandela

20. “Lord help my poor soul.” - Edgar Allan Poe

21. “The forgiving state of mind is a magnetic power for attracting good.” - Catherine Ponder

22. “The dead don't desire revenge, but the happiness of the livng. To dirty your small hands would bring joy to no one.-Kenshin to Eiji” - Watsuki Nobuhiro

23. “But perhaps this is all to the good. Perhaps it’s best to live with the possibility that around any corner, at any time, may come the person who reminds you of your own capacity to surprise yourself, to put at risk everything that’s dear to you. Who reminds you of the distances we have to bridge to begin to know anything about one another. Who reminds you that what seems to be—even about yourself—may not be. That like him, you need to be forgiven.” - Sue Miller

24. “It is important not to suppress your feelings altogether when you are depressed. It is equally important to avoid terrible arguments or expressions of outrage. You should steer clear of emotionally damaging behavior. People forgive, but it is best not to stir things up to the point at which forgiveness is required. When you are depressed, you need the love of other people, and yet depression fosters actions that destroy that love. Depressed people often stick pins into their own life rafts. The conscious mind can intervene. One is not helpless.” - Andrew Solomon

25. “Oh, Myr," he chokes out. "I hate having to ask this of you..."He glances towards the car again, and I crouch down in the shadows, hoping it's too dark for him to see whether the window is open or closed. The woman pats his arm, cradling her hand against his elbow."You know I'd do anything for you and Hil," she says. I like her voice. It's throaty and rich."You'd do anything?" my father repeats numbly. "Even now? After -?""Even now," the woman says firmly.” - Margaret Peterson Haddix

26. “To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.” - Lewis B. Smedes

27. “It is only when the mind is free from the old that it meets everything anew, and in that there is joy.” - J. Krishnamurti

28. “How can I judge?" she said at last. "To me, he is a hero. To the world a monster." She let her head fall into her arms and started crying quietly. "I miss him! Curse him! I miss him!"Mithorden put a hand on her shoulder and let her cry for a few minutes. A sad smile slowly spread across his face. "I'm glad you can forgive him," he said at last.Luthiel lifted her head. "How do you know?"Because you miss him.” - Robert Fanney

29. “A heart filled with anger has no room for love.” - Joan Lunden

30. “Forgiving does not erase the bitter past. A healed memory is not a deleted memory. Instead, forgiving what we cannot forget creates a new way to remember. We change the memory of our past into a hope for our future.” - Lewis B. Smedes

31. “Forgiveness is the fastest way to a spiritual path and inner peace of mind” - Muhaya Haji Mohamad

32. “Sometimes what a person needs most is to be forgiven.” - Jennifer McMahon

33. “At times anger will trigger harsh words. After a cooling period wisdom sets in; finally, the ability to speak from the heart with love and compassion.” - Ana Monnar

34. “Nothing releases like forgive. Nothing renews like forget.” - Ray A. Davis

35. “It’s not just other people we need to forgive. We also need to forgive ourselves. For all the things we didn’t do. All the things we should have done.” - Mitch Albom

36. “The point is that although love may die, what is said on its behalf cannot be consumed by the passage of time, and forgiveness is everything.” - Charles Baxter

37. “So what does forgiveness really do for you? Is it even a real thing? Or is it something humans just made up to make ourselves feel better? Or is it like the concept of time, something that actually exists, but our little brains can't really comprehend it, so we just measure it and give the pieces names until we've dumbed it down for ourselves?” - Juliette Fay

38. “One should never do wrong in return, nor mistreat any man, no matter how one has been mistreated by him.” - Socrates

39. “Forgiveness is too easy. I can forget by indifference, but not forgive. I prefer revenge.” - Karl Lagerfeld

40. “Forgiveness is not a one off decision; it is a journey and a process that takes time, determination, and persistence. Forgiveness is not forgetting; it is simply denying your pain the right to control your life.” - Corallie Buchanan

41. “The terror of being judged sharpens the memory: it sends an inevitable glare over that long-unvisited past which has been habitually recalled only in general phrases. Even without memory, the life is bound into one by a zone of dependence in growth and decay; but intense memory forces a man to own his blameworthy past. With memory set smarting like a reopened wound, a man’s past is not simply a dead history, an outworn preparation of the present: it is not a repented error shaken loose from the life: it is a still quivering part of himself, bringing shudders and bitter flavors and the tinglings of a merited shame.” - George Eliot

42. “...those who break the law should be loved more and not less for their sin, for if we do not forgive then is sin added to sin and the end is death.” - Elizabeth Goudge

43. “Our two peoples are sworn enemies,” he whispered. “You would not do it.”“Call me your enemy no more,” Jan bade him, drawing nearer. “I grow weary of our being enemies. The scars your talons left upon my back this autumn past are old scars now, long healed. Time to heal this ancient rift between our peoples as well.” - Meredith Ann Pierce

44. “Now we come to forgiveness. Don't worry about forgiving me right now. There are more important things. For instance: keep the others safe, if they are safe. Don't let them suffer too much. If they have to die, let it be fast. You might even provide a Heaven for them. We need You for that. Hell we can make for ourselves.” - Margaret Atwood

45. “Time doesn't heal all wounds, only distance can lessen the sting of them.” - Shannon Alder

46. “Take a walk through the garden of forgiveness and pick a flower of forgiveness for everything you have ever done. When you get to that time that is now, make a full and total forgiveness of your entire life and smile at the bouquet in your hands because it truly is beautiful.” - Stephen Richards

47. “Mistakes are your school of learning therefore forgiveness is your greatest teacher in this school of learning.” - Stephen Richards

48. “To forgive does not mean to condone.” - Allan Lokos

49. “Our forgiving love toward men is the evidence of God's forgiving love in us. It is a necessary condition of the prayer of faith.” - Andrew Murray

50. “...burying themselves in his arm was more about feeling his love in the confusion, in the difficulty, than it was about having moved past it.” - Donald Miller

51. “The two families, sundered in the ruin of a friendship, were united again first in new friendship and then in mariage. My grandfather made a peace here that has joined many who would otherwise have been divided. I am the child of his forgiveness.” - Wendell Berry

52. “You can. It's not a matter of feeling it, it's a matter of doing it - making the decision to bend that iron will of yours in God's direction so that He can hear your prayers and unleash blessings.” - Julie Lessman

53. “The immoral woman in Luke 7 has the faith to anticipate Christ's forgiveness. She can act in love with no words to justify.” - Jenn Thoman

54. “Few suffer more than those who refuse to forgive themselves.” - Mike Norton

55. “You will be at your best forever, Even now you have good moments. Occasional glimpses of your heavenly self. When you change your baby's diaper, forgive your boss's temper, tolerate your spouse's moodiness, you display traces of saintliness.” - Max Lucado

56. “We are preaching hope, standing on the bones of the past.” - John Rucyahana

57. “I have learned, that the person I have to ask for forgiveness from the most is: myself. You must love yourself. You have to forgive yourself, everyday, whenever you remember a shortcoming, a flaw, you have to tell yourself "That's just fine". You have to forgive yourself so much, until you don't even see those things anymore. Because that's what love is like.” - C. JoyBell C.

58. “A wise man once said that the best definition of insanity was performing the same action over and over again, expecting different results."Father Peter stopped smiling. "The same could be said of you. What makes you so sure you're right? And so sure I'm wrong?""The difference is that I made a mistake once, out of ignorance," Tim said. "Everything I've done since then has been to try to make amends.""To earn forgiveness.""To protect the innocents." Tim smiled, "And yes, to earn forgiveness.” - Robert J. Wiersema

59. “What we love once, we love forever. Shall there be joy in heaven over those who repent, yet no forgiveness for them upon earth?--"Wanda” - Ouida

60. “There are certain things in life that you'll be forgiven for, no matter how thoughtless or stupid or reckless, but if you do that same thing twice, you're on your own.” - Jennifer E. Smith

61. “Love is a sacrificial item” - Asa Don Brown

62. “He forgives without any strings attached.” - Jestoni Revealed

63. “You should never hate anyone, not even your worst enemies. Everyone has something good about them. You had to find the redeeming quality and love the person for that.” - Jeannette Walls

64. “Mercy and forgiveness must be free and unmerited to the wrongdoer. If the wrongdoer has to do something to merit it, then it isn't mercy, but forgiveness always comes at a cost to the one granting the forgiveness.” - Timothy Keller

65. “Forgiveness is a gift to the one who is hurting.” - Josee D'Amore

66. “Time grants a unique perspective which allows us to see events through a filter of accumulated wisdom.” - Christopher Earle

67. “...it's easy to express romantic love - harder to manage daily love - to forgive failings close to feelings - to divide self from soul...” - John Geddes

68. “Only through Absolution will you reach the Absolute.” - Toni Petrinovich

69. “No matter how long you behest, to the fruit draped tree. It will do you no best, until a shingle you free.” - Shahzad Ashraf

70. “God has left sin in the world in order that there may be forgiveness: not only the secret forgiveness by which He Himself cleanses our souls, but the manifest forgiveness by which we have mercy on one another and so give expression to the fact that He is living, by His mercy, in our own hearts.” - Thomas Merton

71. “I look in the mirror through the eyes of the child that was me.” - Judy Collins

72. “After all, how many of our todays and of our tomorrows do we want to give our yesterdays? It is one thing to be victimized by another. It is quite another to victimize ourselves because we cannot learn from the past or forgive. Those who choose to live in the past, to live in the land of regret and complaint, do so at the sacrifice of their todays and their tomorrows.” - Dr John Lewis Lund

73. “Perhaps you forgave him too much, but who among us would not wish to be so generously loved and generously forgiven?” - Sherry Thomas

74. “You will never forgive anyone more than God has already forgiven you.” - Max Lucado

75. “Love always precedes repentance. Divine love is a catalyst for our turning, our healing. Where fear & threat may gain our compliance, love captures our heart. It changes the heavy burden of the "have-to's" of imposed obedience to the "get-to's", a joyful response to the genuine love of God. It is in the security of this love we find Sabbath (rest).” - Michael M. Rose

76. “Loss of social standing is an ever-present threat for individuals whose social acceptance is based on behavioral traits rather than unconditional human value.” - Melissa V. Harris-Perry

77. “To progress is always to begin always to begin again” - Martin Luther

78. “Defeat anger, stop using it as a shield against truth, and you will find the compassion you need to forgive the people you love.” - Glenn Beck

79. “I didn’t answer. We were not buddies. We could not chat about the proximity of our offices, or football, or forgiveness.” - Kimberly Novosel

80. “Every time you ask for forgiveness, you recognize that the biggest problems you face in life exist inside of you, not outside of you.” - Paul David Tripp

81. “The old adage of forgive and forget became a trudge through quicksand on a beach as high tide crashed onto the shore.” - I.E. Castellano

82. “The ultimate goal of writing is forgiveness.” - Katerina Stoykova Klemer

83. “No one should be surprised at the difficulty of faith, if there is some part of his life where he is consciously resisting or disobeying the commandment of Jesus. Is there some part of your life which you are refusing to surrender at his behest, some sinful passion, maybe, or some animosity, some hope, perhaps your ambition or your reason? ... How can you hope to enter into communion with him when at some point in your life you are running away from him?” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

84. “He arches his back because when you forgive, the body says, "Thank God.” - Edmond Manning

85. “If you can't forgive and forget, then pick one and do it ...” - James Brault

86. “Forgiveness is a gift we can only give to ourselves.” - Jeffrey Spahr-Summers

87. “It's a good sign but rare instance when, in a relationship, you find that the more you learn about the other person, the more you continue to desire them. A sturdy bond delights in that degree of youthful intrigue. Love loves its youth.” - Criss Jami

88. “We begin to forgive by choosing to forgive . . . by deciding, not by feeling. Our feelings don't lead us to forgive. Most times, our feelings lead us the other way. That's why a person has to decide to forgive first. Our feelings always follow along behind our decisions.” - Andy Andrews

89. “Someone, somewhere, needs to take courage to break the cycle of violence. Forgiveness is superior to justice. Being kind and compassionate to those who are good to you is easy. True forgiveness and compassion come only when one is able to forgive even those who have committed barbaric acts. If Angulimala is capable of renouncing violence, then tell me, your Majesty: is your civilized society also capable of being truly civilized and renouncing violence?” - Satish Kumar

90. “We all make mistakes, we all have fears, and we all have weaknesses. Behind all that is our essential self. When our essential self has made contact with another, the light is dazzling and would fill the universe. The challenge of enchantment is to remain faithful to that light, to believe in it when it is not so apparent. Then that light becomes an incandescent glow and it wraps itself around everything.” - Marianne Williamson

91. “Maybe the best thing we can do for our spouses is give them permission to forgive themselves.” - Justin Davis

92. “Everyone believes in sin, the people who charge their peers with political incorrectness and the people who regard political correctness as the bogey of a little mind. What everyone does not believe in, as nearly as I can tell, is forgiveness.” - Garret Keizer

93. “What power has love but forgiveness?In other wordsby its interventionwhat has been donecan be undone.What good is it otherwise?” - William Carlos Williams

94. “Learn to forgive others so that you can release yourself from being held captive by the very negative thoughts around you.” - Stephen Richards

95. “These are the few ways we can practice humility:To speak as little as possible of one's self.To mind one's own business.Not to want to manage other people's affairs.To avoid curiosity.To accept contradictions and correction cheerfully.To pass over the mistakes of others.To accept insults and injuries.To accept being slighted, forgotten and disliked.To be kind and gentle even under provocation.Never to stand on one's dignity.To choose always the hardest.” - Mother Teresa

96. “A thorn in your side will drive you to find someone or thing to remove it. Therefore, don't hate your enemies. Thank them. Without them, you wouldn't have traveled as far in your life to find peace and happiness.” - Shannon L. Alder

97. “But life isn’t about learning to forgive those who have hurt you or forgetting your past. It’s about learning to forgive yourself for being human and making mistakes.” - Sherrilyn Kenyon

98. “The only way to prevent pride from taking root in our heart and our life is to embrace a life filled with faith, understanding, and forgiveness.” - Heather Bixler

99. “Procrastination is not Laziness", I tell him. "It is fear. Call it by its right name, and forgive yourself.” - Julia Cameron

100. “Billos ran. He tore down the shore, bounded up on the rock, and dove into the air. The warm water engulfed him. A boiling heat knocked the wind from his lungs. The shock alone might kill him. But it was pleasure that surged through his body, not pain. The sensations coursed through his bones in great unrelenting waves. Elyon. How he was certain, he did not know. But he knew. Elyon was in this lake with him. Billos opened his eyes. Gold light drifted by. He lost all sense of direction. The water pressed in on every inch of his body, as intense as any acid, but one that burned with pleasure instead of pain. He sank into the water, opened his mouth and laughed. He wanted more, much more. He wanted to suck the water in and drink it. Without thinking, he did just that. The liquid hit his lungs. Billos pulled up, panicked. He tried to hack the water from his lungs, but inhaled more instead. No pain. He carefully sucked more water and breathed it out slowly. Then again, deep and hard. Out with a soft whoosh. He was breathing the water! Billos shrieked with laughter. He swam into the lake, deeper and deeper. The power contained in this lake was far greater than anything he'd ever imagined. "I made this, Billos." Billos whipped his body around, searching for the words' source. "Elyon?" His voice was muffled, hardly a voice at all. "Do you like it?" "Yes!" Billos said. He might have spoken; he might have shouted--he didn't know. He only knew that his whole body screamed it. Billos looked around. "Elyon?" "Why do you doubt me, Billos?" In that single moment the full weight of Billos's foolishness crashed on him like a sledgehammer. "I see you, Billos." "I made you." "I love you." The words crashed over him, reaching into the deepest folds of his flesh, caressing each hidden synapse, flowing through every vein, as though he had been given a transfusion. "I choose you, Billos." Billos began to weep. The feeling was more intense than any pain he had ever felt. The current pulled at him, tugging him up through the colors. His body trembled with pleasure. He wanted to speak, to yell, to tell the whole world that he was the most fortunate person in the universe. That he was loved by Elyon. Elyon himself. "Never leave me, Billos." "Never! I will never leave you." The current pushed him through the water and then above the surface not ten meters from the shore. He stood on the sandy bottom. For a moment he had such clarity of mind that he was sure he could understand the very fabric of space if he put his mind to it. He was chosen. He was loved.” - Ted Dekker

101. “Holding on to weight (i.e. anger, bitterness, the past, hatred) will not only hold you back, but also block your blessings. You've got to let some things go to move forward.” - Yvonne Pierre

102. “Love me, then, or hate me, as you will," I said at last, "you have my full and free forgiveness: ask now for God's, and be at peace.” - Charlotte Brontë

103. “There are times in every person’s life when they feel lonely, isolated, like maybe they don’t belong. For adoptees, this is often exacerbated by the circumstances. Because you were given up, you have a built-in scapegoat; you can blame everything that you feel on the fact that you were adopted. But, I want you to know that this is a fallacy. Finding your biological parents will not fill in the void that you feel. You will get answers to your questions, but no one can fill in the missing pieces except for you. Before you go on a search, take the time to get to know yourself very well. Heal the hurts you’ve experienced. Acknowledge the past and how it has affected you. Become a whole person who is seeking roots, not a damaged person who is seeking fulfillment.” - Janet Louise Stephenson

104. “It is so much less exhausting. You only have to forgive once. To resent, you have to do it all day, every day. You have to keep remembering all the bad things ... I would have to make a list, a very, very long list and make sure I hated the people on it the right amount ... No ... we always have a choice. All of us.” - M. L. Stedman

105. “My past life is abundantly full of God’s mercy, and, above all sin, stands the forgiving love of the Crucified.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

106. “Cultivo una rosa blanca,En julio como en enero,Para el amigo sinceroQue me da su mano franca.Y para el cruel que me arrancaEl corazon con que vivo,Cardo ni oruga cultivoCultivo una rosa blanca.I have a white rose to tendIn July as in January;I give it to the true friendWho offers his frank hand to me.And to the cruel one whose blowsBreak the heart by which I live,Thistle nor thorn do I give:For him, too, I have a white rose.” - Jose Marti

107. “We say of some things that they can't be forgiven, or that we will never forgive ourselves. But we do--we do it all the time.” - Alice Munro

108. “To forgive is to unlock the cage of another's folly to set ourselves free.” - Richard Paul Evans