Do you struggle with forgiving and moving on with your life? This collection of quotes about forgiveness will help you to let go of the past so that you can move on to a better life. If you want even more uplifting quotes, have a look at our quotes about moving on and letting go.
Life will often confront you with exceptionally painful situations. It will bring you to your physical and psychical limits and sometimes push you even beyond. While it’s already difficult enough to deal with fateful events, the emotional pain and suffering that is caused as a result are often times even more hurtful. Depending on the severity of what has happened, it may deeply influence your thinking and behavior for years or even decades.
“Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.”
Buddha
Those who do injustice to us may not always deserve our forgiveness. They may not even regret what they have done – let alone consider apologizing to you. In other situations, the offender has realized that what they’ve done was wrong but we are unable to accept the apology. Be that as it may, you are the one who continues to suffer.
These quotes about forgiveness show you the importance of forgiving and moving on
If you want to escape the painful spiral of torment, remorse, and perhaps the self-pity, letting go, forgiving, and moving on is crucial. It is also important to realize that you may not forget what happened for the sake of the other person. Instead, understand that you are mainly forgiving for your own sake and mental health.
100 Illuminating Quotes about Forgiveness
The following authors, poets, adventurers, and philosophers have been hurt numerous times throughout their lives. They have known suffering and injustice. Other people may have trampled upon them or caused them great emotional pain. Astonishingly enough, however, these unique individuals have found remarkable ways of dealing with what has happened. As such, the following quotes about forgiveness are a fantastic resource to get inspired to move on with your life. These are the quotes that will encourage you to forgive. Enjoy reading!
Here’s our list of inspirational quotes about forgiveness
1.
“The only way out of the labyrinth of suffering is to forgive.”
John Green
2.
“If we can just let go and trust that things will work out the way they’re supposed to, without trying to control the outcome, then we can begin to enjoy the moment more fully. The joy of the freedom it brings becomes more pleasurable than the experience itself.”
Goldie Hawn
3.
“Forgiveness is unlocking the door to set someone free and realising you were the prisoner!”
Max Lucado
4.
“Forgive but do not forget, or you will be hurt again. Forgiving changes the perspectives. Forgetting loses the lesson.”
Paulo Coelho
5.
“Watch out for each other. Love everyone and forgive everyone, including yourself. Forgive your anger. Forgive your guilt. Your shame. Your sadness. Embrace and open up your love, your joy, your truth, and most especially your heart.”
Jim Henson
6.
“It’s forgiveness that makes us what we are. Without forgiveness, our species would’ve annihilated itself in endless retributions. Without forgiveness, there would be no history.”
Gregory David Roberts
7.
“Every time you forgive, the universe changes; every time you reach out and touch a heart or a life, the world changes.”
Wm. Paul Young
8.
“Forgiveness is a strange thing. It can sometimes be easier to forgive our enemies than our friends. It can be hardest of all to forgive people we love. Like all of life’s important coping skills, the ability to forgive and the capacity to let go of resentments most likely take root very early in our lives.”
Fred Rogers
9.
“If you have a past with which you feel dissatisfied, then forget it, now. Imagine a new story for your life and believe in it. Focus only on the moments when you achieved what you desired, and that strength will help you to get what you want.”
Paulo Coelho
10.
“Confront the dark parts of yourself, and work to banish them with illumination and forgiveness. Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing.”
August Wilson
11.
“I don’t know if I continue, even today, always liking myself. But what I learned to do many years ago was to forgive myself. It is very important for every human being to forgive herself or himself because if you live, you will make mistakes – it is inevitable.”
Maya Angelou
12.
“As my sufferings mounted I soon realized that there were two ways in which I could respond to my situation – either to react with bitterness or seek to transform the suffering into a creative force. I decided to follow the latter course.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
13.
“The wound is the place where the Light enters you.”
Rumi
14.
“Not every mistake deserves a consequence. Sometimes the only thing it deserves is forgiveness.”
Colleen Hoover
15.
“The practice of forgiveness is our most important contribution to the healing of the world.”
Marianne Williamson
16.
“For there are two kinds of forgiveness in the world: the one you practice because everything really is all right, and what went before is mended. The other kind of forgiveness you practice because someone needs desperately to be forgiven, or because you need just as badly to forgive them, for a heart can grab hold of old wounds and go sour as milk over them.”
Catherynne M. Valente
17.
“The first step to loving someone else is to recognize the evil in ourselves, so we can forgive them.”
Veronica Roth
18.
“Our wounds are often the openings into the best and most beautiful part of us.”
David Richo
19.
“Peace be inside me, tolerance all around me, forgiveness in my path.”
Eoin Colfer
20.
“Forgiveness is not a single act, but a matter of constant practice.”
Diana Gabaldon
21.
“What happens when people open their hearts? They get better.”
Haruki Murakami
22.
“The emotion that can break your heart is sometimes the very one that heals it…”
Nicholas Sparks
23.
“Strength of character means the ability to overcome resentment against others, to hide hurt feelings, and to forgive quickly.”
Lawrence G. Lovasik
24.
“It is for God to punish wicked people; we should learn to forgive.”
Emily Bronte
25.
“Nothing releases like forgive. Nothing renews like forget.”
Ray A. Davis
26.
“The remedy for most marital stress is not in divorce. It is in repentance and forgiveness, in sincere expressions of charity and service. It is not in separation.”
Gordon B. Hinckley
27.
“You can ask forgiveness of others, but in the end, the real forgiveness is in one’s own self.”
Maya Angelou
28.
“When you release the negative experiences that are behind you, it makes room for love to move in. It’s as easy as a decision. God is patiently waiting for your reply.”
Pam Malow-Isham
29.
“Every work of art is in some way an act of forgiveness. Without that dream, there would be no love, for every act of love is in some way a promise to forgive. We live on because we can love, and we love because we can forgive.”
Gregory David Roberts
30.
“Forgive me for being so ordinary while claiming to know so extraordinary a God.”
Jim Elliot
31.
“Forgive the past. It is over. Learn from it and let go. People are constantly changing and growing. Do not cling to a limited, disconnected, negative image of a person in the past. See that person now. Your relationship is always alive and changing.”
Brian Weiss
32.
“The big moments are the daily, tiny moments of courage and forgiveness and hope that we grab on to and extend to one another.”
Shauna Niequist
33.
“If we choose to forgive everyone every day, we cleanse our hearts! We wake up the next morning refreshed and pure and lovely!”
Bo Sanchez
34.
“You have to accept that you can’t change the past experiences, opinions of others at that moment in time or outcomes from their choices or yours. When you finally recognize that truth then you will understand the true meaning of forgiveness of yourself and others. From this point, you will finally be free.”
Shannon Alder
35.
“Forgive and give as if it were your last opportunity. Love like there’s no tomorrow, and if tomorrow comes, love again.”
Max Lucado
36.
“The trick was forgetting about what she had lost… and learning to go on with what she had left.”
Lisa Kleypas
37.
“You only have to forgive once. To resent, you have to do it all day, every day.”
ML Stedman
38.
“To forgive is wisdom, to forget is genius.”
Joyce Cary
39.
“You know the incredible thing about hearts is their unbelievable capacity for forgiveness. You’d be amazed what people will overlook when they love someone.”
Sherrilyn Kenyon
40.
“The glory of Christianity is to conquer by forgiveness.”
William Blake
41.
“There is no healing without release.”
Jenai Charles
42.
“No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our standpoint. Therefore we must be saved by the final form of love which is forgiveness.”
Reinhold Niebuhr
43.
“Judge nothing, you will be happy. Forgive everything, you will be happier. Love everything, you will be happiest.”
Sri Chinmoy
44.
“Don’t insist on your rights, don’t blame each other, don’t judge or condemn each other, don’t find fault with each other, but accept each other as you are, and forgive each other every day from the bottom of your hearts…”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
45.
“Love is an act of endless forgiveness; a tender look which becomes a habit.”
Peter Ustinov
46.
“Blessed are the forgetful, for they get the better even of their blunders.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
47.
“Forgive me my nonsense as I also forgive the nonsense of those who think they talk sense.”
Robert Frost
48.
“It is surely better to pardon too much, than to condemn too much.”
George Eliot
49.
“Forgive yourself before you die. Then forgive others.”
Mitch Albom
50.
“It is one thing to make a mistake, and quite another thing not to admit it. People will forgive mistakes, because mistakes are usually of the mind, mistakes of judgment. But people will not easily forgive the mistakes of the heart, the ill intention, the bad motives, the prideful justifying cover-up of the first mistake.”
Stephen Covey
51.
“For me, forgiveness and compassion are always linked: how do we hold people accountable for wrongdoing and yet at the same time remain in touch with their humanity enough to believe in their capacity to be transformed?”
bell hooks
52.
“Writing is a beautiful way to let out pain. When you put your story out there, you release it. Once it is no longer buried or stuck within you, you are free to move forward.”
Sandra Marinella
53.
“We make mistakes because we are imperfect. Learn from your mistakes, forgive yourself, and keep moving forward.”
Roy T. Bennett
54.
“I must remember to forgive myself. Because there is a lot of grey to work with. No one can live in the light all the time.”
Libba Bray
55.
“Please watch out for each other and love and forgive everybody. It’s a good life, enjoy it.”
Jim Henson
56.
“If we can forgive what’s been done to us… If we can forgive what we’ve done to others… If we can leave all of our stories behind. Our being villains or victims. Only then can we maybe rescue the world.”
Chuck Palahniuk
57.
“Broken people give broken love. And we are all a little broken. You just have to forgive and sew up the wounds love delivers, and move on.”
Tarryn Fisher
58.
“To be kind, honest and have positive thoughts; to forgive those who harm us and treat everyone as a friend; to help those who are suffering and never to consider ourselves superior to anyone else: even if this advice seems rather simplistic, make the effort of seeing whether by following it you can find greater happiness.”
Dalai Lama XIV
59.
“Forgiveness is giving up all hope of having had a better past.”
Anne Lamott
60.
“Forgiveness is a gift of high value. Yet its cost is nothing.”
Betty Smith
61.
“My tears brought no sense of release or relief. Their flight felt like the lightest, coldest touch of a departing lover.”
Anne Giardini
62.
“To be able to forget means sanity.”
Jack London
63.
“Everyone thinks forgiveness is a lovely idea until he has something to forgive.”
C.S. Lewis
64.
“In a word, live together in the forgiveness of your sins, for without it no human fellowship, least of all a marriage, can survive.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
65.
“Enduring and forgiving are two different things. You must not forgive the cruelty of this world. It’s our duty as human beings to be angry at injustice. But we must also endure it. Because someone must sever this chain of hatred.”
Hiromu Arakawa
66.
“Forgiveness doesn’t sit there like a pretty boy in a bar. Forgiveness is the old fat guy you have to haul up a hill.”
Cheryl Strayed
67.
“Forgive yourself for the decisions you have made, the ones you still call mistakes when you tuck them in at night.”
Sarah Kay
68.
“The term “forgive and forget” doesn’t make sense to me. Forgiving does allow us to stop dwelling on an issue, which isn’t always healthy. But if we forget, we don’t learn from our mistakes.”
Meg Cabot
69.
“You can make a much better choice by getting it out in the open and asking God to help you to totally forgive and let it all go.”
Joel Osteen
70.
“Two persons cannot long be friends if they cannot forgive each other’s little failings.”
Jean de La Bruyère
71.
“I’ve come to believe that the most dangerous man in the world is the one who feels no remorse. The one who never apologizes and therefore seeks no forgiveness. Because in the end, it is our emotions that make us weak, not our actions.”
Tahereh Mafi
72.
“You can love them, forgive them, want good things for them…but still move on without them.”
Mandy Hale
73.
“Forgiveness is the best part of valor… Discretion is easy. It’s finding the courage to forgive yourself and others that is hard.”
Sherrilyn Kenyon
74.
“Love is friendship that has caught fire. It is quiet understanding, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving. It is loyalty through good and bad times. It settles for less than perfection and makes allowances for human weaknesses.”
Ann Landers
75.
“God has promised forgiveness to your repentance, but He has not promised tomorrow to your procrastination.”
St. Augustine of Hippo
76.
“One can forgive but one should never forget.”
Marjane Satrapi
77.
“For all eternity, I forgive you and you forgive me.”
William Blake
78.
“A life lived without forgiveness is a prison.”
William Arthur Ward
79.
“Sometimes forgiveness is the hardest thing to give, but the most cherished thing to receive.”
Maya Banks
80.
“Forgiveness is not a feeling; it is a commitment.”
Gary Chapman
81.
“I’ll cry in your arms, and I’ll tell you I’m sorry for everything I have done and you’ll help me find a way to forgive myself.”
Judith McNaught
82.
“We need to forgive ourselves. For all the things we didn’t do. All the things we should have done. You can’t get stuck on the regrets of what should have happened.”
Mitch Albom
83.
“It made me wonder how many times we forgive just because we don’t want to lose someone, even if they don’t deserve our forgiveness.”
Deb Caletti
84.
“The anger welled inside me, with nowhere to go. I could feel it eating away at me. I knew if I didn’t find a way to release it, it would destroy me.”
Kami Garcia
85.
“It is better to find God on the threshold of despair than to risk our lives in a complacency that has never felt the need for forgiveness. A life that is without problems may literally be more hopeless than one that always verges on despair.”
Thomas Merton
86.
“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
87.
“Nothing fixes a thing so intently in the memory as the wish to forget it”
Cat Patrick
88.
“To cry was to release all sorts of ugly little pressures and tensions. Like waking out of a long, dark dream to a sun-filled day.”
Anne McCaffrey
89.
“The only time you truly become an adult is when you finally forgive your parents for being just as flawed as everyone else.”
Douglas Kennedy
90.
“My aunt once said that the world would never find peace until men fell at their women’s feet and asked for forgiveness. „
Jack Kerouac
91.
“Make every allowance for errors of knowledge; do not forgive or accept any break of morality.”
Ayn Rand
92.
“It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.”
William Blake
93.
“People, in general, would rather die than forgive. It’s that hard.”
Sue Monk Kidd
94.
“He judged the instant and let go; he flung himself loose into the stars.”
Annie Dillard
95.
“It has been said, ‘time heals all wounds.’ I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens. But it is never gone.”
Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy
96.
“After a good dinner one can forgive anybody, even one’s own relations.”
Oscar Wilde
97.
“People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.”
Mother Teresa
98.
“Forgive me, for all the things I did but mostly for the ones that I did not.”
Donna Tartt
99.
“Never forget the nine most important words of any family. I love you. You are beautiful. Please forgive me.”
H. Jackson Brown Jr.
100.
“Is it easy? Usually not. But you don’t forgive people for their benefit. You do it for your benefit.”
Andrew Matthews
I hope you enjoyed this collection of quotes about forgiveness. Are you struggling with letting go and moving on with your life? Let us know in the comment section below.
Stay victorious!
