Quotes About Forgiveness

Oh, he was just angry, we tell ourselves when someone blurts out something he later apologizes for. But a word, once spoken, lingers forever; to keep peace we pretend to forget, but we never do. Strange that a spoken word can have such lasting power when words carved on stone monuments vanish in spite of all our efforts to preserve them. What we would lose persists, lodged in our minds, and what we would keep is lost to water, moths, moss.

Kindness is stronger than iron bars.

The spiritual director has the double task of holding up the demands of absolute responsibility and the promise of absolute forgiveness.

When we can lay down our fear and anger and choose responses other than aggression, we create the conditions for bringing out the best in us humans.

the infinite capacity of humans to wound one another without meaning or wanting to

Apology is a lovely perfume; it can transform the clumsiest moment into a gracious gift.

I'll think of it tomorrow, at Tara. I can stand it then. Tomorrow, I'll think of some way to get him back. After all, tomorrow is another day.

I'll think of it tomorrow, at Tara. I can stand it then. Tomorrow, I'll think of some way to get him back. After all, tomorrow is another day.

And apologies, once postponed, become harder and harder to make, and finally impossible.

We need to be able to acknowledge and tolerate a person's wounded self -putting it into a perspective- in order to create a loving relationship with them.

no insult can do us harm if only we do not say or do anything in return.

Being abandoned doesn't make for little angels.

Women weren't to be trusted. Or forgiven. Men weren't to be trusted either. Not a woman alive would dispute that.

Hatred must be a hard thing to learn.

Anger is like a disease. You can catch it. You can give it.

How long will it be until the two countries I love forgive each other and move on . . . I'm not even sure what there is to forgive. Something about Cuba seizing ownership of oil refineries. It's all so confusing. Why should something as ugly as oil affect friendships between nations?

Never in your life have you been helpless—under somebody's heel. You never lived where your enemies held power over you, power to run your life or wipe it out. You can't understand. That's how come you stand there feeding me empty slogans!" Luciente bowed her head. "You crit me justly, Connie. Forgive me. I'll try to see your situation more clearly and make less loud noises in your ears.

A good heart is when a girl that you loved, a girl who has pained you and chosen another instead, places in your hands the means to her own ruin. And you could tell it to everyone. But you keep silent, because you can do that, too, and a good heart would do that, a fine man, a man who truly loved her....Let her be lucky now."- A Good Heart.

There's a thing in poetry called the caesura a pause between words, a silence. I thought: that's what real friendship is, too. Someone you can be quiet with. Someone who understands your mistakes and forgives you.

Forgive this breaking body as you forgive the star, the star whispering in the wind when the star is no more. Forgive this secret none can tell. None can tell and live.

It takes courage to live in the midst of hate. And it requires strength to keep that hatred from eating your soul.

Looking backward should never divert our path to one of hatred and bitterness, for those steps lead nowhere but to destruction. To live in hatred is to miss the point of living.

Let us cry for the spilt milk , by all means, if by doing so we learn how to avoid spilling any more. Let us cry for the spilt milk , and remember how, and where, and why, we spilt it. Much wisdom is learnt through tears, but none by forgetting our lessons.

They'll never forgive me, except they love me, so they will.