Quotes About Forgiveness

The only reason I don't kill him, he remember the woman saying, her voice sounding like the scrape of iron against iron, a corrosion of vocal cords, is because he's not important enough.

She had heard it was easy to blame others for one's own failures. But that wasn't exactly accurate. It was easy to blame herself for what had happened--hard to live with it. [...] It was hard to blame them, harder still to live with the need to blame them.

It occurred to her that mercy was the ability to stop, if only for a moment. There was no mercy where there could be no stopping.

Revenge is for children and the emotionally retarded.

Mercy is a chimera.

Hittite law emphasized restitution rather than revenge. Humankind lost a certain useful practicality when it chose the other Semitic response—never to forgive and never to forget.

Forgive you?" Leto's voice was full of sweet reason. "Of course I forgive you. That is your God's function. Your crime is forgiven. However, your stupidity requires a response.

What terrible things we do to those we love!

Fannie Mae had aroused his anger, then reduced his anger to verbal breast-beating, and finally to silent hurt. Still, the love remained. Why?

Guilt and blame grew defuse when memory covered a millennia.

Jessica, have you ever stopped hating me?" the old woman asked. "I both love and hate you," Jessica said. "The hate—that's from pains I must never forget. The love—that's…." "Just the basic fact," the old woman said

Forgive us, Lord," Nunepi whispered. "Forgive you?" Leto's voice was full of sweet reason. "Of course I forgive you. That is your God's function. Your crime is forgiven. However, your stupidity requires a response.

What is this forgiveness you ask? Must you always require judgment? Can't your universe merely be?

mercy was the ability to stop, if only for a moment. There was no mercy where there could be no stopping.

Ocorreu-lhe que a misericórdia era a capacidade de parar, mesmo que apenas por um instante. Não havia misericórdia onde não era possível parar.

It occurred to her that mercy was the ability to stop, if only for a moment.

Nul ne peut vraiment leur en vouloir. On ne peut que les mépriser.

Never to forgive—never to forget

To destroy an offender cannot benefit society so much as to redeem him. (The Flying Girl, 1911)

St. Francis is no help, he won't stop the tears bursting out of my two eyes, the sniffling and choking and the God oh Gods that have me on my knees with my head on the back of the pew before me and I'm so weak with the hunger and the crying I could fall on the floor and would you please help me God or St. Francis because I'm sixteen today and I hit my mother and sent Theresa to hell and wanked all over Limerick and the county beyond and I dread the millstone around my neck.

When I asked her about her days in Brooklyn she doled out scraps and then went silent. What was the use? The past is the past and it's dangerous to go back.

And what's a-trouble to you, Jackie? Father, I said, feeling I might as well get it over while I had him in good humour, I had it all arranged to kill my grandmother. He seemed a bit shaken by that, all right, because he said nothing for quite a while. My goodness, he said at last, that'd be a shocking thing to do. What put that into your head? Father, I said, feeling very sorry for myself, she's an awful woman.

It doesn't matter what you've done or how bad you've failed, Jesus Christ is bigger than all your foul-ups, and His mercy and grace loom larger than any sin you've ever committed.

I'm sorry, We were Young, I think about--and Regret--it every Day.