100 Inspirational Quotes About Forgiveness to Heal and Empower Your Heart

"It's one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive. Forgive everybody."

- Maya Angelou

"It’s toughest to forgive ourselves. So it’s probably best to start with other people. It’s almost like peeling an onion. Layer by layer, forgiving others, you really do get to the point where you can forgive yourself."

- Patty Duke

"Forgiveness says you are given another chance to make a new beginning."

- Desmond Tutu

"Forgiveness is healing...especially forgiving yourself."

- Noël

"Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future."

- Paul Boese

"It's not an easy journey, to get to a place where you forgive people. But it is such a powerful place, because it frees you."

- Tyler Perry

"Take forgiveness slowly. Don't blame yourself for being slow. Peace will come."

- Japanese American artist and peace activist

"Forgiveness does not mean ignoring what has been done or putting a false label on an evil act. It means, rather, that the evil act no longer remains as a barrier to the relationship. Forgiveness is a catalyst creating the atmosphere necessary for a fresh start and a new beginning."

- Martin Luther King Jr.

"As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn't leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I'd still be in prison."

- Nelson Mandala

"Holding a grudge doesn’t make you strong; it makes you bitter. Forgiving doesn’t make you weak; it sets you free."

- Dave Willis

"Forgiveness is for you—not the other person. It’s something you do inside yourself that you feel in your body and heart that releases you from your past and frees you to live life fully."

- Barbara J. Hunt

"Anger begets more anger, and forgiveness and love lead to more forgiveness and love."

- Mahavira

"There is nobility in compassion, a beauty in empathy, a grace in forgiveness."

- John Connolly

"If we really want to love we must learn how to forgive."

- Mother Theresa

"Forgiveness is a virtue of the brave."

- Indira Gandhi

"Forgiveness is the key to action and freedom."

- Hannah Arendt

"Forgiving what we cannot forgive creates a new way to remember. We change the memory of our past into a hope for our future."

- Lewis Smedes

"When a deep injury is done to us, we never heal until we forgive."

- Nelson Mandela

"Blame keeps wounds open. Only forgiveness heals."

- Thomas S. Manson

"When you forgive, you in no way change the past-but you sure do change the future."

- Bernard Meltzer

"Forgiveness is a choice, but it is not an option."

- Joel Osteen

"Hate. It has caused a lot of problems in this world, but it has not solved one yet."

- Maya Angelou

"It can be hard to forgive and let go but it's important to remember that harboring the resentment and holding a grudge can hurt you even more. The word 'forgive' really means to give something up for yourself not for them."

- Jack Canfield

"Forgiveness is not an occasional act; it is a permanent attitude."

- Martin Luther King Jr.

"If you cannot forgive and forget, pick one."

- Robert Brault

"To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you."

- C.S. Lewis

"Forgiveness is a reflection of loving yourself enough to move on."

- Dr. Steve Maraboli

"Forgiveness liberates the soul. It removes fear. That is why it is such a powerful weapon."

- Nelson Mandela

"Forgiveness is not a feeling; it is a commitment. It is a choice to show mercy, not to hold the offence up against the offender. Forgiveness is an expression of love."

- Gary Chapman

"When we don't forgive, we're not hurting the other person. We're not hurting the company that did us wrong. We're not hurting God. We're only hurting ourselves."

- Joel Osteen

"What is forgiven is usually well remembered."

- Louis Dudek

"Forgiveness is not always easy. At times it feels more painful than the wound we suffered, to forgive the one that inflicted it. And yet, there is no peace without forgiveness."

- Marianne Williamson

"Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much."

- Oscar Wilde

"I forgive myself and set myself free."

- Louise Hay

"Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive."

- C.S. Lewis

"Our errors are grains of sand beside the great mountain of God’s mercy."

- St. John Vianney

"It’s one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive. Forgive everybody."

- Oprah Winfrey

"True forgiveness is when you can say, ‘Thank you for that experience.'"

- Oprah Winfrey

"Throughout life people will make you mad, disrespect you and treat you bad. Let God deal with the things they do, because hate in your heart will consume you too."

- Will Smith

"You can't forgive without loving. And I don't mean sentimentality. I don’t mean mush. I mean having enough courage to stand up and say, 'I forgive. I'm finished with it.'"

- Maya Angelou

"When you hold resentment toward another, you are bound to that person or condition by an emotional link that is stronger than steel. Forgiveness is the only way to dissolve that link and get free."

- Catherine Ponder

"True forgiveness is when you can say 'Thank you for that experience'."

- Oprah Winfrey

"I think the first step is to understand that forgiveness does not exonerate the perpetrator. Forgiveness liberates the victim. It's a gift you give yourself."

- T.D. Jakes

"Forgiveness is not an occasional act, it is a constant attitude."

- Martin Luther King Jr.

"How unhappy is he who cannot forgive himself."

- Publilius Syrus

"To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you."

- Lewis B. Smedes

"Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them."

- Bruce Lee

"You can't forgive without loving. And I don't mean sentimentality. I don't mean mush. I mean having enough courage to stand up and say, 'I forgive. I'm finished with it'."

- Maya Angelou

"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.

"The remedy for life's broken pieces is not classes, workshops or books. Don't try to heal the broken pieces. Just forgive."

- Iyanla Vanzant

"Forgiveness is above all a personal choice, a decision of the heart to go against natural instinct to pay back evil with evil."

- Pope John Paul II

"When a deep injury is done to us, we never recover until we forgive."

- Alan Paton

"Forgiving isn't something you do for someone else. It's something you do for yourself. It's saying 'You're not important enough to have a stranglehold on me.' It's saying, 'You don't get to trap me in the past. I am worthy of a future'."

- Jodi Picoult

"To err is human; to forgive, divine."

- Alexander Pope

"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong."

- Mahatma Gandhi

"Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it."

- Mark Twain

"Forgive, forget. Bear with the faults of others as you would have them bear with yours."

- Phillips Brooks

"Forgiveness is not weak. It takes courage to face and overcome powerful emotions."

- Desmond Tutu

"All that has offended me I forgive. Within and without I forgive. Things past, things present, things future... I forgive. I forgive everything and everybody who could possibly need forgiveness in my past and my present. I positively forgive everyone."

- Catherine Ponder

"Forgiveness will not be possible until compassion is born in your heart."

- Thich Nhat Hanh

"If you haven't forgiven yourself something, how can you forgive others?"

- Dolores Huerta

"Forgiveness is the fragrance the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it."

- Mark Twain

"To understand somebody else as a human being, I think, is about as close to real forgiveness as one can get."

- David Small

"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

"Reconciliation and forgiveness can actually help all of us move on in a healthier, happier way."

- Chesa Boudin

"Without forgiveness life is governed by... an endless cycle of resentment and retaliation."

- Roberto Assagioli

"Forgiveness is the needle that knows how to mend."

- American singer-songwriter

"The lesson is that you can still make mistakes and be forgiven."

- Robert Downey Jr.

"Forgiveness is a funny thing. It warms the heart and cools the sting."

- William Arthur Ward

"Don’t ever underestimate the power of forgiveness. I’ve seen it free people. I’ve seen it lift burdens that had weighed them down and kept them from moving on."

- Buffy Andrews

"Never forget the nine most important words of any family: I love you. You are beautiful. Please forgive me."

- Jackson Brown Jr.

"Forgive all who have offended you, not for them, but for yourself."

- Harriet Nelson

"Anger makes you smaller, while forgiveness forces you to grow beyond what you are."

- Cherie Carter-Scott

"Do as the heavens have done, forget your evil; With them forgive yourself."

- William Shakespeare

"The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget."

- Thomas Szasz

"Let's shake free this gravity of judgment, and fly high on the wings of forgiveness."

- India Arie Simpson

"Life is too short. I forgive and forget. I have not time to get mad or hate."

- Debasish Mridha

"Forgotten is forgiven."

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

"Forgiveness is not to give the other person peace. Forgiveness is for you. Take that opportunity."

- Mackenzie Phillips

"Just knowing you don’t have the answers is a recipe for humility, openness, acceptance, forgiveness, and an eagerness to learn – and those are all good things."

- Dick Van Dyke

"Forgiveness is the final form of love."

- Reinhold Niebuhr

"Pray you now, forget and forgive."

- William Shakespeare

"We may not know how to forgive, and we may not want to forgive; But the very fact we say we are willing to forgive begins the healing process."

- Louise Hay

"Forgiving is not having to understand. Understanding may come later, in fragments, an insight here and a glimpse there, after forgiving."

- Lewis B. Smedes

"Anger makes you smaller, while forgiveness forces you to grow beyond what you were."

- Cherie Carter-Scott

"To understand is to forgive, even oneself."

- Alexander Chase

"As we know, forgiveness of oneself is the hardest of all the forgivenesses."

- Joan Baez

"The more you know yourself, the more you forgive yourself."

- Confucius

"Always forgive your enemies – nothing annoys them so much."

- Oscar Wilde

"Never does the human soul appear so strong as when it forgoes revenge,"

- Edwin Hubble Chapin

"Thankfully, forgiveness, and the healing it brings in its wake, has nothing to do with ‘deserve.'"

- Eric Metaxas

"We win by tenderness. We conquer by forgiveness."

- Frederick William Roberson

"There is no revenge so complete as forgiveness."

- Josh Billings

"Before we can forgive one another, we have to understand one another."

- Emma Goldman

"There is no love without forgiveness, and there is no forgiveness without love."

- Bryant H. McGill

"If we really want to love, we must learn how to forgive."

- Mother Teresa

"Forgiveness is a powerful expression of the love within our soul."

- Anthony Douglas

"I believe forgiveness is the best form of love in any relationship. It takes a strong person to say they're sorry and an even stronger person to forgive."

- Yolanda Hadid

"Without forgiveness life is governed by an endless cycle of resentment and retaliation."

- Roberto Assagioli

"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."

- Fred Rogers

"I learned a long time ago that some people would rather die than forgive. It’s a strange truth, but forgiveness is a painful and difficult process. It’s not something that happens overnight. It’s an evolution of the heart."

- Sue Monk Kidd

"Forgiveness is a sign that the person who has wronged you means more to you than the wrong they have dealt."

- Ben Greenhalgh

"Surely it is much more generous to forgive and remember, than to forgive and forget."

- Maria Edgeworth

"Forgiveness isn't approving what happened. It's choosing to rise above it."

- Robin Sharma

"By having a forgiving attitude, you can change your life and the lives of the people you care about most."

- Kathie M. Thomson

"Acceptance and tolerance and forgiveness; those are life-altering lessons."

- Jessica Lange

"Though I was unaware of it at the time, that simple act of forgiveness was the beginning of an entirely new level of experiencing life for me."

- Wayne Dyer

"Forgiveness is almost a selfish act because of its immense benefits to the one who forgives."

- Lawana Blackwell

"Forgiveness is the remission of sins. For it is by this that what has been lost, and was found, is saved from being lost again."

- Saint Augustine

"Never forget the three powerful resources you always have available to you: love, prayer, and forgiveness."

- H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

"Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names."

- John F. Kennedy

"The hatred you're carrying is a live coal in your heart - far more damaging to yourself than to them."

- Lawana Blackwell

"Life is an adventure in forgiveness."

- Norman Cousins

"It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend."

- William Blake

"Forgiveness is the sweetest revenge."

- Isaac Friedmann

"I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice."

- Katherine Ponder

"Always forgive your enemies - nothing annoys them so much."

- Oscar Wilde

"Selfishness must always be forgiven you know, because there is no hope of a cure."

- Jane Austen

"Be love be peace be free. The results of this is awesome. No pain no hurts can take root in your being. Now is the time to be and live LOVE PEACE FREE in your life on the earth."

- Ambassador Butler

"A woman can forgive a man for the harm he does her...but she can never forgive him for the sacrifices he makes on her account."

- W. Somerset Maugham

"Forgive others, not because they deserve forgiveness, but because you deserve peace."

"Forgiving isn’t something you do for someone else. It's something you do for yourself. It's saying, 'You’re not important enough to have a stranglehold on me.' It’s saying, 'You don't get to trap me in the past. I am worthy of a future.'"

"It is easier to get forgiveness than permission."

"Men forget but never forgive. Women forgive but never forget."

"When you forgive, you heal. When you let go, you grow."