100 Inspirational Quotes on Forgiveness to Heal and Empower Your Heart

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

- Alexander Pope

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

- Lewis B. Smedes

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

- Cherie Carter-Scott

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

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

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

- Mark Twain

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

- Thomas Szasz

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

- Mahatma Gandhi

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

- Maya Angelou

"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

"Pray you now, forget and forgive."

- William Shakespeare

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

- Oscar Wilde

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

- Desmond Tutu

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

- Oprah Winfrey

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

- Desmond Tutu

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

- Harriet Nelson

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

- Thich Nhat Hanh

"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

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

- Dave Willis

"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 Mandela

"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.

"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

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

- Cherie Carter-Scott

"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.

"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

"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

"There is no revenge so complete as forgiveness."

- Josh Billings

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

- William Arthur Ward

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

- Dolores Huerta

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

- William Shakespeare

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

- Paul Boese

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

- Alan Paton

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

- Confucius

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

- Oscar Wilde

"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

"How unhappy is he who cannot forgive himself."

- Publilius Syrus

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

- Mark Twain

"We think that forgiveness is weakness, but it's absolutely not; it takes a very strong person to forgive."

- T. D. Jakes

"Forgiveness is a gift you give yourself."

- Suzanne Somers

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

- Bernard Meltzer

"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

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

- H. Jackson Brown Jr.

"Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart."

- Corrie ten Boom

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

- William Blake

"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

"Forgiveness is the key to action and freedom."

- Hannah Arendt

"He that cannot forgive others, breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass if he would ever reach heaven; for everyone has need to be forgiven."

- George Herbert

"All major religious traditions carry basically the same message, that is love, compassion and forgiveness the important thing is they should be part of our daily lives."

- Dalai Lama

"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

"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 a virtue of the brave."

- Indira Gandhi

"Forgive yourself for your faults and your mistakes and move on."

- Les Brown

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

- Mahavira

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

- Alan Paton

"Inner peace can be reached only when we practice forgiveness. Forgiveness is letting go of the past, and is therefore the means for correcting our misperceptions."

- Gerald Jampolsky

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

- Bruce Lee

"Holding on to anger, resentment and hurt only gives you tense muscles, a headache and a sore jaw from clenching your teeth. Forgiveness gives you back the laughter and the lightness in your life."

- Joan Lunden

"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

"Forgiveness is the final form of love."

- Reinhold Niebuhr

"He that cannot forgive others breaks the bridge over which he must pass himself; for every man has need to be forgiven."

- Thomas Fuller

"Forgiveness is not a feeling - it's a decision we make because we want to do what's right before God. It's a quality decision that won't be easy and it may take time to get through the process, depending on the severity of the offense."

- Joyce Meyer

"Forgiveness is the economy of the heart... forgiveness saves the expense of anger, the cost of hatred, the waste of spirits."

- Hannah More

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

- Frederick William Robertson

"Never does the human soul appear so strong as when it foregoes revenge and dares to forgive an injury."

- Edwin Hubbell Chapin

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

- American singer-songwriter

"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

"I like second chances. I’ve given people second chances. You have fall-outs with friends, and forgiveness is a great thing to have. It’s not easy to forgive. I definitely don’t forget, but I do forgive."

- Odette Annable

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

- Eric Metaxas

"If one by one we counted people out / For the least sin, it wouldn't take us long / To get so we had no one left to live with. / For to be social is to be forgiving."

- Robert Frost

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

- Emma Goldman

"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

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

- Japanese American artist and peace activist

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

- Jackson Brown Jr.

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

- David Small

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

- Chesa Boudin

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

- Robert Downey Jr.

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

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

- Joan Baez

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

- Noël

"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

"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

"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

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

- Roberto Assagioli

"To understand is to forgive, even oneself."

- Alexander Chase

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

- Lawana Blackwell

"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

"Beware of the man who does not return your blow: he neither forgives you nor allows you to forgive yourself."

- George Bernard Shaw

"I can forgive, but I cannot forget, is only another way of saying, I will not forgive. Forgiveness ought to be like a cancelled note - torn in two, and burned up, so that it never can be shown against one."

- Henry Ward Beecher

"It is in pardoning that we are pardoned."

- Francis of Assisi

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

- John F. Kennedy

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

- Jessica Lange

"Man has two great spiritual needs. One is for forgiveness. The other is for goodness."

- Billy Graham

"Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge."

- William Shakespeare

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

- Phillips Brooks

"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

"I invite everyone to chose forgiveness rather than division, teamwork over personal ambition."

- Jean-Francois Cope

"A winner rebukes and forgives; a loser is too timid to rebuke and too petty to forgive."

- Sydney J. Harris

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

- Jessica Lange

"Sins cannot be undone, only forgiven."

- Igor Stravinsky

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

- Catherine Ponder

"Forgiveness is the sweetest revenge."

- Isaac Friedmann

"Forgotten is forgiven."

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

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

- Edwin Hubbell Chapin

"When you are happy you can forgive a great deal."

- Princess Diana

"Forgive me my nonsense, as I also forgive the nonsense of those that think they talk sense."

- Robert Frost

"If there is something to pardon in everything, there is also something to condemn."

- Friedrich Nietzsche

"Thank you, God, for this good life and forgive us if we do not love it enough."

- Garrison Keillor

"God may forgive your sins, but your nervous system won't."

- Alfred Korzybski

"Children begin by loving their parents; after a time they judge them; rarely, if ever, do they forgive them."

- Oscar Wilde

"The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone."

- Harriet Beecher Stowe

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

- Jane Austen

"It is often easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission."

- Grace Hopper

"God forgive you, but I never can."

- Elizabeth I

"It is easier to get forgiveness than permission."

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