In this article, we will share with you 50 deep forgiveness quotes that will inspire you to let go of your past and receive peace and happiness. When our past resentments hold us back it is difficult to move forward with our lives and build a happy future. Therefore it is so important to learn forgiveness. It’s not easy to forgive somebody who has deeply hurt us. We hope that these forgiveness quotes will help you to re-think your past resentments and let them go through forgiveness.
Here they are 50 inspirational forgiveness quotes!
50 Forgiveness Quotes
#1
“Forgive others not because they deserve forgiveness, but because you deserve peace.”
– Jonathan Huie
#2
“To forgive is the highest, most beautiful form of love. In return, you will receive untold peace and happiness.”
– Robert Muller
#3
“The act of forgiveness takes place in our own mind. It really has nothing to do with the other person.”
– Louise Hay
#4
“Forgiveness isn’t about sentimentality or emotionality; it’s about the challenging inner work of releasing a level of anger. We do this inner work for ourselves, not for anyone else – making a statement that no one can determine or affect our destiny by their words, actions, or inactions.”
– Michael Bernard Beckwith
#5
“To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.”
– Louis B. Smedes
#6
“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
#7
“Forgiveness isn’t approving what happened. It’s choosing to rise above it.”
– Robin Sharma
#8
“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
#9
“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
#10
“Non-forgiveness is often toward another person or yourself, but it may just as well be toward any situation or condition – past, present or future – that your mind refuses to accept. Yes, there can be non-forgiveness even with regard to the future. This is the mind’s refusal to accept uncertainty, to accept that the future is ultimately beyond its control. Forgiveness is to relinquish your grievance and so to let go of grief. It happens naturally once you realize that your grievance serves no purpose except to strengthen a false sense of self. Forgiveness is to offer no resistance to life – to allow life to live through you.”
– Eckhart Tolle
#11
“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
#12
“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 Smede
#13
“Not forgiving is like drinking rat poison and then waiting for the rat to die.”
– Anne Lamott
#14
“As long as you don’t forgive, who and whatever it is will occupy a rent-free space in your mind.”
– Isabelle Holland
#15
“Be the one who nurtures and builds. Be the one who has an understanding and a forgiving heart one who looks for the best in people. Leave people better than you found them.”
– Marvin J. Ashton
#16
“Anger makes you smaller, while forgiveness forces you to grow beyond what you were.”
– Cherie Carter-Scott
#17
“Throughout life people will make you mad, disrespect you and treat you bad. Let God deal with the things they do, cause hate in your heart will consume you too.”
– Will Smith
#18
“Forgiveness says you are given another chance to make a new beginning.”
– Desmond Tutu
#19
“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”
– Mahatma Gandhi
#20
“Let us forgive each other – only then will we live in peace.”
– Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy
#21
“Let go. Why do you cling to pain? There is nothing you can do about the wrongs of yesterday. It is not yours to judge. Why hold on to the very thing which keeps you from hope and love?”
– Leo Buscaglia
#22
“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
#23
“True forgiveness is not an action after the fact, it is an attitude with which you enter each moment.”
– David Ridge
#24
“Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.”
– Oscar Wilde
#25
“When a deep injury is done to us, we never heal until we forgive.”
– Nelson Mandela
#26
“Forgiveness is a sign that the person who has wronged you means more to you than the wrong they have dealt.”
– Ben Greenhalgh
#27
“Forgiveness is a gift you give yourself.”
– Tony Robbins
#28
“I forgive you and set you free. Your actions no longer have power over me. I acknowledge that you are doing the best that you can, and I honor you in your process of unfoldment. You are free and I am free. All is well between us. Peace is the order of the day.”
– Michael Bernard Beckwith
#29
“True forgiveness is when you can say, “Thank you for that experience.”
– Oprah Winfrey
#30
“Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future.”
– Paul Boose
#31
“The truth is unless you let go, unless you forgive yourself, unless you forgive the situation, unless you realize that the situation is over, you cannot move forward.”
– Steve Maraboli
#32
“Blame keeps wounds open. Only forgiveness heals.”
– Thomas S. Manson
#33
“If we really want to love we must learn how to forgive.”
– Mother Theresa
#34
“The remarkable thing is that we really love our neighbor as ourselves: we do unto others as we do unto ourselves. We hate others when we hate ourselves. We are tolerant toward others when we tolerate ourselves. We forgive others when we forgive ourselves. We are prone to sacrifice others when we are ready to sacrifice ourselves.”
– Eric Hoffer
#35
“Dumbledore says people find it far easier to forgive others for being wrong than being right.”
– J.K. Rowling
#36
“The practice of forgiveness is our most important contribution to the healing of the world.”
– Marianne Williamson
#37
“People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.
The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.
People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.
Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.”
– Kent M. Keith
#38
“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
#39
“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
#40
“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
#41
“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
#42
“A broken friendship that is mended through forgiveness can be even stronger than it once was.”
– Stephen Richards
#43
“I forgive myself and set myself free.”
– Louise Hay
#44
“If I develop bad feelings toward those who make me suffer, this will only destroy my own peace of mind. But if I forgive, my mind becomes calm.”
– Dalai Lama
#45
“Forgiveness simply means you accept the person as he is, you still love him the way he is. Forgiveness means that you don’t judge him, that you are non-judgmental. But ordinarily we think forgiveness means you know that he has done wrong, still you forgive him. First you judge and then you forgive. Your forgiveness is false. Real forgiveness has no judgment. It never says, “No, you have done wrong, but still I forgive you.” It simply accepts the person as he is. There is no grudge, no complaint, no grumbling. There is no question really of forgiving because there is no anger in the first place.”
– Osho
#46
“You practice forgiveness for two reasons: to let others know that you no longer wish to be in a state of hostility with them and to free yourself from the self-defeating energy of resentment. Send love in some form to those you feel have wronged you and notice how much better you feel.”
– Dr. Wayne Dyer
#47
“You must forgive those who hurt you, even if whatever they did to you is unforgivable in your mind. You will forgive them not because they deserve to be forgiven, but because you don’t want to suffer and hurt yourself every time you remember what they did to you.”
– Don Miguel Ruiz
#48
“Forgiveness is the greatest weapon because a saint so armed is unperturbable… he can give up anger immediately.”
– Neem Karoli Baba
#49
“Ask for forgiveness because when you do so in all honesty, you bring Heaven in your life.”
– Carl Jung
#50
“To forgive is divine, so if somebody comes to you and says that he has committed a mistake against you, don’t miss the opportunity of tasting something of the divine. Or, when you have committed some mistake and you go to somebody else to be forgiven, you are giving him a great chance to have some taste of the divine. It is good for both of you. By forgiving, he tastes something which is impossible to explain; it can only be called divine, godliness. And you also will feel something tremendously beautiful: humbleness, egolessness. But remember not to commit the mistake again. It should become a decision in you; then you are really repentant. It has nothing to do with God, it has nothing to do with any priest; it has something to do with your own psychology.”
– Osho
We hope you are inspired by these forgiveness quotes as much as we are!