Discovering the freedom that lies in forgiveness is a journey that every person must embark on at some point in their lives. It's often a winding road filled with potholes of past hurts and obstacles of deeply embedded grudges. It is only by navigating this path and actively seeking to let go of past wounds that we can truly find peace and move forward. Inspirational sayings, such as "Forgiving what you can't forget quotes," remind us of the importance of this process and encourage us to find the strength within ourselves to heal.
In a world where resentment and anger can feel all too natural, it is essential to recognize the transformative power of forgiveness. It is not just about absolving others but also about liberating ourselves from the shackles of the past. By embracing forgiveness, we allow ourselves to let go of negative emotions, open our hearts to new possibilities, and ultimately lead a healthier, happier life.
Forgiving What You Can't Forget Quotes (2024)
Forgiveness is an art, a pathway to healing that we all must walk. Below are quotes to inspire and guide you through the complex journey of forgiving what you can't forget.
"Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it." – Mark Twain
"To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you." – Lewis B. Smedes
"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong." – Mahatma Gandhi
"Forgiveness doesn't change the past, but it does enlarge the future." – Paul Boose
"Forgiveness is not an occasional act; it's a constant attitude." – Martin Luther King Jr.
"Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die." – Buddha
"When you forgive, you in no way change the past—but you sure do change the future." – Bernard Meltzer
"Forgiveness is choosing to love. It is the first skill of self-giving love." – Mahatma Gandhi
"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
"There is no love without forgiveness, and there is no forgiveness without love." – Bryant H. McGill
"Forgiveness is the key to action and freedom." – Hannah Arendt
"Forgiveness is the final form of love." – Reinhold Niebuhr
"Forgiveness is a virtue of the brave." – Indira Gandhi
"To be wronged is nothing unless you continue to remember it." – Confucius
"Life becomes easier when you learn to accept an apology you never got." – Robert Brault
"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
"To err is human; to forgive, divine." – Alexander Pope
"Forgiveness is the giving, and so the receiving, of life." – George MacDonald
"Forgiveness is not about forgetting. It's letting go of the hurt." – Mary McLeod Bethune
"Forgiveness is the economy of the heart; it saves the expense of anger, the cost of hatred, the waste of spirits." – Hannah More
"Forgiveness says you are given another chance to make a new beginning." – Desmond Tutu
"Blame keeps wounds open. Only forgiveness heals." – Thomas S. Monson
"Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart." – Corrie ten Boom
"Forgiveness is not a feeling; it's a decision." – Michelle Obama
"Forgiveness is the name of love practiced among people who love poorly." – Henri Nouwen
"Forgiveness is the key that unlocks the door of resentment and the handcuffs of hatred." – Corrie ten Boom
"Forgiving does not erase the bitter past. A healed memory is not a deleted memory." – Lewis B. Smedes
"Forgiveness is not just for other people; it's for you too. Forgive yourself, move on, and be free." – Unknown
"To forgive is the highest, most beautiful form of love. In return, you will receive untold peace and happiness." – Robert Muller
"Forgiveness is me giving up my right to hurt you for hurting me." – Anonymous
"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
"You will know that forgiveness has begun when you recall those who hurt you and feel the power to wish them well." – Lewis B. Smedes
"Forgiveness is giving up the hope that the past could be any different." – Oprah Winfrey
"The first step in forgiveness is the willingness to forgive." – Marianne Williamson
"Forgiveness is for yourself because it frees you. It lets you out of that prison you put yourself in." – Louise L. Hay
"Forgiving is not forgetting; it's actually remembering—remembering and not using your right to hit back." – Desmond Tutu
"It takes a strong person to say sorry and an even stronger person to forgive." – Unknown
"Forgiving what we cannot forget creates a new way to remember. We change the memory of our past into a hope for our future." – Lewis B. Smedes
"The more you know who you are and what you want, the less you let things upset you." – Stephanie Perkins
"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
"Forgiveness is not the absence of emotion but a choice in spite of it." – John C. Maxwell
"Forgiveness is a funny thing. It warms the heart and cools the sting." – William Arthur Ward
"Forgiveness is not an occasional act; it is a permanent attitude." – Martin Luther King Jr.
"Forgiving is rediscovering the shining path of peace that at first you thought others took away when they betrayed you." – Dodinsky
"Forgiveness is the gift you give yourself." – Suzanne Somers
"The practice of forgiveness is our most important contribution to the healing of the world." – Marianne Williamson
"Forgiveness is unlocking the door to set someone free and realizing you were the prisoner!" – Max Lucado
"Forgiveness is an attribute of the strong." – Mahatma Gandhi
"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
"Forgiveness doesn't minimize the wrong or mean you have to reconcile. It sets you free." – Rick Warren
"Forgiveness is not about forgetting, it is about letting go of another person's throat." – William Paul Young
"There is no revenge so complete as forgiveness." – Josh Billings
"True forgiveness is when you can say, 'Thank you for that experience.'" – Oprah Winfrey
"Forgiveness is a process. A choice you make again and again, every day, until the scar is gone." – Emily Giffin
"Forgiveness is just another name for freedom." – Byron Katie
"Forgiveness is a sign that the person who has wronged you means more to you than the wrong they have dealt." – Ben Greenhalgh
"Forgiveness is the needle that knows how to mend." – Jewel
"When a deep injury is done to us, we never heal until we forgive." – Nelson Mandela
"The highest result of education is tolerance. Long ago men fought and died for their faith; but it took ages to teach them the other kind of courage,—the courage to recognize the faiths of their brethren and their rights of conscience." – Helen Keller
"Forgiveness is not an emotion, it’s a decision." – Randall Worley
"Forgiveness is an act of creation. You can choose from many ways to do it." – Clarissa Pinkola Estés
"Forgiveness is the experience of finding peace inside and can neither be compelled nor stopped by another." – Sharon Salzberg
"You can never truly enjoy Christmas until you can look up into the Father's face and tell Him you have received His Christmas gift." – John R. Rice
"Forgiveness isn't approving what happened. It's choosing to rise above it." – Robin Sharma
"Forgiveness is the answer to the child's dream of a miracle by which what is broken is made whole again, what is soiled is made clean again." – Dag Hammarskjöld
"The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness." – Honoré de Balzac
"Forgiveness is the best form of love. It takes a strong person to say they're sorry and an even stronger person to forgive." – Yolanda Hadid
"Forgiveness is the key to letting go of the past, and is necessary for success." – Alexander Pope
"Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future." – Paul Boese
"To forgive is to free oneself." – Sue Patton Thoele
"Forgiveness is not about condoning or excusing a wrong; it's about releasing yourself from the burden of being tied to it." – Dr. Wayne Dyer
"To forgive and forget means to throw valuable lessons out the window." – Arthur Schopenhauer
"Forgiveness is God's command." – Martin Luther
"Forgiveness is the most powerful thing that you can do for your physiology and your spirituality." – Immaculée Ilibagiza
"Forgiveness is about empowerment." – Avis J. Williams
"In the shadow of my hurt, forgiveness feels like a decision to reward my enemy. But in the shadow of the cross, forgiveness is merely a gift from one undeserving soul to another." – Andy Stanley
"The simple act of forgiveness can raise your level of consciousness and set you free." – Ken Keyes Jr.
"Forgiveness is a commitment to a personalized process of change." – Luskin
"Forgiveness offers the possibility of two types of peace: peace of mind and peace with others." – unknown
"Forgiveness is like faith. You have to keep reviving it." – Mason Cooley
"Forgiveness is an inside job." – Dr. Sidney B. Simon
"The act of forgiveness is the act of returning to present time. And that's why when one has become a forgiving person and has managed to let go of the past, what they've really done is they've shifted their relationship with time." – Caroline Myss
"Forgiveness in no way requires that you trust the one you forgive." – Wm. Paul Young
"Forgiveness is the fragrance the flower leaves on the heel of the one who crushed it." – Anonymous
"Forgiveness is the final act of love." – Beyoncé Knowles
"Forgiveness is a choice. You choose to not let negative events of the past define how you feel." – Joel Osteen
"Forgiveness is an act of self-love." – Don Miguel Ruiz
"Forgiveness is about freeing up and putting to better use the energy once consumed by holding grudges, harboring resentments, and nursing unhealed wounds." – Sidney and Suzanne Simon
"Forgiveness is not about letting someone off the hook for their actions, but freeing ourselves of negative energies that bind us to them." – Satsuki Shibuya
"Forgiveness is not the misguided act of condoning irresponsible, hurtful behavior. Nor is it a superficial turning of the other cheek that leaves us feeling victimized and martyred. Rather it is the finishing of old business that allows us to experience the present, free of contamination from the past." – Joan Borysenko
"The first step in forgiveness is the willingness to forgive." – Marianne Williamson
"Forgiveness is really not about someone’s harmful behavior; it’s about our own relationship with our past." – Brenda Shoshanna
"Forgiveness is a reflection of loving yourself enough to move on." – Dr. Steve Maraboli
"You don't need strength to let go of something. What you really need is understanding." – Guy Finley
"Forgiveness is not about forgetting. It is about letting go of another person’s throat." – Wm. Paul Young
"A happy marriage is the union of two good forgivers." – Ruth Graham
"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong." – Mahatma Gandhi
"Forgiveness is not about giving up but giving in—to a better kind of justice." – Jeanne Bishop
"Forgiveness is not a light switch that you flick on and off, but a dial that you turn up or down depending on the circumstances." – Richard Rohr
"Forgiveness isn’t just the absence of anger. It’s also the presence of self-love when you do actually forgive someone." – Cassandra Clare
"Forgiveness is a virtue of the brave." – Indira Gandhi
"Forgiveness is not something we do for other people. We do it for ourselves to get well and move on." – Unknown
"Forgiveness is the only way to dissolve that link and get free." – Catherine Ponder
"Forgiveness is letting go of the need for revenge and releasing negative thoughts of bitterness and resentment." – Unknown
"Forgiveness allows us to turn the key, open the door, and let ourselves free." – Dana Arcuri
"Forgiveness is the ultimate sacrifice." – Beyoncé
"Forgiveness is an expression of love. It's not about you; it's about setting someone else free. But if you can do it, something remarkable happens – you're the one who ends up being set free." – Unknown
"Forgiveness is not about being a hero. It is about no longer being a victim." – Rita Mero
"Forgiveness gives you freedom, whereas revenge traps you in an endless loop of bitterness." – Unknown
"Forgiveness is an intentional and voluntary process by which a victim changes their feelings and attitude regarding an offense." – Unknown
"Forgiveness is the only sword that heals the wound instead of deepening it." – Abhijit Naskar
"Forgiveness is not the result of some action; it's the starting point of change." – Lisa Villa Prosen
"Forgiveness is the fastest route to peace and enlightenment." – Louise Hay
"Forgiveness is not saying, 'What you did to me is okay.' It is saying, 'I’m not going to let what you did to me ruin my happiness forever.'" – Unknown
"Forgiveness is the most turbo-charged, speediest way to a better life." – Louise Hay
Navigating the complex landscape of hurt, betrayal, or disappointment can be one of life's greatest challenges. However, the wisdom found in "Forgiving what you can't forget quotes" serves as a guiding light, helping us to release the emotional baggage that holds us back.
By choosing to forgive, we don't erase the past or condone harmful actions, but we do liberate ourselves from the endless loop of resentment and anger. This powerful act is not just a gift to others; it's a gift we give ourselves, making room for peace, joy, and new beginnings.
