Forgive and Forget - Quotes on the Virtue of Forgiveness

Forgiveness is one of the great virtues that all people should aspire for. Many famous psychologists have written books on the power of forgive for the human spirit. Holding a grudge is not only dangerous for your health (anger causes stress on the heart) but is hazardous for the soul. When you refuse to forgive someone, you are not hurting them but you are hurting yourself by holding poison inside. However, when you forgive someone, you feel like the venom has been drained from a snakebite. Forgiveness quotes can give insight to this action which, although essential to happiness, is often difficult to accomplish. Follows are many different forgiveness quotes to give you a deeper understanding of how to forgive and forget.

How Grand It Is To Forgive
"
To err is human; to forgive divine" -Alexander Pope - Probably the most common of the forgiveness quotes, this quotes describes how forgiving can raise us up to a higher state of being.

"To be wronged is nothing unless you continue to remember it." -Confucius - Forgiving releases the power a grudge holds over you. Once you have forgiven someone for a wrong they have done to you, you cancel out the wrong completely. "

Keeping score of old scores and scars, getting even and one-upping, always make you less than you are." -Malcolm Forbes - Refusing to forgive and forget and seeking vengeance makes you look petty and small.

"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong." -Mahatma Ghandi - Simply stated, the ability to forgive is a sign of strength.

Let Go Of Resentment And Hatred

To carry a grudge is like being stung to death by one bee." -William H. Walton - Holding onto a grudge, onto anger, is to relieve the pain over and over again until it slowly poisons your whole life.

"Malice drinks one-half of its own poison." -Marcus Annaeus Seneca - A more grim way of stating the above quote. To hold malice in your heart will hurt you as much, if not more, than the target of your anger.

"A man can lose sight of everything else when he's bent on revenge, and it ain't worth it." -Louis L'Amour - The energy put into holding a grudge robs energy from most important things. What a horrible waste of energy.

Forgiveness Is A Sign Of Loving

"Forgiveness is the final form of love." -Reinhold Niebuhr -There are many ways to show love but one of the most important to a good relationship (even if that relationship is only with yourself) is the ability to forgive.

"Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit." -Peter Ustinov -Again, forgiveness is a necessary part of being in a loving relationship. And the longer you love, the more natural it becomes to forgive the small and the large faults.

"Forgiveness is the answer to the child's dream of a miracle by which was is broken is made whole again, what is soiled is again made clean." -Dag Hammarskjold -By forgiving, such as in the case of the child who has broken something or made a mess, you reinstate the feeling of love and eliminate the insecure feeling of fear. Replacing such a negative emotion with such a positive feeling by such a simple action, some could consider that a miracle.