60+ Forgiveness Quotes to Help You Heal

Published December 5, 2022

We’ve all been hurt by people at some point in our lives. Sometimes, the pain is so great, and the wound is so deep that we thought we could never forgive them. That’s why they say that forgiveness is only for the brave. It takes a special kind of courage to forgive the people who hurt us.

Yes, it’s not easy to forgive. But you know what’s even harder? Living a life of anger and resentment.

You see, forgiving others is not about forgetting what they’ve done or letting them off despite their wrongdoings. Forgiveness is something you do for yourself. It’s your way of releasing yourself from all the pain and resentment that’s keeping you from becoming truly happy. 

When you learn to forgive others, you also learn to forgive yourself. Because when someone hurts us, somewhere in the deepest recesses of our hearts, there’s also that guilt for not having the courage to stand up for ourselves. Forgiveness helps you let go of that guilt and finally give yourself the peace you deserve. Think of it as the first step to healing and starting anew.

If you need more inspiration, here are some forgiveness quotes to help you heal:

Quotes About Forgiveness

1. 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
2. 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
3. Forgiveness is a funny thing. It warms the heart and cools the sting – William Arthur Ward
4. 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.
5. There is no revenge so complete as forgiveness. – Josh Billings
6. Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it. – Mark Twain
7. Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart. – Corrie Ten Boom
8. The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong. – Mahatma Gandhi
9. Forgiveness is the giving, and so the receiving, of life. – George McDonald
10. Forgiveness is not weak. It takes courage to face and overcome powerful emotions. – Desmond Tutu
11. Forgiveness is the needle that knows how to mend. – Jewel
12. Forgiveness does not change the past but it does enlarge the future. – Paul Lewis Boese
13. Forgiveness isn’t approving what happened. It’s choosing to rise above it. – Robin Sharma
14. True forgiveness is when you can say, “Thank you for that experience. – Oprah Winfrey
15. Forgiveness is designed to set you free. When you say, “I forgive you,” what you’re really saying is ‘I know what you did is not okay, but I recognize that you are more than that. I don’t want to hold us captive to this thing anymore. I can heal myself, and I don’t need anything from you – Sarah Montana
16. Forgiveness is a powerful expression of the love within our soul. – Anthony Douglas
17. Without forgiveness, life is governed by an endless cycle of resentment and retaliation. – Roberto Assagioli
18. Forgiveness is the final form of love. – Reinhold Niebuhr

Quotes About Asking for Forgiveness

1. Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them. – Bruce Lee
2. The lesson is that you can still make mistakes and be forgiven. – Robert Downey Jr.
3. The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone. – Harriet Beecher Stowe
4. It is in pardoning that we are pardoned. – Francis of Assisi
5. It is often easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission. – Grace Hopper

Inspirational Forgiveness Quotes

1. 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
2. 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
3. It’s one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive. Forgive everybody. – Maya Angelou
4. Before we can forgive one another, we have to understand one another. – Emma Goldman
5. We win by tenderness. We conquer by forgiveness. – Frederick William Robertson
6. 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
7. 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
8. To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you. – Lewis B. Smedes
9. Life is an adventure in forgiveness. – Norman Cousins
10. Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much. – Oscar Wilde
11. Never does the human soul appear so strong as when it forgoes revenge, – Edwin Hubbel Chapin
12. If we really want to love, we must learn how to forgive. – Mother Teresa
13. To err is human; to forgive, divine. – Alexander Pope
14. Anger begets more anger, and forgiveness and love lead to more forgiveness and love. – Mahavira
15. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. – Martin Luther King Jr.
16. Sins cannot be undone, only forgiven. – Igor Stravinsky
17. 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
18. The only way out of the labyrinth of suffering is to forgive – John Green
19. Surely it is much more generous to forgive and remember, than to forgive and forget. – Maria Edgeworth
20. 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
21. When you forgive, you heal. When you let go, you grow. – Anonymous
22. Acceptance and tolerance and forgiveness; those are life-altering lessons. – Jessica Lange
23. He that cannot forgive others breaks the bridge over which he must pass himself; for every man has need to be forgiven. – Thomas Fuller