man in black and brown jacket and white pants standing beside brick wallPhoto Credit: Melanie Stander

Welcome to our collection of quotes about forgiveness and apologizing. We hope you enjoy them and please share widely.

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

--Abraham Lincoln

Forgiveness is a gift you give to yourself.

--T.D. Jakes

Be assured that if you knew all, you would pardon all.

--Thomas a Kempis

Forgiveness is a funny thing, it warms the hearts and cools the sting.

--Peter Allen

They who forgive most shall be most forgiven.

--Josiah Bailey

You're a slave to everyone you haven't forgiven.

--Lawrence King

Don't make a mountain out of a molehill.

--Henry Ellis

My nature has always been to fight. My faith forces me to forgive.

--Cindy Martinusen-Coloma

While revenge weakens society, forgiveness gives it strength.

--14th Dalai Lama

The only way anyone can live in peace, is if they are willing to forgive.

--Abhijit Naskar

I believe in the forgiveness of sin and the redemption of ignorance.

--Adlai E. Stevenson

You too are a deeply imperfect and questionable individual.

--Alain de Botton

There are difficult things about you too.

--Alain de Botton

To forgive is to understand the origins of evil and cruelty.

--Alain de Botton

Lack of forgiveness of others breeds lack of self-forgiveness.

--Albert Ellis

To understand is to forgive, even oneself.

--Alexander Chase

Genuine forgiveness does not deny anger but faces it head on.

--Alice Miller

You can have my forgiveness but you cannot have me.

--Amanda Lovelace

Forgiveness is giving up all hope of having had a better past.

--Anne Lamott

Forgiveness means it finally becomes unimportant that you hit back.

--Anne Lamott

Longer Version:

Forgiveness means it finally becomes unimportant that you hit back. You're done.


Tolerance is the only real test of civilization.

--Arthur Helps

The forgiving state of mind is a magnetic power for attracting good.

--Catherine Ponder

Let bygones be bygones.

--Christina Rossetti

Forgiveness is God's greatest gift.

--Dan Brown

Life, that ever needs forgiveness, has, for its first duty, to forgive.

--Edward Bulwer-Lytton

Forgiveness takes time. It is the last step of the grieving process.

--Elin Nordegren

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

--Emma Goldman

We win by tenderness. We conquer by forgiveness.

--Frederick William Robertson

To understand all is to forgive all.

--French Proverb

Forgiveness is not a feeling; it is a commitment.

--Gary Chapman

Forgiveness means letting go of the past.

--Gerald Jampolsky

I can have peace of mind only when I forgive rather than judge.

--Gerald Jampolsky

It's easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission.

--Grace Hopper

Sins cannot be undone, only forgiven.

--Igor Stravinsky

You teach people how to treat you by what you let them get away with.

--James Clear

My desire is to be a forgiving, non-judgmental person.

--Janine Turner

Forgiveness is the needle that knows how to mend.

--Jewel

Forgetting is the only revenge and the only forgiveness.

--Jorge Luis Borges

There is no revenge so complete as forgiveness.

--Josh Billings

To forgive is wisdom, to forget is genius.

--Joyce Cary

Longer Version:

To forgive is wisdom, to forget is genius. And easier. Because it's true. It's a new world every heart beat.


Forgive them even if they are not sorry.

--Julian Casablancas

But we can't go back. We can only go forward.

--Libba Bray

Forgiving men is so much easier than forgiving women.

--Margaret Atwood

To confer dignity, forgive. To express contempt, forget.

--Mason Cooley

Forgiveness is like faith. You have to keep reviving it.

--Mason Cooley

An apology without change is just manipulation.

--Mel Robbins

What we forgive too freely doesn't stay forgiven.

--Mignon McLaughlin

He who forgives readily only invites offense.

--Pierre Corneille

How unhappy is he who cannot forgive himself.

--Publilius Syrus

Forgiveness is the final form of love.

--Reinhold Niebuhr

Life becomes easier when you learn to accept an apology you never got.

--Robert Brault

If you can't forgive and forget, pick one.

--Robert Breault

A mistake is always forgivable, rarely excusable and always unacceptable.

--Robert Fripp

Ultimately, we forgive others in order to free ourselves.

--Sharon Salzberg

Each one of us is more than the worst thing we've ever done.

--Sheryl Sandberg

You cannot forgive just once, forgiveness is a daily practice.

--Sonia Rumzi

Forgiveness is a reflection of loving yourself enough to move on.

--Steve Maraboli

Love and forgiveness is not for the faint-hearted.

--Meher Baba

Grace, Mercy and Forgiveness will help a man walk tall. Walk tall!

--John Mellencamp

What power has love but forgiveness?

--William Carlos Williams

The ability to forgive is one of man's greatest achievements.

--Bryant McGill

Forgiveness is a gift of high value. Yet its cost is nothing.

--Betty Smith

Forgiving is not forgetting. Forgiving is remembering without pain.

--Celia Cruz

Forgiving is not forgetting. It is remembering and letting go.

--Claudia Black

Forgiveness saves the expense of anger.

--Hannah More

A heart filled with anger has no room for love.

--Joan Lunden

Love is an endless act of forgiveness.

--Jan Karon

Sometimes what a person needs most is to be forgiven.

--Jennifer McMahon

Forgiveness is the highest and most difficult of all moral lessons.

--Joseph Jacobs

Love in the real world means saying you're sorry 10 times a day.

--Kathie Lee Gifford

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

--Robert Downey, Jr.

Can you really forgive if you can't forget?

--Sarah Jessica Parker

Forgiveness leads to love, and love leads to forgiveness.

--Darren L. Johnson

Forgiveness is man's deepest need and highest achievement.

--Horace Bushnell

Forgiveness is, truly, all or nothing.

--Ranal Currie

Forgive yourself the way God forgives: late at night and all day long.

--Sherihan Gamal

Disagreements don't cause disunity, a lack of forgiveness does.

--Loren Cunningham

When you learn to forgive yourself, you are ready to forgive others.

--Purvi Raniga

Forgiveness doesn't make the other person right, it makes you free.

--Stormie Omartian

To forget, you really must forgive.

--Tracy A. Malone

To Live is to For-Give. Love Yourself. Accept Yourself. Forgive Yourself.

--Wald Wassermann

I think one of the most important things in evolving is forgiveness.

--Damon Dash

If you do not forgive, you will not manage to focus on your purpose.

--Thandazo Perfect Khumalo

To forgive is to set oneself free from the echo of a pain.

--Sabina Nore

Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.

--Mahatma Gandhi

Forgiveness provides hope, joy, and a bright future that nothing else can.

--Paul J. Meyer

Without forgiveness, there is no future.

--Desmond Tutu

Forgiveness is an absolute necessity for continued human existence.

--Desmond Tutu

When you are happy you can forgive a great deal.

--Princess Diana

If we really want to love we must learn how to forgive.

--Mother Teresa

Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us.

--Martin Luther

Forgiveness in no way requires that you trust the one you forgive.

--William P. Young

Let us forgive each other -- only then will we live in peace.

--Leo Tolstoy

A happy marriage is the union of two good forgivers.

--Ruth Graham

Want to keep Christ in Christmas? Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, forgive the guilty, welcome the unwanted, care for the ill, love your enemies, and do unto others as you would have done unto you.

--Steve Maraboli

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.

--Katherine Ponder

America loves a forgiveness story. America is the land of second chances.

--Michael Caputo

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

--Roberto Assagioli

It is surely better to pardon too much, than to condemn too much.

--George Eliot

God pardons like a mother, who kisses the offense into everlasting forgiveness.

--Henry Ward Beecher
man in black and brown jacket and white pants standing beside brick wall

Thank you for checking out our selection of quotes on forgiveness! Please consider sharing and also connect with us on social media. Wishing you a wonderful and blessed day!