Top 40 Forgiveness Quotes (2023 Update)

1. “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”

— Mahatma Gandhi

Also featured in: Quotes About Strength

2. “If we really want to love we must learn how to forgive.”

— Mother Teresa

3. “Forgive yourself for your faults and your mistakes and move on.”

— Les Brown

Also featured in: Moving On Quotes, Letting Go Quotes

4. “For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Also featured in: Happiness Quotes, Giving Up Quotes

5. “Forgiveness says you are given another chance to make a new beginning.”

— Desmond Tutu

6. “Forgiveness is a sign that the person who has wronged you means more to you than the wrong they have delt.”

— Ben Greenhalgh

7. “Forgiveness is the final form of love.”

— Reinhold Niebuhr

Also featured in: Philosophical Quotes

8. “The practice of forgiveness is our most important contribution to the healing of the world.”

— Marianne Williamson

9. “Forgiveness is the key that unlocks the door of resentment and the handcuffs of hatred. It is a power that breaks the chains of bitterness and the shackles of selfishness.”

— Corrie ten Boom

10. “Anger makes you smaller, while forgiveness forces you to grow beyond what you were.”

— Cherie Carter-Scott

Also featured in: Anger Quotes

11. “I free myself from hatred through forgiveness and love.”

— Paulo Coelho

12. “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

Also featured in: Hurt Quotes

13. “Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.”

— Oscar Wilde

Also featured in: Funny Quotes

14. “Forgiveness is not a feeling; it is a commitment.”

— Gary Chapman

15. “To err is human; to forgive, divine.”

— Alexander Pope

Also featured in: Letting Go Quotes

16. “Forgiveness means it finally becomes unimportant that you hit back.”

— Anne Lamott

17. “Hanging onto resentment is letting someone you despise live rent-free in your head.”

— Ann Landers

Also featured in: Moving On Quotes

18. “The only way out of the labyrinth of suffering is to forgive.”

— John Green

19. “I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.”

— James Baldwin

20. “To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.”

— Lewis B. Smedes

21. “Anytime you try to be a loving person, you’re doing your part to save the world.”

— Marianne Williamson

22. “When you forgive, you in no way change the past – but you sure do change the future.”

— Bernard Meltzer

Also featured in: Letting Go Quotes

23. “True forgiveness is when you can say, "Thank you for that experience."”

— Oprah Winfrey

Also featured in: Gratitude Quotes

24. “We think that forgiveness is weakness, but it’s absolutely not; it takes a very strong person to forgive.”

— T.D. Jakes

Also featured in: Strong Quotes

25. “Forgiveness is not an occasional act, it is a constant attitude.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

26. “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

Also featured in: Peace Quotes

27. “Forgiveness is a gift you give yourself.”

— Suzanne Somers

Also featured in: Letting Go Quotes, Quotes About Giving

28. “Forgiveness is a virtue of the brave.”

— Indira Gandhi

Also featured in: History Quotes, Virtue Quotes

29. “There is no revenge so complete as forgiveness.”

— Josh Billings

30. “He who cannot forgive breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass.”

— George Herbert

Also featured in: Relationship Quotes

31. “If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light. Take off all your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness and fears.”

— Cesare Pavese

Also featured in: Travel Quotes

32. “I can forgive but I cannot forget, is only another way of saying, I cannot forgive.”

— Henry Ward Beecher

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

— Catherine Ponder

34. “Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

35. “He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

Also featured in: Love You Quotes

36. “People can be more forgiving than you can imagine. But you have to forgive yourself. Let go of what's bitter and move on.”

— Bill Cosby

Also featured in: Moving On Quotes, Letting Go Quotes

37. “Forgiveness is a funny thing. It warms the heart and cools the sting.”

— William Arthur Ward

Also featured in: Letting Go Quotes, Uplifting Quotes

38. “Never does the human soul appear so strong as when it foregoes revenge and dares to forgive an injury.”

— Edwin Hubbel Chapin

39. “Strength of character means the ability to overcome resentment against others, to hide hurt feelings, and to forgive quickly.”

— Lawrence G. Lovasik

Also featured in: Hurt Quotes

40. “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