Forgive your enemies but never forget their names. John F Kennedy
I cannot forgive those who trespass against me any more than I can forgive myself. The Mystery of Edwin Drood II, Drood at prayer, BBC 2012
I do forgive thee. Unnatural though thou art. The Tempest 2010 starring Helen Mirren & Felicity Jones & Chris Cooper & Russell Brand & Reeve Carney & Tom Conti & Alan Cumming & Dimon Hounsou & Alfred Molina & Ben Whishaw et al, director Julie Taymor
Pardon me, God, I knew not what I did;
And pardon, father, for I knew not thee. William Shakespeare, Richard Duke of York II v 69-70, Soldier to King Henry
At the last
Do as the heavens have done, forget your evil.
With them, forgive yourself. William Shakespeare, A Winter’s Tale V I 4&5, Cleomenes
God of forgiveness, do not forgive those murderers of Jewish children here. Elie Wiesel, at Auschwitz
We read that we ought to forgive our enemies; but we do not read that we ought to forgive our friends. Cosimo de’ Medici
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
The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong. Mahatma Gandhi
True forgiveness is not an action after the fact; it is an attitude with which you enter each moment. David Ridge
Forgiveness is the sweetest revenge. Isaac Friedmann
Forgotten is forgiven. F Scott Fitzgerald
I think the message of repentance, the message of forgiveness, are deeply personal concepts ... I helped negotiate a Good Friday Agreement that got the people who shot me out of prison. Jerry Adams, The Bible: A History: Jesus
For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:
But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Matthew 6:14&15
Judge not, that ye be not judged.
For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. Matthew 7:1&2
And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.
But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses. Matthew 11:25&26
Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven: Luke 6:37
Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him.
And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him. Luke 17:3&4
Father, forgive them: for they know not what they do. Luke 23:24
Why does this man thus talk blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone? Mark 2:7
And vie one with another for forgiveness from your Lord, and for a paradise as wide as are the heavens and the earth, prepared for those who ward off (evil);
Those who spend (of that which Allah hath given them) in ease and in adversity, those who control their wrath and are forgiving toward mankind; Allah loveth the good;
And those who, when they do an evil thing or wrong themselves, remember Allah and implore forgiveness for their sins – Who forgiveth sins save Allah only? – and will not knowingly repeat (the wrong) they did.
The reward of such will be forgiveness from their Lord, and Gardens underneath which rivers flow, wherein they will abide for ever – a bountiful reward for workers! Koran 3:133-136
Forgiveness is only incumbent on Allah toward those who do evil in ignorance (and) then turn quickly (in repentance) to Allah. These are they toward whom Allah relenteth. Allah is ever Knower, Wise.
The forgiveness is not for those who do ill-deeds until, when death attendeth upon one of them, he saith: Lo! I repent now; nor yet for those who die while they are disbelievers. For such We have prepared a painful doom. Koran 4:17&18
Keep to forgiveness (O Muhammad), and enjoin kindness, and turn away from the ignorant. Koran 7:199
The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget. Thomas Szasz, The Second Sin
To err is human; to forgive, divine. Alexander Pope
When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realised that the Lord doesn’t work that way so I stole one and asked Him to forgive me. Emo Philips
Nothing inspires forgiveness quite like revenge. Scott Adams
Forgive many things in others; nothing in yourself. Ausonius
Without forgiveness, there’s no future. Desmond Tutu
True reconciliation does not consist in merely forgetting the past. Nelson Mandela, speech 7th January 1996
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
I find something repulsive about the idea of vicarious redemption. I would not throw my numberless sins onto a scapegoat and expect them to pass from me; we rightly sneer at the barbaric societies that practice this unpleasantness in its literal form. There’s no moral value in the vicarious gesture anyway. As Thomas Paine pointed out, you may if you wish take on a another man’s debt, or even to take his place in prison. That would be self-sacrificing. But you may not assume his actual crimes as if they were your own; for one thing you did not commit them and might have died rather than do so; for another this impossible action would rob him of individual responsibility. So the whole apparatus of absolution and forgiveness strikes me as positively immoral, while the concept of revealed truth degrades the concept of free intelligence by purportedly relieving us of the hard task of working out the ethical principles for ourselves. Christopher Hitchens, Letters to a Young Contrarian
God may forgive you, father, but I never will. The Borgias s1e5: The Borgias in Love, Lucretia, opening scene: Rodrigo’s dream, Showtime 2011
Forgive me my nonsense as I also forgive the nonsense of those who think they talk sense. Robert Frost
Forgive, O Lord my little jokes on Thee
And I’ll forgive Thy great big one on me. Robert Frost, Cluster of Faith 1962
Selfishness must always be forgiven you know, because there is no hope of a cure. Jane Austen, Mansfield Park
We should forgive our enemies, but not before they are hanged. Heinrich Heine
Blanche: But then he came back. He returned with a box of roses to beg my forgiveness. He implored my forgiveness. But some things are not forgivable. Deliberate cruelty is not forgivable. Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire
More than 1,000 women are murdered in Pakistan each year by male relatives who believe the victims have dishonoured their families. A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness ***** 2015