Quotes about Forgiveness

I rejoice with you in the success, which has thus far attended the cause. Yet in all our rejoicings, let us neither express nor cherish any hard feelings toward any citizen who by his vote has differed with us. Let us at all times remember that all American citizens are brothers of a common country, and should dwell together in the bonds of fraternal feeling.

I am slow to listen to criminations among friends, and never expose their quarrels on either side…allow bygones to be bygones, and look to the present & future only.

Have I not destroyed my enemy when I have made him into my friend?

Let us therefore study the incidents in this as philosophy to learn wisdom from and none of them as wrongs to be avenged....

August] 26th. [1862] I am a patient man, always willing to forgive on the Christian terms of repentance; and also to give ample time for repentance.

With Malice Towards None

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in...

Do good to those who hate you and turn their ill will to friendship.

There is valour in being able to identify a forgiving, hopeful perspective on one's life, in knowing how to be a friend to oneself, because one has a responsibility to others to endure.

We must live with our enemies as if they might one day become our friends, and live with our friends as if they might some time or other become our enemies.

Consider the work of Calvary. A perfect work, perfect in every respect, perfect in every aspect.

Having looked the beast of the past in the eye, having asked and received forgiveness and having made amends, let us shut the door on the past—not in order to forget it but in order not to allow it to imprison us.