Forgiveness and Compassion

 

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

Lewis B. Smedes

 

Whatever our religion, we know that if we really want to love, we must first learn to forgive before anything else.

Mother Teresa

 

Forgiveness is really a gift to yourself - have the compassion to forgive others, and the courage to forgive yourself.

Mary Anne Radmacher

 

 

 

 

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, Jr.

 

 

There is no love without forgiveness, and there is no forgiveness without love.

Bryant H. McGill

 

Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain - and most fools do. But it takes character and self control to be understanding and forgiving.

Dale Carnegie

 

A happy marriage is the union of two good forgivers.

Ruth Graham

 

When you forgive, you in no way change the past - but you sure do change the future.

Bernard Meltzer

 

How unhappy is he who cannot forgive himself.

Publilius Syrus

 

The day the child realizes that all adults are imperfect, he becomes an adolescent; the day he forgives them, he becomes an adult; the day he forgives himself, he becomes wise.

Alden Nowlan

 

The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget.

Thomas Szasz

 

Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.

Mark Twain

 

“Forgiveness is not the misguided act of condoning irresponsible, hurtful behavior. Nor is it a superficial turning of the other cheek that leaves us feeling victimized and martyred. Rather, it is the finishing of old business that allows us to experience the present, free of contamination from the past.”_Joan Z. Borysenko

 

 

 

“If we say that monsters [people who do terrible evil] are beyond forgiving, we give them a power they should never have...they are given the power to keep their evil alive in the hearts of those who suffered most. We give them power to condemn their victims to live forever with the hurting memory of their painful pasts. We give the monsters the last word.”_Lewis B. Smedes

 

“The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: 'If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?' But... the good Samaritan reversed the question: 'If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?'_ Martin Luther King, J

 

“Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It's a relationship between equals. Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others. Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity.”_ Pema Chodron

“Compassion requires us to be weak with the weak, vulnerable with the vulnerable, and powerless with the powerless. Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human.”_ Henri Nouwen

   

“Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.”_ Albert Schweitzer

   

“Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.”_ John Wesley

 

“You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.”_    Ralph Waldo Emerson

   

“Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.”_Leo Buscaglia

  

“In compassion lies the world's true strength.”_Gautama Buddha

   

“A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees.”_ Amelia Earhart