One always begins to forgive a place as soon as it’s left behind.
Charles Dickens
Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive.
C. S. Lewis
I’m so sorry. I know I did something terrible, horrible to you, and if I could take it back, I would. Sometimes I wish you would just do something horrible to me and then we’d be even. But you, you would never do that. It’s just all these things are happening and I need someone. You’re the only one I can talk to. You’ve always been the only one.
Daniel Stern, The Wonder Years
If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete.
Siddhārtha Gautama
Everything we do is a choice. Oatmeal or cereal? Highway or side streets? Kiss her or keep her? We make choices and we live with the consequences. If someone gets hurt along the way, we ask for forgiveness. It’s the best anyone can do.
Lee Pace, Pushing Daisies
Now I don’t know why I forgive the things you do to me /
I don’t know why I don’t have the guts to set you free /
If I had one last wish I know what that would be /
Well, I’d wish I weren’t your prisoner and that I could be released /
Reckless Kelly, Back Around
Don’t brood. Get on with living and loving. You don’t have forever.
Leo Buscaglia
There are some who say you should forgive everyone, even the people who have disappointed you immeasurably. There are others who say you should not forgive anyone, and should stomp off in a huff no matter how many times they apologize. Of these two philosophies, the second one is of course much more fun, but it can also grow exhausting to stomp off in a huff every time someone has disappointed you, as everyone disappoints everyone eventually, and one can’t stop off in a huff every minute of the day.
Lemony Snicket, Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can’t Avoid
This shirt was the one I lent you /
And when you gave it back /
There was a rip inside the sleeve /
Where you rolled your cigarettes /
It was the place I put my heart /
Now look at where you put a tear /
I forgave your thoughtlessness /
But not the boy who put it there /
Mary Chapin Carpenter, This Shirt
I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded, not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night.
Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner
And the story goes she never forgave him. She looked out the window her whole life, the way so many women sit their sadness on an elbow. I wonder if she made the best with what she got or was she sorry because she couldn’t be all the things she wanted to be. Esperanza. I have inherited her name, but I don’t want to inherit her place by the window.
Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango Street