Remember, you don’t forgive someone for his or her sake – you forgive them for your sake. (On a side note, I just read that as “sake”, the drink. I think that means it’s time for me to get some sushi.)

Forgiving doesn’t mean forgetting, nor does it mean that you’ve given the message that what someone did was okay. It just means that you’ve let go of the anger or guilt towards someone, or towards yourself. But that can be easier said than done. If forgiveness was easy, everyone would be doing it.

“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.” – Katherine Ponder

“There is no love without forgiveness, and there is no forgiveness without love.” – Bryant H. McGill

“A happy marriage is the union of two good forgivers.” – Robert Quillen

“Forgiveness is me giving up my right to hurt you for hurting me.” – Anonymous

“Sincere forgiveness isn’t colored with expectations that the other person apologize or change. Don’t worry whether or not they finally understand you. Love them and release them. Life feeds back truth to people in its own way and time—just like it does for you and me.” – Sara Paddison

“Once a woman has forgiven her man, she must not reheat his sins for breakfast.” – Marlene Dietrich

“Forgiveness is the giving, and so the receiving, of life.” – George MacDonald

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

“We are all on a life long journey and the core of its meaning, the terrible demand of its centrality is forgiving and being forgiven.” – Martha Kilpatrick

“To forgive is the highest, most beautiful form of love. In return, you will receive untold peace and happiness.” – Robert Muller

“Forgiveness is the fragrance the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.” – Mark Twain

“Always forgive your enemies – nothing annoys them so much.” – Oscar Wilde

“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” – Mahatma Gandhi

“Forgiveness is a funny thing. It warms the heart and cools the sting.” – William Arthur Ward

“Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future.” – Paul Boese

“It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.” – William Blake

“If you can’t forgive and forget, pick one.” – Robert Brault

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

“Without forgiveness life is governed by… an endless cycle of resentment and retaliation.” – Roberto Assagioli

“Forgive all who have offended you, not for them, but for yourself.” – Harriet Nelson

“Forgiveness is the sweetest revenge.” – Isaac Friedmann

“Forgiving does not erase the bitter past. A healed memory is not a deleted memory. Instead, forgiving what we cannot forget creates a new way to remember. We change the memory of our past into a hope for our future.” – Louis B. Smedes

“Life is an adventure in forgiveness.” – Norman Cousins

“Forgiveness is the key to action and freedom.” – Hannah Arendt

“Forgiveness is a virtue of the brave.” – Indira Gandhi

“Genuine forgiveness does not deny anger but faces it head-on.” – Alice Duer Miller

“As long as you don’t forgive, who and whatever it is will occupy a rent-free space in your mind.” – Isabelle Holland

“Anger makes you smaller, while forgiveness forces you to grow beyond what you were.” – Cherie Carter-Scott

“Forgiveness is like faith. You have to keep reviving it.” – Mason Cooley

“Only the brave know how to forgive. … A coward never forgave; it is not in his nature.” – Laurence Sterne