When someone has hurt you, it’s natural to want to strike back. While revenge can feel satisfying in the moment, it can also come with a price: You may end up hurting yourself and others even more.
The best way to deal with a person who has done you wrong? Take the high road and be the bigger person. To help you get started, we’ve rounded up some inspiring quotes that are all about forgiveness.
“People will love you. People will hate you. And none of it will have anything to do with you.” – Abraham Hicks
“Forgiveness is not an occasional act; it is a permanent attitude.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
“To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.” – Lewis B. Smedes
“I believe in forgiveness, but I don’t believe in forgetting.” – Jewel
“Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.” – Oscar Wilde
“For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” – Mahatma Gandhi
The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it.
—Norman Schwarzkopf
The less you respond to negative people, the more peaceful your life will become.
—Unknown
No matter how much it hurts now, someday you will look back and realize your struggles changed your life for the better.
—Unknown
You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.
—A. A. Milne
We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.
—Maya Angelou
There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.
—Edith Wharton
The greatest mistake we make is living in constant fear that we will make one.
—John C. Maxwell
It’s not whether you get knocked down; it’s whether you get up again.
—Vincent Lombardi Jr.
Pain is temporary. Quitting lasts forever.—Lance Armstrong
1. “I wish we could go back to a time when we were both happy.”
2. “I’m not upset that you lied to me, I’m upset that from now on I can’t believe you.” — Friedrich Nietzsche
3. “We are just two people who used to be very important in each other’s lives.”
4. “I look back and realize how wrong I was about so many people. But the biggest mistake I made was thinking you were one of them.” — Atticus
5. “It’s a shame that the words that come out of your mouth sound nothing like the words that come out of your heart.” — Steve Maraboli
6. “When someone breaks your heart, don’t give them the satisfaction of knowing they did it.” — Unknown
7. “What feels worse? The pain of hard truths or the lingering agony of a lie?” — Unknown
8. “You are not even worth breaking my own heart over.” — Unknown
9. “I don’t know how to forget you, but I do know how to move on without you.” — Unknown
10. “Good friends don’t let you do stupid things… alone!” — Unknown
1. “It’s hard to forget someone who gave you so much to remember.” — Unknown
2. “When you forgive, you heal. When you let go, you grow.” — Unknown
3. “You can’t control everything. Sometimes you just need to relax and have faith that things will work out. Let go a little and just let life happen.” — Kody Keplinger
4. “If someone keeps hurting you, it might be time to ask yourself why are they in your life.” — Unknown
5. “Forgiveness is not an occasional act, it is a constant attitude.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
6. “We can’t be together anymore, but I wish you happiness from the bottom of my heart.” — Unknown
7. “I was angry because I thought that I deserved better than what he did, but then I realized I deserve better than what I did.” — Unknown
8. “Sometimes the strongest among us are the ones who smile through silent pain, cry behind closed doors, and fight battles nobody knows about.” — Unknown
9. “Letting go doesn’t mean giving up… It means moving on.” — Anonymous
10. “Letting go means to come to the
1. “Never make someone a priority when all you are to them is an option.”
2. “Sometimes you have to give people a written invitation to be in your life because verbal invitations get lost in the mail.”
3. “You can’t keep hurting someone and expect them to keep loving you.”
4. “It’s funny how you’re nice to my face, but as soon as I turn my back, you say the meanest things about me.”
5. “A relationship is only made for two. But some just forget how to count.”
6. “I’m not upset that you lied to me, I’m upset that from now on I can’t believe you.”
7. “Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.” – William Shakespeare
8. “Be careful with your words, once they are said, they can be only forgiven, not forgotten.”
Forgiveness is the final act of love.
—Leo Buscaglia
Sometimes it takes a heartbreak to shake us awake and help us see we are worth so much more than we’re settling for.
—Mandy Hale, The Single Woman: Life, Love, and a Dash of Sass
You must make a decision that you are going to move on. It won’t happen automatically. You will have to rise up and say, ‘I don’t care how hard this is, I don’t care how disappointed I am, I’m not going to let this get the best of me. I’m moving on with my life.
—Joel Osteen
We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.
—Plato
Don’t waste your precious energy trying to change opinions … Do your thing and don’t care if they like it.
—Tina Fey
When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.
—Maya Angelou
Life is too short to waste any amount of time on wondering what other people think about you. In the first place, if they had better things going on in their lives, they wouldn’t have the time to sit around and talk about you. What’s important to me is not others’ opinions of me, but what’s important to me is my opinion of myself.
― C. JoyBell C.
If you live for people’s acceptance, you will die from their rejection.
― Lecrae
Don’t take anything personally. Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.
― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom
I’m sick of following my dreams. I’m just going to ask them where they’re going and hook up with them later.~ Mitch Hedberg
In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.~ Bill Cosby
