Forgive Quotes

“Standing as I do in view of God and Eternity, I realise that patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness for anyone.” Nurse Edith Cavell reached deep to find forgiveness just prior to her execution at dawn on 12th October 1915 by the German Army for assisting Allied prisoners. Edith is celebrated for caring for the plight of others, for saving the lives of soldiers from both sides without discrimination and for helping some 200 Allied soldiers escape from German-occupied Belgium during the First World War. For this she was arrested, tried, found guilty
under German martial law and shot.”
― Roger Macdonald Andrew, Forgive: Finding Inner Peace Through Words of Wisdom

“Oscar Wilde, was an Irish poet, brilliant wit and
dramatist who was imprisoned for two years for ‘indecency’ and ruined as a result. Oscar uttered his last words in Room 16 of the Hôtel
d’Alsace in Saint-Germain-des-Prés on Friday, November 30th, 1900.

The wittiest man of his epoch was said to have quipped, ‘My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us must go.’ Sadly, Oscar lost the ‘duel’ and died shortly afterwards.”
― Roger Macdonald Andrew, Forgive: Finding Inner Peace Through Words of Wisdom

“The Labyrinth is an ancient symbol of
wholeness. The imagery of the circle and spiral combine into a meandering but purposeful journey and the Labyrinth represents a journey or path to our own centre, with a return again out into the world.

Labyrinths have long been used as meditation and prayer tools and when we walk in one, it serves as a metaphor for life’s journey. It is a symbol that creates a sacred space and place that takes us out of our over-active ego to our spirit, and to ‘That Which is Within’.”
― Roger Macdonald Andrew, Forgive: Finding Inner Peace Through Words of Wisdom

“Fessing up’ (confessing), admitting fault and directly seeking forgiveness from an aggrieved victim of our actions is a tough call requiring courage, humility and contrition. Simply being a fallible human being makes it extremely likely that everyone faces this dilemma sometime in their lives … and possibly on multiple occasions in some cases.”
― Roger Macdonald Andrew, Forgive: Finding Inner Peace Through Words of Wisdom

“By ‘strength’, in the context of forgiveness, we mean the ability to resist being moved or broken by an external force, coupled with ‘strength of character’ - the quality that allows someone to deal with problems in a determined and effective way. When we talk about ‘strong people’, we mean people exhibiting character and inner fortitude to cope with just about anything that life decides to throw at them. Even strong people can
find themselves broken by events and happenings from time to time, but their strength of character tends to pull them through in the end. In fact, strong people often look positively at challenges that they have overcome.”
― Roger Macdonald Andrew, Forgive: Finding Inner Peace Through Words of Wisdom

“Free Will describes our capacity to make choices that are genuinely our own. With Free Will comes moral responsibility and ownership
of our good and bad deeds. Ethically, forgiveness may be seen as morally beneficial since it releases not only the initiator of a damaging occurrence but the victim as well.
It follows, then, that unforgiveness is also an act of Free Will with consequences … especially for the victim since refusal to forgive is a choice. It’s a conscious choice, however, that can be corrected and reversed later.”
― Roger Macdonald Andrew, Forgive: Finding Inner Peace Through Words of Wisdom

“One of the key markers that separates childhood from adulthood is in accepting personal responsibility. Becoming an adult says that no one else but you is fully responsible for accepting the consequences that follow your decisions, actions and reactions to events. You are in control of all the consequences, whether positive or negative. Personal responsibility is a crucial skill for learning how to care for yourself and others, as well as living a successful, harmonious existence. It’s a sign and indication that you take 100% ownership of every single aspect of your life, and that you are ready, willing and able to handle all and anything that comes your way.”
― Roger Macdonald Andrew, Forgive: Finding Inner Peace Through Words of Wisdom

“Billy Graham (William Franklin Graham Jr.) was an American evangelist and an ordained southern Baptist minister who became well-known internationally in the late 1940s. He was a prominent evangelical Christian figure, and according to a biographer, was ‘among the most influential Christian leaders’ of the 20th century. “When God forgives us and purifies us of our sin, He also forgets it. Forgiveness results in God dropping the charges against us.”
― Roger Macdonald Andrew, Forgive: Finding Inner Peace Through Words of Wisdom

“Sometimes the relationship between parents and their children is gloriously simple and uncomplicated, with the children always
adoring their parents and treating them in time, and through adulthood, as best friends, confidants and mentors. Then the grandchildren come along, and the close-knit family simply expands adopting the same
tried, tested and reliable model. That’s the Ideal, that’s how it should be; however, it is the real world out there, and things don’t always work out quite like that … or at all like that in all too many cases.”
― Roger Macdonald Andrew, Forgive: Finding Inner Peace Through Words of Wisdom

“Love lies at the beating heart of 'Forgive' and it’s central to the whole idea of forgiveness. If you look at how the overall message unfolds,
chapter after chapter, page after page, line after line, you may see a common theme and a common vision of Forgiveness and Love walking down the narrow path of life together, holding hands with smiles on their faces and hope in their hearts. This is what Love, Marriage, Relationship looks like for many couples and soul mates as they set out on the exciting journey of being together and sharing everything that life has to offer.

As years pass, and when the gloss maybe wears off a bit and the inevitable challenges occur, it’s Love – the depth and purity of true, unchangeable and indefatigable Love - that acts as the glue to keep relationships together, and the wheels of marriage, or loving de facto relationship, on the track.”
― Roger Macdonald Andrew, Forgive: Finding Inner Peace Through Words of Wisdom

“In the Garden of Healing ... The key point is the healing quality of Nature in the analogy of the long-forgotten garden once heroine Mary Lennox and her friends discover the door, find the key as well as the need for rejuvenation and start to bring it back to its former glory.

It’s a story of hope, renewal and the
rediscovery of humanity which is also so much needed in the bruised, battered and careworn world we find ourselves in today. I feel that ‘The Garden of Healing’ is a perfect fit for Forgive and for what we’re seeking to accomplish in this journey that we’re sharing together.”
― Roger Macdonald Andrew, Forgive: Finding Inner Peace Through Words of Wisdom

“When L.P. Hartley wrote ‘The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there in the opening lines of his 1953 novel 'The Go-Between', he created one of the most memorable and famous opening lines in English Literature. The distant past is indeed a
foreign country for any mature person considering their youth, and every one of us has an unchangeable past that looks very different now than it did then.

As memories accumulate and tumble in upon each other, and unresolved, discordant issues jostle, protrude and disturb the mind’s peace, the past all too often becomes an uncomfortable, grief-littered and unwelcoming
country. The past, however, might as well be set in stone as there is nothing, absolutely nothing, that we can do to shade it differently to what it actually is ... and actually was.”
― Roger Macdonald Andrew, Forgive: Finding Inner Peace Through Words of Wisdom

“George MacDonald, Scottish author, poet and Christian Congregational minister, was a pioneering figure in the field of modern fantasy literature and the mentor of fellow writer Lewis Carroll. His words “Forgiveness is the giving, and so the receiving, of life” certainly reinforces the idea of a giving and receiving cycle.”
― Roger Macdonald Andrew, Forgive: Finding Inner Peace Through Words of Wisdom

“Saint Francis of Assisi was a mystic Italian Catholic friar, founder of the Franciscans, and one of the most venerated figures in Christianity. He was inspired to lead a life of poverty and itinerant preaching. Saint Francis reminds us that “It is in pardoning that we are pardoned.”
― Roger Macdonald Andrew, Forgive: Finding Inner Peace Through Words of Wisdom

“It was not obvious at first, but as I studied the words of numerous thinkers and writers across the ages, looking for all sorts of hints and clues in the Forgiveness Journey, I became aware of a pattern that seemed to emerge … quite simply a circular pattern of energy, without a
discernible beginning and without a perceptible end.”
― Roger Macdonald Andrew, Forgive: Finding Inner Peace Through Words of Wisdom

“The words ‘forgive’ and ‘forget’ often appear in the same sentence and it’s almost as if they are joined together at the literary hip. However,
while the two words are often seen together, they have distinct lives and identities of their own and cannot always be seen through the same lens. Sometimes, the use of ‘forgive’
and ‘forget’ actually reflects conflicting ideas and from time to time you can learn valuable lessons and insights by looking at what spills onto the pavement when different opinions collide!”
― Roger Macdonald Andrew, Forgive: Finding Inner Peace Through Words of Wisdom

“when highly respected Roman poet Ausonius says “Forgive many things in others; nothing in yourself” we might feel that that’s rather harsh. It might be more in line with current thinking to say: “Forgive many things in others; as well as in yourself.” There is a strong argument that it’s essential to find ways to forgive yourself … so that you can then forgive others.”
― Roger Macdonald Andrew, Forgive: Finding Inner Peace Through Words of Wisdom

“The remarkable idea of a highly valued 'someone’ who has left still being a member of our personal ‘community’ in some sense is useful in the case of loss or estrangement as it does not seem to sound so dreadfully bleak
and final.”
― Roger Macdonald Andrew, Forgive: Finding Inner Peace Through Words of Wisdom

“Michel de Montaigne (1553-1592), also known as the Lord of Montaigne, was one of the most significant philosophers of the French Renaissance. He is known for popularizing the essay as a literary genre. His work is noted for
its merging of casual anecdotes and autobiography with intellectual insight.
Montaigne had a direct influence on numerous Western writers; his massive volume Essais contains some of the most influential essays ever written.”
― Roger Macdonald Andrew, Forgive: Finding Inner Peace Through Words of Wisdom

“Do what your heart tells you is the right thing to do … forgive whatever needs to be forgiven … and save yourself a whole host of dramas and negative emotions. In many ways, 'economy of the heart’ is one of the primary keys to happiness.”
― Roger Macdonald Andrew, Forgive: Finding Inner Peace Through Words of Wisdom

“In the forgiveness journey, whether you need to forgive someone else, yourself or both, there comes a time when the best thing you can possibly do is forget all the peripheral issues, the angst, stress, sadness, grief, anger and confusion … and Just Forgive. Get on with it! Carpe Diem … seize the day!”
― Roger Macdonald Andrew, Forgive: Finding Inner Peace Through Words of Wisdom

“Life is for living, and in the heat of the day, it’s easy to forget that it is also for learning. ‘What was I learning’ is a great personal reflection when anything momentous or disquieting happens in life!”
― Roger Macdonald Andrew, Forgive: Finding Inner Peace Through Words of Wisdom

“While not necessarily mentioning the word per se, the thoughts of many writers on the forgiveness journey, touch on the idea of ‘transformation’ … in other words, the process of extreme, radical, life-altering change.”
― Roger Macdonald Andrew, Forgive: Finding Inner Peace Through Words of Wisdom

“Forgiveness is for you to help process the unacceptable, hurtful and seemingly unforgiveable actions of others. Forgiveness is also for you to process what you did (or failed to do) that damaged others who you may,
or may not, have known personally. Those are the nagging memories that come back to haunt us, which we wish with all our heart had not happened, but which wounded others who were very close to us ... or strangers who have suffered harm as a result of our actions.”
― Roger Macdonald Andrew, Forgive: Finding Inner Peace Through Words of Wisdom

“It’s true that the mistakes we make in life provide the greatest opportunities for learning, course correction, growth and personal development. Providing, of course, that we see those opportunities for what they are.”
― Roger Macdonald Andrew, Forgive: Finding Inner Peace Through Words of Wisdom

“Handling adversity should be more than just dealing with crisis and surviving … it should be so much more than that by triggering and kick-starting a positive, advantageous response.”
― Roger Macdonald Andrew, Forgive: Finding Inner Peace Through Words of Wisdom

“It’s clear from the literature that Forgiveness is a profound and precious gift, central to the beliefs of many, regardless of their personal views and
take on religion per se”
― Roger Macdonald Andrew, Forgive: Finding Inner Peace Through Words of Wisdom

“In Forgive, we invite and celebrate the poetry of ideas, tap into feelings, emotional responses, happiness as well as angst, rich imagination and thoughtful adventures with words to explore realms that extend in a
different direction to the frontiers of academia.”
― Roger Macdonald Andrew, Forgive: Finding Inner Peace Through Words of Wisdom

“If I can make a difference to some readers and help them to escape from some pains of
unforgiveness and emotional misery by thumbing through and dipping into these pages and savouring the Words of Wisdom embedded in the writers’ thoughts, it has all been well worth it.”
― Roger Macdonald Andrew, Forgive: Finding Inner Peace Through Words of Wisdom

“Accomplished, creative and imaginative writers have the ability to see into the heart of things, and the ‘truth’ they identify is often profound, moving, and thought-provoking.”
― Roger Macdonald Andrew, Forgive: Finding Inner Peace Through Words of Wisdom