Lewis B. Smedes Quotes

I had to learn to forgive. I couldn't sleep at night. I got ulcers. I had to let go, to let God deal with it. No one wants to be mad in their own house. I didn't want to be angry my whole life. It takes so much energy out of you to be mean.

Sometimes, you have to make the choice to forgive 10 times a day when you have these pockets of anger come up. That's a lot of work, but to me it's worthwhile.

Something my mum taught me years and years and years ago, is life's just too short to carry around a great bucket-load of anger and resentment and bitterness and hatreds and all that sort of stuff.

When forgiveness is necessary, don't wait too long. We must begin to forgive, because without forgiving, we choke off our own joy; we kill our own soul. People carrying hate and resentment can invest themselves so deeply in that resentment that they gradually define themselves in terms of it.

Resentments are hardened chunks of anger. They loosen up and dissolve with forgiveness and letting go.

I can't hate for long. It isn't worth it.

Resentment and anger are not good for the soul. They are foul things.

What have I to forgive and whom?

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't angry some days. But I really have worked hard to put a lot of the anger and disappointment in the past.

I've purged myself of bitterness and anger and remained open to love.

Life is precious and there's not a lot of room for anger.

Man should forget his anger before he lies down to sleep.

For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind.

You're supposed to remember, and still forgive.

Forgiveness is the economy of the heart... forgiveness saves the expense of anger, the cost of hatred, the waste of spirits.

As far as having peace within myself, the one way I can do that is forgiving the people who have done wrong to me. It causes more stress to build up anger. Peace is more productive.

I do understand how hate eats at the soul and how to purge yourself of hate.

I don't like to hold on to anger. It eats you up alive.

I can hold on to that, that bitterness and that anger. It won't get me anywhere.

In fact, not forgiving is like drinking rat poison and then waiting for the rat to die.

It's not easy to forgive. I definitely don't forget, but I do forgive and I think that you should.

What he did was wrong. He doesn't deserve your love. But he does deserve your forgiveness, because otherwise he will grow like a weed in your heart until it's choked and overrun. The only person who suffers, when you squirrel away all that hate, is you.

I don't hate you. I don't think I ever really did. It was just anger. And once I faced it head-on, once understood it, it dissipated. -Mia

Forgiveness. It's one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive. Forgive everybody. You are relieved of carrying that burden of resentment. You really are lighter. You feel lighter. You just drop that.

The longer we hate, the harder it is to heal us.