Lewis B. Smedes Quotes

Without forgiveness, there's no future.

A lot of people, when they say 'forgive and forget,' they think you completely wash your brain out and forget everything. That is not the concept. What I think is you forgive and you forget so you can transform your experiences, not necessarily forget them but transform them, so that they don't haunt you or handicap you or kill you.

When you forgive, you in no way change the past - but you sure do change the future.

When you make a decision to forgive it's a decision that you have to make intellectually.

Forgiveness provides hope, joy, and a bright future that nothing else can.

There is freedom in forgiveness, and it's not that hard to do once you get into the habit.

Understanding is often a prelude to forgiveness, but they are not the same, and we often forgive what we cannot understand (seeing nothing else to do) and understand what we cannot pardon.

It's not an easy journey, to get to a place where you forgive people. But it is such a powerful place, because it frees you.

You will know that forgiveness has begun when you recall those who hurt you and feel the power to wish them well.

To me, forgiveness is the cornerstone of healing.

Forgiveness is the key to action and freedom.

Because forgiveness is like this: a room can be dank because you have closed the windows, you've closed the curtains. But the sun is shining outside, and the air is fresh outside. In order to get that fresh air, you have to get up and open the window and draw the curtains apart.

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

I bear no grudges. I have a mind that retains nothing.

The most important thing that I learned in growing up is that forgiveness is something that, when you do it, you free yourself to move on.

Forgiveness is not always easy. At times, it feels more painful than the wound we suffered, to forgive the one that inflicted it. And yet, there is no peace without forgiveness.

My self healing lies in praying for those who have harmed me.

If there are people you haven't forgiven, you're not going to really awaken. You have to let go.

Forgiveness in any aspect of something that is complex is the greatest tool.

The act of choosing to forgive is not easy at the moment of hurt and pain, but in the long run, it is the only way to go.

Forgiving is giving up the wish that things could have been different. They weren't. That's the past. Let it go.

Many people have trouble with forgiveness because they have been taught it is a singular act to be completed in one sitting. That is not so. Forgiveness has many layers, many seasons.

For me, the healing process starts with graciousness and forgiveness.

I forgive everyone in my life.

I think the hardest thing in life is to forgive. Hate is self destructive. If you hate somebody, you're not hurting the person you hate, you're hurting yourself. It's a healing, actually, it's a real healing...forgiveness.