Paul Tillich Quotes

Blame keeps wounds open; only forgiveness heals

Forgiveness is a stunning principle, your ticket out of hate and fear and chaos. ... I know what regret feels like; I've earned my credentials. But I also know what forgiveness feels like, because God has so graciously forgiven me.

You can always forgive, you just can't really forget.

The belief that we can be done with our past is a myth.

First, forgive. Second, forget by choosing not to dwell on that which is forgiven and in the past. We have no right to keep in front of us what God has put behind Him.

...forgiving is not the same as forgetting.

Forgiving the past means remembering the love there, and releasing all the rest as the illusion that it really was.

Forgiving is not forgetting. It is remembering and letting go.

Forgiveness is giving up the hope that the past could have been any different, it's accepting the past for what it was, and using this moment and this time to help yourself move forward.

It isn't until you forgive what's in the past that you'll be able to receive the gift of the present

Nothing erases the past. There is repentance, there is atonement, and there is forgiveness. That is all, but that is enough.

Forgiveness changes the way we remember. It converts the curse into a blessing. Forgiveness indeed heals memories . . .

Vengeance is having a videotape planted in your soul that cannot be turned off. It plays the painful scene over and over again inside your mind...And each time it plays you feel the clap of pain again...Forgiving turns off the videotape of pained memory Forgiving sets you free.

Having looked the past in the eye, having asked for forgiveness and having made amends, let us shut the door on the past—not in order to forget it but in order not to allow it to imprison us.

Forgetting is something that time takes care of, but forgiveness is an act of volition, and only the sufferer is qualified to make the decision.

What have I to forgive and whom?

When you haven't forgiven those who've hurt you, you turn back against your future. When you do forgive, you start walking forward.

I can forgive, I just can't forget.

Forgiveness has its comforts, but it can never give you back what you've lost.

Forgiveness changes the way we remember.

Good to forgive, Best to forget.

One of my biggest lessons in life is, we heal at the speed of our forgiveness.

What was the point of being able to forgive, when deep down, you both had to admit you'd never forget?

When we have painful memories from hurting experiences, we may feel justified in holding on to the resentment. But resentment is corrosive. It doesn't affect the person we feel anger toward, it destroys the host.

When we forgive someone, we do not forget the hurtful act, as if forgetting came along with the forgiveness package, the way strings come with a violin. Begin with the basics. If you forget, you will not forgive at all. You can never forgive people for things you have forgotten about. You need to forgive precisely because you have not forgotten what someone did; your memory keeps the pain alive long after the hurt has stopped. Remembering is the storage of pain. It is why you need to be healed in the first place.