Lewis B. Smedes Quotes

To denounce does not free the self from what it hates, any more than ignoring the past shuts off its influence.

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.

Hate, hatred for yourself, for other people, will confine you, but love can set you free.

Forgiving isn't something you do for someone else. It's something you do for yourself. It's saying, 'You're not important enough to have a stranglehold on me.' It's saying, 'You don't get to trap me in the past. I am worthy of a future.

The weight is off my shoulders. I don't live in the past anymore. I look forward, instead of back.

You have to be able to say, OK, that happened back then. Now let's take it from here and see what happens. It would be very easy to hate people for the rest of your life, and some people have done that. You've got to deal with what's happening now and try to make things better.

What do you get out of hating people, out of having this bitterness in your heart always?

Forgiveness is the key that can unshackle us from a past that will not rest in the grave of things over and done with. As long as our minds are captive to the memory of having been wronged, they are not free to wish for reconciliation with the one who wronged us.

Our history is an inevitable component of our being. One thing only can release us from the grip of our history. That one thing is forgiveness.

I forgave the DAR many years ago. You lose a lot of time hating people.

Forgiveness means letting go of the past.

Those who hate you don't win unless you hate them back.

To forgive is to unlock the cage of another's folly to set ourselves free.

Sometimes you forgive people simply becuase you still want them in your life.

I know that everybody is seeking bliss. And they're all looking for it mostly in the wrong ways, and as a result of that, they err, but there's no reason to hate them; they just don't know any better. Jesus himself on the cross said, "Forgive them, for they know not what they do." And so people who hate you, that's their problem. It doesn't have to be your problem. I wish them well.

Let us live most happily, free from hatred in the midst of the hateful; Let us remain free from hatred in the midst of people who hate.

I don't have to hate any person because I can always start anew, I can always reconcile.

Live today. Remove all blame from your vocabulary. Catch yourself when you find yourself using your past history as a reason for your failure to act today, and instead say, 'I am free now to detach myself from what used to be.'

Well. Like I said, I dont want to fight anymore. I dont want us to hate each other. And ... well ... I squeezed my eyes shut and then opened them. No matter how I fee about us ... I want you to be happy

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.

It is hard to imagine a world without forgiveness. Without forgiveness life would be unbearable. Without forgiveness our lives are chained, forced to carry the sufferings of the past and repeat them with no release.

Forgiveness is the key to the heart's shackles.

In the end, forgiveness simply means never putting another person out of our heart.

If I stayed angry at other people, I would miss finding friends among those I was angry with.

You hate evil, but you don't hate the people that do evil. So, hate has to go out the window.