Before Nelson Mandela was arrested in 1962, he was an angry, relatively young man. He founded the ANC’s military wing. When he was released, he surprised everyone because he was talking about reconciliation and forgiveness and not about revenge.

I was called a terrorist yesterday, but when I came out of jail, many people embraced me, including my enemies, and that is what I normally tell other people who say those who are struggling for liberation in their country are terrorists.

If you haven’t forgiven yourself something, how can you forgive others.

When we quarrel, how we wish we had been blameless.

The unforgivable crime is soft hitting. Do not hit at all if it can be avoided; but never hit softly.

I’m convinced that no one can amount to a damn in the arts if he becomes sweetly reasonable, seeing all sides of a picture, forgiving all sins.

There are minds so impatient of inferiority that their gratitude is a species of revenge, and they return benefits, not because recompense is a pleasure, but because obligation is a pain.

Turkey must find its place if, of course, it can heal its internal sores, and none is more malignant than the perennial Kurdish issue.

It is a hard thing to let go of mistakes we’ve made and sins. God wants us to do that because He knows the guilt and the condemnation will keep us from becoming who He has created us to be.

Better to be occasionally cheated than perpetually suspicious.

If a man had more than one life, I think a little hanging would not hurt this one; but after he is once dead, we cannot bring him back, no matter how sorry we may be; so the boy shall be pardoned.

We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.

Men ought either to be indulged or utterly destroyed, for if you merely offend them they take vengeance, but if you injure them greatly they are unable to retaliate, so that the injury done to a man ought to be such that vengeance cannot be feared.

Saints need sinners.

Always forgive your enemies – nothing annoys them so much.

Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule.

Without forgiveness, there’s no future.

I know from personal experience how damaging it can be to live with bitterness and unforgiveness. I like to say it’s like taking poison and hoping your enemy will die. And it really is that harmful to us to live this way.

All major religious traditions carry basically the same message, that is love, compassion and forgiveness the important thing is they should be part of our daily lives.

I will not leave South Africa, nor will I surrender. Only through hardship, sacrifice and militant action can freedom be won. The struggle is my life. I will continue fighting for freedom until the end of my days.

I have been working for Africans since I was 18, when I got involved with the Nelson Mandela concerts. I got involved with debt cancellation because Desmond Tutu demanded that the world respond to that situation.

If thy brother wrongs thee, remember not so much his wrong-doing, but more than ever that he is thy brother.

There is a fine balance between honoring the past and losing yourself in it. For example, you can acknowledge and learn from mistakes you made, and then move on and refocus on the now. It is called forgiving yourself.

The wonderful news is that our Lord is a God of mercy, and He responds to repentance.

I never hold a grudge.

I believe many people feel like God is mad at them.

Jesus paid a tremendous price for us so we could have abundant life. He willingly took all of our sin on Himself and gave His life on the cross so we could be forgiven and have new life in Him.

If there are dreams about a beautiful South Africa, there are also roads that lead to their goal. Two of these roads could be named Goodness and Forgiveness.

The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.

Our God is a forgiving God.

You may make some mistakes – but that doesn’t make you a sinner. You’ve got the very nature of God on the inside of you.

I believe that I have received Jesus Christ into my heart. I believe that he has covered all of my sins.

To refrain from imitation is the best revenge.

I’ve looked on many women with lust. I’ve committed adultery in my heart many times. God knows I will do this and forgives me.

Forgiveness says you are given another chance to make a new beginning.

If you’re a politician, you might want to learn the Buddhist way of negotiation. Restoring communication and bringing back reconciliation is clear and concrete in Buddhism.

If the other person injures you, you may forget the injury; but if you injure him you will always remember.

The practice of peace and reconciliation is one of the most vital and artistic of human actions.

We need to show mercy. I mean, because as much mercy as you show people, that’s the mercy you’re going to be receiving.

An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for its breach is more so.

Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them.

Always remember that others may hate you but those who hate you don’t win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself.

The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism.

If one by one we counted people out For the least sin, it wouldn’t take us long To get so we had no one left to live with. For to be social is to be forgiving.

Do good to your friends to keep them, to your enemies to win them.

Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.

Children begin by loving their parents; after a time they judge them; rarely, if ever, do they forgive them.

But who prays for Satan? Who, in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most?

As I got older, I guess I became more mellow and more forgiving and more loving.

There is, hidden or flaunted, a sword between the sexes till an entire marriage reconciles them.

Forgotten is forgiven.

Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?

We are punished by our sins, not for them.

First of all, you ask me if the God of Christians forgives one who doesn’t believe and doesn’t seek the faith. Premise that – and it’s the fundamental thing – the mercy of God has no limits if one turns to him with a sincere and contrite heart; the question for one who doesn’t believe in God lies in obeying one’s conscience.

Nothing can make injustice just but mercy.

We hand folks over to God’s mercy, and show none ourselves.

We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.

In 1962 I was named Minor League Player of the Year. It was my second season in the bigs.

Let my enemies devour each other.

Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more a man’s nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.

If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us shall we not revenge?