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Forgiveness breaks the chain of causality because he who 'forgives' you — out of love — takes upon himself the consequences of what you have done. Forgiveness, therefore, always entails a sacrifice.

— Dag Hammarskjöld Vägmärken · Markings (1963)

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Forgiveness

More quotes by Dag Hammarskjöld

Never measure the height of a mountain until you have reached the top. Then you will see how low it was.

Vägmärken · Markings (1963)

Never look down to test the ground before taking your next step; only he who keeps his eye fixed on the far horizon will find his right road.

Vägmärken · Markings (1963)

Goodness is something so simple: always to live for others, never to seek one's own advantage.

Vägmärken · Markings (1963)

Your cravings as a human animal do not become a prayer just because it is God whom you ask to attend to them.

Vägmärken · Markings (1963)

We are not permitted to choose the frame of our destiny. But what we put into it is ours.

Vägmärken · Markings (1963)

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It is better for a leader to make a mistake in forgiving than to make a mistake in punishing.

Muhammad

Wilt Thou indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Peradventure there are fifty righteous within the city; wilt Thou indeed sweep away and not forgive the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?

Abraham

It is better for a leader to make a mistake in forgiving than to make a mistake in punishing.

Al-Tirmidhi

I also am other than what I imagine myself to be. To know this is forgiveness.

Simone Weil Simone Weil : An Anthology (1986)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Dag Hammarskjöld (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.