If ye forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you.
Forgiveness Quotes
Muhammad leads, followed by Shakespeare, Jesus, Julian of Norwich and the comics writer J. M. DeMatteis. The sourced poems are the ones to read. Alexander Pope’s The Universal Prayer (1738) asks that the mercy we show others be shown to us. Philip James Bailey’s Festus (1839) says they who forgive most shall be most forgiven. Wordsworth’s lines on Sweet Mercy are from his 1803 Scottish tour.
The one flagged entry is “It’s easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission,” credited to the computer scientist Grace Hopper and marked misattributed. The notes list several print sources from the 1980s, among them a 1986 Navy magazine.
Most quoted on forgiveness:
For 'tis sweet to stammer one letter
Of the Eternal's language; — on earth it is called Forgiveness!
Thou whom avenging pow'rs obey,
Cancel my debt (too great to pay)
Before the sad accounting day.
Whoever shuts his ears to the cry of the poor
Will also cry himself and not be heard.