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Forgiveness Quotes and Quotations


How we remember, what we remember, and why we remember form the most personal map of our individuality.
Reconciliation is more beautiful than victory.
The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive, but do not forget.
Forgetting is the cost of living cheerfully.
Forgiveness is the key to action and freedom.
"I can forgive, but I cannot forget" is only another way of saying, "I will not forgive." Forgiveness ought to be like a canceled note-torn in two and burned up so that it never can be shown against one.
Life appears to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity or registering wrong.
Anger repressed can poison a relationship as surely as the crudest words.
Forgiveness means letting go of the past.
I know now that patriotism is not enough; I must have no hatred and bitterness toward anyone.
Stretch out your hand! Let no human soul wait for a benediction.
Nobody ever forgets where he buried a hatchet.
Anger as soon as fed is dead, 'tis starving makes it fat.
Once a woman has forgiven a man, she must not reheat his sins for breakfast.
There's no point in burying a hatchet if you're going to put up a marker on the site.
As long as you don't forgive, who and whatever it is will occupy a rent-free space in your mind.
Courage and clemency are equal virtues.
One may have been a fool, but there's no foolishness like being bitter.
Not the power to remember, but its very opposite, the power to forget, is a necessary condition for our existence.
Once a woman has forgiven a man, she must not reheat his sins for breakfast.
Keeping score of old scores and scars, getting even and one-upping, always make you less than you are.
Forgiveness is all-powerful. Forgiveness heals all ills.
The forgiving state of mind is a magnetic power for attracting good.
Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart.
To be wronged is nothing unless you continue to remember it.
Who understands much, forgives much.
Forgiveness is the act of admitting we are like other people.
Grace fills empty spaces, but it can only enter where there is a void to receive it, and it is grace itself which makes this void.
Know all and you will pardon all.
People are more than the worst thing they have ever done in their lives.
The secret of forgiving everything is to understand nothing.
Speak not against anyone whose burden you have not weighed yourself.
Nothing's easier than believing we understand experiences we've never had.
The heart has always the pardoning power.
To understand is to forgive, even oneself.
To what extent is any given man morally responsible for any given act? We do not know.
The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.
Only the brave know how to forgive. ... A coward never forgave; it is not in his nature.
Any man can seek revenge; it takes a king or prince to grant a pardon.
To be angry about trifles is mean and childish; to rage and be furious is brutish; and to maintain perpetual wrath is akin to the practice and temper of devils; but to prevent and suppress rising resentment is wise and glorious, is manly and divine.
Hatred is a death wish for the hated, not a life wish for anything else.
Hatred is a passion requiring one hundred times the energy of love. Keep it for a cause, not an individual. Keep it for intolerance, injustice, stupidity. For hatred is the strength of the sensitive. Its power and its greatness depend on the selflessness of its use.
Resentment is the "number one" offender. It destroys more alcoholics than anything else. From it stem all forms of spiritual disease, for we have been not only mentally and physically ill, we have been spiritually sick.
To oppose something is to maintain it.
Dwelling on the negative simply contributes to its power.
To carry a grudge is like being stung to death by one bee.
Resentments are burdens we don't need to carry.
The enslaver is enslaved, the hater, harmed.
By putting his hand around my neck, he slowly strangled himself.
The one who deals the mortal blow receives the mortal wound.
Without forgiveness life is governed ... by an endless cycle of resentment and retaliation.
Malice drinks one-half of its own poison.
I tell you, there is no such thing as creative hate!
Reject hatred without hating.
Hate would destroy him who hated.
In hatred as in love, we grow like the thing we brood upon. What we loathe, we graft into our very soul.
Resentment is weak and lowers your self-esteem.
Hate is a prolonged form of suicide.
Hatred is like fire-it makes even light rubbish deadly.
You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist.
Hate is all a lie, there is no truth in hate.
Hate is not a good counselor.
Bitterness imprisons life; love releases it.
If the will remains in protest, it stays dependent on that which it is protesting against.
Hate smolders and eventually destroys, not the hated but the hater.
It is almost impossible to throw dirt on someone without getting a little on yourself.
If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself.
Fire destroys that which feeds it.
You cannot hate other people without hating yourself.
Whom they have injured, they also hate.
Rage and bitterness do not foster femininity. They harden the heart and make the body sick.
I used to store my anger and it affected my play. Now I get it out. I'm never rude to my playing partner. I'm very focused on the ball. Then it's over.
Anger is a short madness.
My mother used to say, "He who angers you conquers you."
The angry people are those people who are most afraid.
Anger as soon as fed is dead, 'tis starving makes it fat.
Anger dwells only in the bosom of fools.
Anger and worry are the enemies of clear thought.
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.
Anger is a killing thing: it kills the man who angers, for each rage leaves him less than he had been before-it takes something from him.
Something of vengeance I had tasted for the first time; as aromatic wine it seemed, on swallowing, warm and racy; its after-flavor, metallic and corroding, gave me a sensation as if I had been poisoned.
Revenge could steal a man's life until there was nothing left but emptiness.
Revenge may not be a particularly high consciousness-oriented activity.
The human heart in its perversity finds it hard to escape hatred and revenge.
A man can lose sight of everything else when he's bent on revenge, and it ain't worth it.
The whole human race loses by every act of personal vengeance.
Forgiveness is the sweetest revenge.
One forgives to the degree that one loves.
One is as one is, and the love that can't encompass both is a poor sort of love.
Forgiveness is the final form of love.
The days are too short even for love; how can there be enough time for quarreling?
Forgiveness is the most tender part of love.
The best proof of love is trust.
Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit.
We are told that people stay in love because of chemistry, or because they remain intrigued with each other, because of many kindnesses, because of luck. ... But part of it has got to be forgiveness and gratefulness.
For me it's not possible to forget, and I don't understand people who, when the love is ended, can bury the other person in hatred or oblivion. For me, a man I have loved becomes a kind of brother.
Today I forgive all those who have ever offended me. I give my love to all thirsty hearts, both to those who love me and to those who do not love me.
Experience is how life catches up with us and teaches us to love and forgive each other.
We never ask God to forgive anybody except when we haven't.
Forgiveness is God's command.
God will forgive me, that is His business.
God will forgive me the foolish remarks I have made about Him just as I will forgive my opponents the foolish things they have written about me, even though they are spiritually as inferior to me as I to thee, O God!
Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice; and be ye kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you.
I have looked on a lot of women with lust. I've committed adultery in my heart many times. God recognizes I will do this and forgives me.
How Forgiveness Helps Us Forgiveness is the answer to the child's dream of a miracle by which what is broken is made whole again, what is soiled is again made clean.
Forgiveness is all-powerful. Forgiveness heals all ills.
Those who are free of resentful thoughts surely find peace.
I can have peace of mind only when I forgive rather than judge.
The forgiving state of mind is a magnetic power for attracting good.
Judge not, that ye be not judged.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned.
Forgiving those who hurt us is the key to personal peace.
Forgive all who have offended you, not for them, but for yourself.
To forgive is the highest, most beautiful form of love. In return, you will receive untold peace and happiness.
Forgiveness is the key to action and freedom.
Forgiveness is the way to true health and happiness.
Humanity is never so beautiful as when praying for forgiveness, or else forgiving another.
Those who can't forget are worse off than those who can't remember.
Forgiveness is the remission of sins. For it is by this that what has been lost, and was found, is saved from being lost again.
I can pardon everybody's mistakes except my own.
If you haven't forgiven yourself something, how can you forgive others?
The moment an individual can accept and forgive himself, even a little, is the moment in which he becomes to some degree lovable.
They may not deserve forgiveness, but I do.
I forgive myself for having believed for so long that... I was never good enough to have, get, be what I wanted.
How unhappy is he who cannot forgive himself.
I learned that true forgiveness includes total self-acceptance. And out of acceptance wounds are healed and happiness is possible again.
Every man treats himself as society treats the criminal.
To understand is to forgive, even oneself.
Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
He that cannot forgive others breaks the bridge over which he must pass himself; for every man has need to be forgiven.
Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.
Forgiveness is the noblest vengeance.
There is no revenge so complete as forgiveness.
Many promising reconciliations have broken down because while both parties came prepared to forgive, neither party came prepared to be forgiven.
Forgiveness is man's deepest need and highest achievement.
Abandon your animosities and make your sons Americans!
Her breasts and arms ached with the beauty of her own forgiveness.
Life is an adventure in forgiveness.
The cut worm forgives the plow.
Forgiveness is the highest and most difficult of all moral lessons.
The fragrance of the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.
How shall I love the sin, yet keep the sense, And love the offender, yet detest the offence?
Forgiveness is the giving, and so the receiving, of life.
Who would care to question the ground of forgiveness or compassion?
O friends, I pray tonight, Keep not your kisses for my dead cold brow. The way is lonely; let me feel them now. Think gently of me; I am travel-worn, My faltering feet are pierced with many a thorn. Forgive! O hearts estranged, forgive, I plead! When ceaseless bliss is mine I shall not need The tenderness for which I long tonight.
Let us forget and forgive injuries.
Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.
It is easier to forgive an enemy than a friend.
It is very easy to forgive others their mistakes; it takes more grit and gumption to forgive them for having witnessed your own.
When you pray for anyone you tend to modify your personal attitude toward him.
Forgiving means to pardon the unpardonable, faith means believing the unbelievable, and hoping means to hope when things are hopeless.
To err is human; to forgive, divine.
Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. Let me hold you while I may, for it may not always be so. One day I shall dig my nails into the earth, or bury my face in the pillow, or stretch myself taut, or raise my hands to the sky and want, more than all the world, your return.
The unthankful heart... discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings!
Joy is what happens to us when we allow ourselves to recognize how good things really are.
Good heavens, of what uncostly material is our earthly happiness composed ... if we only knew it. What incomes have we not had from a flower, and how unfailing are the dividends of the seasons.
Be on the lookout for mercies. The more we look for them, the more of them we will see.... Better to loose count while naming your blessings than to lose your blessings to counting your troubles.
The man who thinks his wife, his baby, his house, his horse, his dog, and himself severely unequalled, is almost sure to be a good-humored person.
Every dog has its day, but it's not every dog that knows when he's having it.
We must give ourselves more earnestly and intelligently and generously than we have to the happy duty of appreciation.
There is nothing so bitter that a patient mind cannot find some solace for it.
I thank You God for this most amazing day; for the leaping greenly spirits of trees and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything which is natural which is infinite which is yes.
My private measure of success is daily. If this were to be the last day of my life would I be content with it? To live in a harmonious balance of commitments and pleasures is what I strive for.
Yes, there is a Nirvanah: it is in leading your sheep to a green pasture, and in putting your child to sleep, and in writing the last line of your poem.
Blessed are those who can give without remembering and take without forgetting.
That daily life is really good one appreciates when one wakes from a horrible dream, or when one takes the first outing after a sickness. Why not realize it now?
Thank God every morning when you get up that you have something to do which must be done, whether you like it or not.
When I first open my eyes upon the morning meadows and look out upon the beautiful world, I thank God I am alive.
Each day comes bearing its own gifts. Untie the ribbons.
We can be thankful to a friend for a few acres or a little money; and yet for the freedom and command of the whole earth, and for the great benefits of our being, our life, health, and reason, we look upon ourselves as under no obligation.
When something does not insist on being noticed, when we aren't grabbed by the collar or struck on the skull by a presence or an event, we take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude.
Why do some people always see beautiful skies and grass and lovely flowers and incredible human beings, while others are hard-pressed to find anything or any place that is beautiful?
Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted.
My country ... gave me schooling, independence of action and opportunity for service. ... I am indebted to my country beyond any human power to repay.
Dwell upon the brightest parts in every prospect... and strive to be pleased with the present circumstances.
We are never either so wretched or so happy as we say we are.
The best things are nearest: breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of God just before you. Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life's plain, common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things of life.
Is life so wretched? Isn't it rather your hands which are too small, your vision which is muddled? You are the one who must grow up.
Looking for Silver Linings Our real blessings often appear to us in the shape of pains, losses and disappointments.
Most of my major disappointments have turned out to be blessings in disguise. So whenever anything bad does happen to me, I kind of sit back and feel, well, if I give this enough time, it'll turn out that this was good, so I shan't worry about it too much.
Sometimes the best deals are the ones you don't make.
The advantages of a losing team: (i) There is everything to hope for and nothing to fear, (2.) Defeats do not disturb one's sleep. (3) An occasional victory is a surprise and a delight. (4) There is no danger of any club passing you. (5) You are not asked fifty times a day, "What was the score?"; people take it for granted that you lost.
That which does not kill me makes me stronger.
Not being beautiful was the true blessing. ... Not being beautiful forced me to develop my inner resources. The pretty girl has a handicap to overcome.
The difficulties, hardships and trials of life, the obstacles ... are positive blessings. They knit the muscles more firmly, and teach self-reliance.
Many a man curses the rain that falls upon his head, and knows not that it brings abundance to drive away hunger.
Trouble is only opportunity in work clothes.
Adversity has the same effect on a man that severe training has on the pugilist: it reduces him to his fighting weight.
You will never be the person you can be if pressure, tension and discipline are taken out of your life.
Some troubles, like a protested note of a solvent debtor, bear interest.
Failure changes for the better, success for the worse.
The basis of optimism is sheer terror.
No evil is without its compensation ... it is not the loss itself, but the estimate of the loss, that troubles us.
Let me embrace thee, sour adversity, for wise men say it is the wisest course.
Give thanks for sorrow that teaches you pity; for pain that teaches you courage-and give exceeding thanks for the mystery which remains a mystery still-the veil that hides you from the infinite, which makes it possible for you to believe in what you cannot see.
A Christian could even give thanks for Hell, because Hell was a threat and a warning to keep him in the right way.
To every disadvantage there is a corresponding advantage.
Too many people miss the silver lining because they're expecting gold.
If you count all your assets, you always show a profit.
Too happy would you be, did ye but know your own advantages!
Much unhappiness results from our inability to remember the nice things that happen to us.
If we go down into ourselves, we find that we possess exactly what we desire.
Be grateful for yourself... be thankful.
Keep a grateful journal. Every night, list five things that you are grateful for. What it will begin to do is change your perspective of your day and your life.
There is no wealth but life.
Just to be is a blessing. Just to live is holy.
Life may be hard, but it's also wonderful.
I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.
Be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love, and to work, and to play and to look up at the stars.
To be alive, to be able to see, to walk ... it's all a miracle. I have adapted the technique of living life from miracle to miracle.
This is another day! Are its eyes blurred With maudlin grief for any wasted past? A thousand thousand failures shall not daunt! Let dust clasp dust, death, death; I am alive!
The mere sense of living is joy enough.
However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest. The fault-finder will find faults even in Paradise. Love your life.
Life is the first gift, love is the second, and understanding the third.
To have a full stomach and fixed income are no small things .
For one mother, joy is the quiet pleasure found in gently rubbing shampoo into her young child's hair. For another woman it's taking a long walk alone, while for yet another it's reveling in a much-anticipated vacation.
How can they say my life is not a success? Have I not for more than sixty years gotten enough to eat and escaped being eaten?
Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.
Only a stomach that rarely feels hungry scorns common things.
My gratitude for good writing is unbounded; I'm grateful for it the way I'm grateful for the ocean.
Is it so small a thing to have enjoyed the sun, to have lived light in the spring, to have loved, to have thought, to have done?
When something does not insist on being noticed, when we aren't grabbed by the collar or struck on the skull by a presence or an event, we take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude.
You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink.
Thank God for dirty dishes; they have a tale to tell. While other folks go hungry, we're eating pretty well. With home, and health, and happiness, we shouldn't want to fuss; For by this stack of evidence, God's very good to us.
It is strange what a contempt men have for the joys that are offered them freely.
Grateful for the blessing lent of simple tastes and mind content!
An easy thing, O Power Divine, To thank thee for these gifts of Thine, For summer's sunshine, winter's snow, For hearts that kindle, thoughts that glow; But when shall I attain to this- To thank Thee for the things I miss?
People call me an optimist, but I'm really an appreciator ... years ago, I was cured of a badly infected finger with antibiotics when once my doctor could have recommended only a hot water soak or, eventually, surgery.... When I was six years old and had scarlet fever, the first of the miracle drugs, sulfanilamide, saved my life. I'm grateful for computers and photocopiers ... I appreciate where we've come from.
If only the people who worry about their liabilities would think about the riches they do possess, they would stop worrying. Would you sell both your eyes for a million dollars ... or your two legs ... or your hands ... or your hearing? Add up what you do have, and you'll find that you won't sell them for all the gold in the world. The best things in life are yours, if you can appreciate yourself.
We can be thankful to a friend for a few acres or a little money; and yet for the freedom and command of the whole earth, and for the great benefits of our being, our life, health, and reason, we look upon ourselves as under no obligation.
Health is ... a blessing that money cannot buy.
Happiness lies, first of all, in health.
A sound mind in a sound body is a short but full description of a happy state in this world.
Health is the vital principle of bliss.
If you can't be thankful for what you receive, be thankful for what you escape.
Even though we can't have all we want, we ought to be thankful we don't get all we deserve.
Happy the man who can count his sufferings.
Happiness is composed of misfortunes avoided.
Considering the fortune you might have lost, you'll have to admit you're rich already.
I thank Thee first because I was never robbed before; second, because although they took my purse they did not take my life; third, because although they took my all, it was not much; and fourth because it was I who was robbed, and not I who robbed.
Think of the ills from which you are exempt.
A man should always consider ... how much more unhappy he might be than he is.
The happiness of any given life is to be measured not by its joys and pleasures, but by the extent to which it has been free from suffering, from positive evil.
Better to suffer than to die.
Better a little fire to warm us than a great one to burn us.
It isn't important to come out on top. What matters is to come out alive.
He who limps still walks.
I have gout, asthma, and seven other maladies, but am otherwise very well.
Luckily, I never feel at one time more than half my pains.
Pain is no longer pain when it is past.
We are content to forgo joy when pain is also lost.
The happiest is he who suffers the least pain; the most miserable, he who enjoys the least pleasure.
Happiness is not being pained in body, or troubled in mind.
The end of pain we take as happiness.
You can be happy indeed if you have breathing space from pain.
The summit of pleasure is the elimination of all that gives pain.
I seek the utmost pleasure and the least pain.
A prudent man will think more important what fate has conceded to him, than what it has denied.
It is better to be looked over than overlooked.
Blessed are those who can give without remembering and take without forgetting.
He is a man of sense who does not grieve for what he has not, but rejoices in what he has.
Enjoy the successes that you have, and don't be too hard on yourself when you don't do well. Too many times we beat up on ourselves. Just relax and enjoy it.
For everything you have missed, you have gained something else.
Few love what they may have.
The knowledge that something remains yet unenjoyed impairs our enjoyment of the good before us.
May we never let the things we can't have, or don't have, spoil our enjoyment of the things we do have and can have.
It is not customary to love what one has.
The talent for being happy is appreciating and liking what you have, instead of what you don't have.
Happy thou art not; for what thou hast not, still thou striv'est to get; and what thou hast, forget'est.
Men ... always think that something they are going to get is better than what they have got.
When we cannot get what we love, we must love what is within our reach.
Take full account of the excellencies which you possess, and in gratitude remember how you would hanker after them, if you had them not.
A wise man cares not for what he cannot have.
A man can refrain from wanting what he has not, and cheerfully make the best of a bird in the hand.
Long only for what you have.
The tulip is, among flowers, what the peacock is among birds. A tulip lacks scent, a peacock has an unpleasant voice. The one takes pride in its garb, the other in its tail.
Slight not what is near though aiming at what is far.
Greediness of getting more, deprives ... the enjoyment of what it had got.
There is a mortal breed most full of futility. In contempt of what is at hand, they strain into the future, hunting impossibilities on the wings of ineffectual hopes.
What you really value is what you miss, not what you have.
While you fear missing a meal, you aren't fully aware of the meals you do eat.
To be upset over what you don't have is to waste what you do have.
If there's no bread, cakes are very good.
Not what we have, but what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance.
Not what we have, but what we use, not what we see, but what we choose-these are the things that mar or bless human happiness.
The happiness which is lacking makes one think even the happiness one has unbearable.
We always have enough to be happy if we are enjoying what we do have- and not worrying about what we don't have.
Welcome everything that comes to you, but do not long for anything else.
The superiority of the distant over the present is only due to the mass and variety of the pleasures that can be suggested, compared with the poverty of those that can at any time be felt.
If there is a sin against life, it consists perhaps not so much in despairing of life as in hoping for another, and in eluding the implacable grandeur of this life.
Mankind, by the perverse depravity of their nature, esteem that which they have most desired as of no value the moment it is possessed, and torment themselves with fruitless wishes for that which is beyond their reach.
All your youth you want to have your greatness taken for granted; when you find it taken for granted, you are unnerved.
Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things only hoped for.
It ain't so much trouble to get rich as it is to tell when we have got rich.
What you have become is the price you paid to get what you used to want.
No man can be satisfied with his attainment, although he may be satisfied with his circumstances.
Life is a progress from want to want, not from enjoyment to enjoyment.
We spend our time searching for security and hate it when we get it.
There must be more to life than having everything.
Is there no end to this escalation of desire?
Ambition has its disappointments to sour us, but never the good fortune to satisfy us.
There is no banquet but some dislike something in it.
If we get everything that we want, we will soon want nothing that we get.
It matters very little whether a man is discontented in the name of pessimism or progress, if his discontent does in fact paralyse his power of appreciating what he has got.
The best things in life are appreciated most after they have been lost.
Only with a new ruler do you realize the value of the old.
I remember those happy days and often wish I could speak into the ears of the dead the gratitude which was due to them in life and so ill-returned.
You can't appreciate home until you've left it, money till it's spent, your wife till she's joined a woman's club, nor Old Glory till you see it hanging on a broomstick on the shanty of a consul in a foreign town.
Birds sing after a storm; why shouldn't people feel as free to delight in whatever remains to them?
Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.
Oh, my friend, it's not what they take away from you that counts-it's what you do with what you have left.
God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say "thank you"?
So long as we can lose any happiness, we possess some.
Happiness always looks small while you hold it in your hands, but let it go, and you learn at once how big and precious it is.
After my mother's death, I began to see her as she had really been.... It was less like losing someone than discovering someone.
We never know the worth of water till the well is dry.
The way to love anything is to realize that it may be lost.
Jesus, please teach me to appreciate what I have before time forces me to appreciate what I had.
Eden is that old-fashioned house we dwell in every day Without suspecting our abode, until we drive away.
Generally the man with a good wife, or the woman with a good husband, or the children with good parents discover too late the goodness they overlooked while it was in full bloom.
Jesus, please teach me to appreciate what I have, before time forces me to appreciate what I had.
The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving.
The greatest saint in the world is not he who prays most or fasts most; it is not he who gives alms, or is most eminent for temperance, chastity or justice. It is he who is most thankful to God.
Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving.
The unthankful heart... discovers no mercies; but the thankful heart... will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings.
Thanksgiving is a sure index of spiritual health.
If the only prayer you say in your whole life is "Thank you," that would suffice.
Who does not thank for little will not thank for much.
The beginning of men's rebellion against God was, and is, the lack of a thankful heart.
A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all other virtues.
Seeds of discouragement will not grow in the thankful heart.
The private and personal blessings we enjoy-the blessings of immunity, safeguard, liberty and integrity- deserve the thanksgiving of a whole life.
One of life's gifts is that each of us, no matter how tired and downtrodden, finds reasons for thankfulness.
Joy is the simplest form of gratitude.
He who receives a benefit with gratitude repays the first installment on his debt.
Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.
Remember that not to be happy is not to be grateful.
Gratitude weighs heavy on us only when we no longer feel it.
Appreciation is yeast, lifting ordinary to extraordinary.
Gratitude is the memory of the heart.
One can never pay in gratitude; one can only pay "in kind" somewhere else in life.
Silent gratitude isn't much use to anyone.
Happiness is itself a kind of gratitude.
One cannot collect all the beautiful shells on the beach.
A man who accustoms himself to buy superfluities is often in want of necessities.
What is the proper limit for wealth? It is, first, to have what is necessary; and, second, to have what is enough.
He has enough who is contented with little.
There is a great difference between satisfaction and satiation.
More than enough is too much.
It's a grand thing to be able to take your money in your hand and to think no more of it when it slips away from you than you would a trout that would slip back into the stream.
Let him who has enough wish for nothing more.
Nothing is enough to the man for whom enough is too little.
Sufficiency's enough for men of sense.
You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough.
Enough is as good as a feast.
There is satiety in all things, in sleep, and love-making, in the loveliness of singing and the innocent dance.
The average man is rich enough when he has a little more than he has got.
A wise man will desire no more than what he may get justly, use soberly, distribute cheerfully, and leave con-tently.
Money and time are the heaviest burdens of life, and the unhappiest of all mortals are those who have more of either than they know how to use.
Whoever is not in his coffin and the dark grave, let him know he has enough.
Too much is unwholesome.
This only grant me, that my means may lie too low for envy, for contempt too high.
Moderation is the key to lasting enjoyment.
Nothing in excess.
Ask the gods nothing excessive.
Avarice is as destitute of what it has as poverty is of what it has not.
Philosophy ... should not pretend to increase our present stock, but make us economists of what we are possessed of.
The use we make of our fortune determines as to its sufficiency. A little is enough if used wisely, and too much is not enough if expended foolishly.
It is possible to own too much. A man with one watch knows what time it is; a man with two watches is never quite sure.
Happiness is a way station between too much and too little.
To be able to dispense with good things is tantamount to possessing them.
We don't need to increase our goods nearly as much as we need to scale down our wants. Not wanting something is as good as possessing it.
The hardest thing is to take less when you can get more.
Whoever does not regard what he has as most ample wealth is unhappy, though he is master of the world.
I have learned to seek my happiness by limiting my desires, rather than in attempting to satisfy them.
How few are our real wants, and how easy is it to satisfy them! Our imaginary ones are boundless and insatiable.
Of all the people in the world, those who want the most are those who have the most.
Who covets more is evermore a slave.
If you desire many things, many things will seem but a few.
The heart is great which shows moderation in the midst of prosperity.
Want is a growing giant whom the coat of Have was never large enough to cover.
Freedom is not procured by a full enjoyment of what is desired, but by controlling the desire.
How many things there are which I do not want.
Moderate desires constitute a character fitted to acquire all the good which the world can yield. He who has this character is prepared, in whatever situation he is, therewith to be content and has learned the science of being happy.
Were a man to order his life by the rules of true reason, a frugal substance joined to a contented mind is for him great riches.
One is never fortunate or as unfortunate as one imagines.
Man needs so little ... yet he begins wanting so much.
Man never has what he wants, because what he wants is everything.
If your desires be endless, your cares and fears will be so, too.
We are no longer happy so soon as we wish to be happier.
He is not rich that possesses much, but he that covets no more; and he is not poor that enjoys little, but he that wants too much.
Independence may be found in comparative as well as in absolute abundance; I mean where a person contracts his desires within the limits of his fortune.
One never hugs one's good luck so affectionately as when listening to the relation of some horrible misfortunes which has overtaken others.
If you would but exchange places with the other fellow, how much more you could appreciate your own position.
We should learn, by reflection on the misfortunes of others, that there is nothing singular in those which befall ourselves.
Double-no, triple-our troubles and we'd still be better off than any other people on earth.
I wept because I had no shoes, until I saw a man who had no feet.
When life's problems seem overwhelming, look around and see what other people are coping with. You may consider yourself fortunate.
If all misfortunes were laid in one common heap whence everyone must take an equal portion, most people would be contented to take their own and depart.
Not he who has little, but he who wishes more, is poor.
The covetous man is always poor.
He is not poor that hath not much, but he that craves much.
He is poor who does not feel content.
I have no riches but my thoughts. Yet these are wealth enough for me.
He who curbs his desires will always be rich enough.
There is a gigantic difference between earning a great deal of money and being rich.
That man is richest whose pleasures are the cheapest.
If you want an accounting of your worth, count your friends.
I've had an exciting life; I married for love and got a little money along with it.
True affluence is not needing anything.
There are many excuses for the person who made the mistake of confounding money and wealth. Like many others they mistook the sign for the thing signified.
Friends are the thermometer by which we may judge the temperature of our fortunes.
To be satisfied with what one has; that is wealth. As long as one sorely needs a certain additional amount, that man isn't rich.
I have the greatest of all riches: that of not desiring them.
My friends are my estate.
A man is rich in proportion to the things he can afford to let alone.
There are people who have money and people who are rich.
He is rich that is satisfied.
Nor need we power or splendor, wide hall or lordly dome; the good, the true, the tender-these form the wealth of home.
He is well paid that is well satisfied.
He who is content in his poverty is wonderfully rich.
He who is contented is rich.
A BMW can't take you as far as a diploma.
All fortune belongs to him who has a contented mind.
The greatest wealth is contentment with a little.
No one has yet had the courage to memorialize his wealth on his tombstone. A dollar mark would not look well there.
So many of us define ourselves by what we have, what we wear, what kind of house we live in, and what kind of car we drive ... if you think of yourself as the woman in the Cartier watch and the Hermes scarf, a house fire will destroy not only your possessions but your self.
The externals are simply so many props; everything we need is within us.
He is not rich that possesses much, but he that is content with what he has.
One well-cultivated talent, deepened and enlarged, is worth one hundred shallow faculties.
If only every man would make proper use of his strength and do his utmost, he need never regret his limited ability.
Anyone is to be pitied who has just sense enough to perceive his deficiencies.
What strange perversity is it that induces a man to set his heart on doing those things which he has not succeeded in, and makes him slight those in which his achievement has been respectable.
I may not amount to much, but at least I am unique.
Happy is the man who can do only one thing: in doing it, he fulfills his destiny.
The real tragedy of life is not being limited to one talent, but in failing to use that one talent.
Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are.
Nothing will content him who is not content with a little.
Contentment is worth more than riches.
I figure if I have my health, can pay the rent and I have my friends, I call it "content."
Be content with what thou hast received, and smooth thy frowning forehead.
He is poor who does not feel content.
If thou covetest riches, ask not but for contentment, which is an immense treasure.
Who is content with nothing possesses all things.
My crown is called content, a crown that seldom kings enjoy.
It is right to be contented with what we have, never with what we are.
Be content with your lot; one cannot be first in everything.
Content may dwell in all stations. To be low, but above contempt, may be high enough to be happy.
He is not rich that possesses much, but he that is content with what he has.
True contentment... is the power of getting out of any situation all that there is in it. It is arduous, and it is rare.
Poor and content is rich, and rich enough.
The greatest wealth is contentment with a little.
And be content with such things as ye have.
Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.
Try to live the life of the good man who is more than content with what is allocated to him.
The world is full of people looking for spectacular happiness while they snub contentment.
We are never content with our lot.
Until you make peace with who you are, you'll never be content with what you have.
True contentment depends not upon what we have; a tub was large enough for Diogenes, but a world was too little for Alexander.
To be content with little is difficult; to be content with much, impossible.
Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has many; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.
No longer forward nor behind I look in hope or fear; But, grateful, take the good I find, The best of now and here.
What a wonderful life I've had! I only wish I'd realized it sooner.
Was it always my nature to take a bad time and block out the good times, until any success became an accident and failure seemed the only truth?
Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted.
There are men who are happy without knowing it.
We are all of us richer than we think we are.
What a miserable thing life is: you're living in clover, only the clover isn't good enough.
I am convinced, the longer I live, that life and its blessings are not so entirely unjustly distributed as when we are suffering greatly we are inclined to suppose.
Life is hard. Next to what?
Over a period of time it's been driven home to me that I'm not going to be the most popular writer in the world, so I'm always happy when anything in any way is accepted.
It made me gladsome to be getting some education, it being like a big window opening.
Too much of a good thing can be wonderful.
A man with ambition and love for his blessings here on earth is ever so alive. Having been alive, it won't be so hard in the end to lie down and rest.
In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
Be satisfied, and pleased with what thou art, Act cheerfully and well thou allotted part; Enjoy the present hour, be thankful for the past, And neither fear, nor wish, the approaches of the last.
No one is satisfied with his fortune, or dissatisfied with his intellect.
Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.
God pardons like a mother, who kisses the offense into everlasting forgetfulness.
Good, to forgive; Best, to forget.
It is easier to forgive an enemy than a friend.
His heart was as great as the world, but there was no room in it to hold the memory of a wrong.
Bear and forbear.
Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us.
To err is human, to forgive, divine.
Forgive others often, yourself never.
It is manlike to punish but godlike to forgive.


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I think and think for months, for years. Ninety-nine times the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right.
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