The actuality of God’s grace toward sinners not only assures us of our own forgiveness, but is also the condition for the possibility of our forgiving anyone who has harmed us. Only insofar as forgiveness is first received as God’s unimaginable gift can it be offered to another in love. That is to say, only as we receive the actuality of God’s forgiveness do we have the capacity to forgive another who has harmed us.

Bearing the Unbearable: Trauma, Gospel, and Pastoral Care
Deborah van Deusen Hunsinger

Do you pardon the sins of others as readily as you pardon your own? And are their sins really as bad as you think they are?

Other people deserve a break as much as you do.

— Dan Pedersen, Forgiveness | Living With Confidence

“Whatever you do in revenge to a brother who has done you wrong will all become an obstacle for you at the time of prayer.”

—Abba Nil, Give Me a Word: The Alphabetical Sayings of the Desert Fathers

There is a difference between saying ‘I’m sorry’ and saying ‘Forgive me.’

—Fr. Stavros Akrotirianakis, Forgiveness

“You know, Don, there’s a difference between apologizing and asking for forgiveness,” he said. “An apology is a statement, as informal as a press release, but asking forgiveness involves giving power to the person you’re seeking forgiveness from.”

Scary Close: Dropping the Act and Finding True Intimacy

Forgive yourself. Even if everyone else forgives you, it wouldn’t matter.

You will not move forward until you forgive yourself. This is when healing begins.

There Are No Regrets In This Life, Only Lessons
By Natalie Madeline

Humility is, when the other person is at fault, for us to do a metanoia (prostration) to him and say, ‘Forgive me, my brother, I am sorry!’ before he has time to seek forgiveness.

—Saint Joseph the Hesychast