SO GOOD QUOTES

Category: FORGIVENESS

  • Remember people’s love for you and their good past with you, whenever you are fought by doubts of their sincerity and whenever you see them erring against you, for then their past love will intercede for them and your anger will subside.

    —H.H. Pope Shenouda III

  • When we keep talking about the past, it’s a way to manipulate and control others.

    —Fr. Mina Dimitri

  • If you get into the habit, whenever someone else bothers you, of asking, Lord Jesus Christ, forgive me and show me my sin, you’ll be surprised at the adjustments in yourself that can be made to neutralize the problem.

    —Dee Pennock, God’s Path to Sanity

  • Therefore, let us not lay blame for the sins we have committed either on our birth or on anyone else, but only on ourselves.

    —Dee Pennock, God’s Path to Sanity

  • He who refuses to pardon, how often has he begged it for himself?

    —Seneca, On Anger

  • Every bad behavior comes from an unmet need.

    —Fr. Paul Girguis

  • Sometimes our failure in dealing with certain people is due more to our ignorance of how to treat them, than to their personal faults.

    —H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Characteristics of the Spiritual Path

  • How many times have you suffered from severe tribulations and vowed before God that if He saves you, you will do such and such? Do you abide by the pledges which you vow before God during your affliction?

    —H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Characteristics of the Spiritual Path

  • “Sometimes the annoyances that make you long for solitude are better for producing humility than the most complete solitude could be.”

    —François Fénelon, The Seeking Heart

    “In constant intercourse with other people we can sooner come to see our defects than we should in solitude.” 

    —Elder Macarius of Optina

    “The thing that annoys you about others is a reflection of you.” 

    —Maria Stenvinkel, 7 Things You Need to Know to Live Your Best Life and Make a Better World

    “If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn’t part of ourselves doesn’t disturb us.” 

    —Hermann Hesse

    Remember that it is not he who reviles you or strikes you, who insults you, but it is your opinion about these things as being insulting. When then a man irritates you, you must know that it is your own opinion which has irritated you.  Therefore especially try not to be carried away by the appearance.  For if you once gain time and delay, you will more easily master yourself.

    Epictetus, Enchiridion

    “Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.” 

    —Carl Jung

    “We often look out to other people – they’re difficult, they’re rude, they’re arrogant, they’re…I can’t deal with that person, look at how bad they are. – but turn it around, let it become a mirror. Is that, in fact, myself? Is it myself?”

    —Fr. Daniel Fanous, Dealing with Difficult People

    “When I’m quiet, everyone is happy at home. Why? Maybe I’m the one that is causing all the turmoil.” 

    —Fr. Paul Girguis

    “Some of us at work, we’re very nice.  At church, we’re loved by all.  But the people in our house cringe when the garage door opens and they know we’re coming home.”

    —Fr. Anthony Messeh

    Correct yourself of your faults and hold fast to piety. Commit your conscience, your life, and deeds unto God, Who knows our hearts. However, look upon yourself impartially. Are you not indeed difficult in your character, especially to those of your household? Perhaps you are morose, unkind, unsociable, taciturn. Expand your heart for sociability and kindness, though not to over-indulgence and connivance; be gentle, not provoking, calm in reproof.

    —St. John of Kronstadt, My Life in Christ

  • These angers are crippling, like a fit when they happen, and then, when they are over, haunting me with remorse. Those who know me well and love me have come to accept them as part of me; yet I know they are unacceptable.

    —May Sarton, Journal of a Solitude