“Not to forgive is to be imprisoned by the past, by old grievances that do not permit life to proceed with new business. Not to forgive is to yield oneself to another's control... to be locked into a sequence of act and response, of outrage and revenge, tit for tat, escalating always. The present is endlessly overwhelmed and devoured by the past. Forgiveness frees the forgiver. It extracts the forgiver from someone else's nightmare.”

Neither the most eloquent nor the best crafted phrase on the subject of forgiving, but nevertheless 100% true.

I have come to believe that more than anything we are here to learn forgiveness--its implications are infinite.

Another excellent quote, unfortunately it's teaching is not practiced - yes, it's one of the keys to Peace, the other being Kindness. WISHING YOU ALL A HAPPY NEW YEAR

Very few quotations are irreducibly true and this is a good example. True in almost every case but some crimes should not be forgiven for to do so may prove encouraging or allowing repeated offenses. Think King George and the Constitution, for example. Or "pugnacious" Rumsfeld and torture. Or wholesale corruption and Cheney.

I believe Dick is correct, but the nature of forgiveness here applies to what a stranglehold the lack of it has on those that hold resentment and hatred and revenge within themselves. I do not take it to mean that you also do not punish people for wrong doings,

"An eye for an eye only makes the whole world blind." -- Gandhi

Forgive for your own well-being, not for your enemies. On the other hand, the other way to avoid tit-for-tat reprisals is to utterly destroy your enemy at the beginning.