Many biblical verses are like inkblot tests, revealing more about us than about the text in question.
Harold S. KushnerRead
Forgiveness is a favor we do for ourselves, not a favor we do to the other party.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Forgiveness benefits the person who forgives rather than the person being forgiven.
This quote emphasizes the idea that forgiveness is primarily an act of self-care and personal liberation. By forgiving others, we free ourselves from the burdens of anger and resentment, allowing us to move forward positively in life instead of being held back by past grievances.
Themes
ForgivenessSelf-CareAngerResentmentPersonal Growth
In practice
Example use cases
During a team-building workshop, to encourage participants to let go of past conflicts.
More from Harold S. Kushner
All quotes →I am quite confident that the most important part of a human being is not his physical body but his nonphysical essence, which some people call soul and others, personality... The nonphysical part cannot die and cannot decay because it's not physical.
Harold S. KushnerRead
That is why we have to make room in our lives for people who may sometimes disappoint or exasperate us. If we hold our friends to a standard of perfection, or if they do that to us, we will end up far lonelier than we want to be.
Harold S. KushnerRead
Pain is a part of being alive, and we need to learn that. Pain does not last forever, nor is it necessarily unbeatable, and we need to be taught that.
Harold S. KushnerRead
Our souls are not hungry for fame, comfort, wealth, or power. Our souls are hungry for meaning, for the sense that we have figured out how to live so that our lives matter.
Harold S. KushnerRead
We cannot live without the knowledge that someone cares about us.
Harold S. KushnerRead
Similar quotes
Her curiosity instructed her more than the answers she was given.
Clarice LispectorRead
Before any of it could make sense, it had to be heard.
John GreenRead
At last I understood that the way over, or through this dilemma, the unease at writing about 'petty personal problems' was to recognize that nothing is personal, in the sense that it is uniquely one's own. Writing about oneself, one is writing about others, since your problems, pains, pleasures, emotions—and your extraordinary and remarkable ideas—can't be yours alone. [...] Growing up is after all only the understanding that one's unique and incredible experience is what everyone shares.
Doris LessingRead
When the pain overtakes you, reach inside. Gather the broken pieces, and hand them to God. Ask Him to remake your heart. Different, this time. Stronger. More beautiful. This is how we are made, and remade by the Maker.
Yasmin MogahedRead
When we put the pen to paper, we articulate things in our life that we may have felt vague about. Before you write about something, somebody says, 'How do you feel?' and you say, 'Oh, I feel okay.' Then you write about it, and you discover you don't feel okay.
Julia CameronRead
I will not be concerned at other men's not knowing me;I will be concerned at my own want of ability.
ConfuciusRead