"Never cut what can be untied" (Joseph Joubert). When you have been wronged, a poor memory is your best response. Never carry a grudge. While you're straining under its weight, the person you're mad at is out producing. Forgive your enemies - nothing annoys them more. There is no revenge so sweet as forgiveness. The only people you should try to get even with are those who have helped you.

"Forgiveness ought to be like a canceled note - torn in two and burned up, so that it never can be shown against one" (Henry Ward Beecher). One of the greatest strengths you can show is when you forego revenge and dare to forgive an injury.

"He who cannot forgive, destroys the bridge over which he may one day need to pass," said Larry Bielat. The one guaranteed formula for limiting your potential is unforgiveness. Hate, bitterness and revenge are luxuries you cannot afford.

People need loving most when they deserve it least. Forgiveness heals; unforgiveness wounds. When we think about our offense, trouble grows; when we forgive, trouble goes.

It is true that the one who forgives ends the quarrel. Patting a fellow on the back is the best way to get a chip off his shoulder. Forgive your enemies - you can't get back at them any other way! Forgiveness saves the expense of anger, the high cost of hatred and the waste of energy. There are two marks of greatness: giving and forgiving.

If you want to be miserable, hate somebody. Unforgiveness does a great deal more damage to the vessel in which it is stored than the object on which it is poured. Every person should have a special cemetery lot in which to bury the faults of friends and loved ones. "To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover the prisoner was you" (Unknown).

Source: Know Your Limits - Then Ignore Them by John Mason.
Excerpt permission granted by Insight Publishing Group