Lewis B. Smedes Quotes

The first and often only person to be healed by forgiveness is the person who does the forgiveness... When we genuinely forgive, we set a prisoner free and then discover that the prisoner we set free was us.

Forgiveness sets the prisoner free. And realizing that prisoner was you. That's what forgiveness does. It sets you free.

To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.

Now I'm free of him and I'm light as a feather. There's no weight holding me down; I'm ready to spread my wings and fly.

It is the foregiver who is freed in foregiving.

The weight is off my shoulders. I don't live in the past anymore. I look forward, instead of back.

A life lived without forgiveness is a prison.

When we forgive and let go, not only does a huge weight drop off your shoulders, but the doorway to your own self-love opens.

The only way to heal the pain which will not heal itself is to forgive the person who hurt you. Forgiveness heals the memory's vision. ... You set a prisoner free, but you discover the real prisoner was yourself.

To forgive is to unlock the cage of another's folly to set ourselves free.

Acceptance is the key to be truly free.

We attain freedom as we let go of whatever does not reflect our magnificence.

When true forgiveness happens it is one of the most astonishing and liberating of the human experience.

To forgive is to abandon your right to pay back the predator in his own coin, but it is the loss that Liberates.

Forgiveness is the key to the heart's shackles.

Forgiving isn't something you do for someone else. It's something you do for yourself. It's saying, 'You're not important enough to have a stranglehold on me.' It's saying, 'You don't get to trap me in the past. I am worthy of a future.

Forgiveness is just another name for freedom.

Once you decide not to worry about that stuff anymore, dating and relationships and love and all that, it's like you're free to get on with real life.

As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn't leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I'd still be in prison.

People want you to be happy. Don't keep serving them your pain! If you could untie your wings and free your soul of jealousy, you and everyone around you would fly up like doves.

With inquiry, every painful story unravels. Freedom is possible in every moment.

Many people want payback and to see others suffer. Forgiveness is the key to freedom. You can choose to be enslaved and burdened or you can choose to be free. It's a choice. Forgiveness is a state of being. So once you do it, it alters who you are and the way you can be in the world.

When you forgive, you must cancel the debt. Do not spend your life paying and collecting debts.

Forgiveness makes you feel better. As soon as you forgive, you're free.

Forgiveness frees the forgiver.