About Emotional Mastery

Ed Latimore’s Forgiveness Quotes

These quotes about forgiveness will help you let go of the painful past, live better in the present, and approach the future without trauma and guilt.

 Ed Latimore, author, blogger, and retired pro boxer
Ed Latimore Author, retired boxer, self-improvement enthusiast

In the end, you realize that it was never personal.

It was just people acting in their own best interests and you were collateral damage.

This doesn’t make it right, but realizing that you weren’t really a specific target is the first step to forgiveness.

You can’t make progress if you’re always reliving how you fucked up.

Forgive yourself, let the past die, and get on with making the world a better place.

The hardest person to forgive is often ourselves.

The weak seek revenge.                                                                                      The strong forgive.                                                                                               The intelligent ignore.

I don’t believe in “forgive and forget”. Only forgive. You still gotta protect ya neck

I forgive because I’m selfish.

I don’t do it for it the other person.

I do it so that I no longer have to think about or feel anything towards my past.

It’s not your fault if you were robbed, raped, or victimized. 

Bad things will happen to you simply because you exist in the universe with other humans whose desire exceeds their moral character.

Sometimes–by birth even–we’re just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

No matter how many times you relive the past…                                                Or how bad you feel about it…                                                                       You can’t change it.

Learn to forgive others, the world, and yourself.

Until you can do this, your heart and mind are held hostage by ghosts of your imagination.

You fear the past because it reminds you of what you were                                  You fear the present because you don’t like who you are                                    You fear the future because you worry you can’t change

The problem?

You can’t forgive your past.                                                                                    You can’t accept who you are                                                                              You won’t work for who you want to be

Everyone doesn’t emerge from hardship the same way. Some are tougher, some are traumatized, while others are completely broken.

Some want to forget, some can forgive, while others burn with hatred ready for revenge.

Similar experiences are no guarantee of similar reactions.

You don’t forgive because the person “deserves” it. You don’t forgive because you deserve it. 

You forgive because it’s the only way to cure your heart of hatred. Hatred of others and most importantly, of yourself.

Forgiveness doesn’t mean you continue to associate with someone. 

It doesn’t mean you expect them to change.

It means that the wrongs they’ve committed against you no longer take up space in your heart.

Forgiving someone doesn’t mean they’ve changed. It doesn’t mean that your perspective on them has changed.

It just means they no longer command real estate in your mind and heart.

Only a sucker would forget why a person required forgiveness in the first place.

The more I practice forgiveness, the less I expect others to do it.

My executioners will be men I have pardoned for worse crimes than the ones I’ll be judged for.

Such is burden of those who practice the art of letting go.

Forgiveness is all there is.

Anything else destroys you.

Forgiveness is like weight lifting for the soul.

Easiest way to forgiveness:

Assume something fucked up happened to the offender in childhood to mess them up now. Your heart will soften.

Forgiveness doesn’t mean you continue to associate with someone. 

It doesn’t mean you expect them to change.

It means that the wrongs they’ve committed against you no longer take up space in your heart.

Accepting that you’re powerless to change the past is the first part of forgiveness.

What happened to you is done.

All the negativity you carry is because you believe that if you project enough hatred into the world, the past will change and you’ll be innocent once again.

People hold a grudge because they genuinely believe that it will undo what’s already happened in the past.

The universe doesn’t work this way.

All you have is time and forgiveness. When correctly executed, the latter will accelerate the passage of the former.

Ed Latimore, author, blogger, and retired pro boxer
Ed Latimore Author, retired boxer, self-improvement enthusiast

Further Reading
7 things boxing taught me about risk taking
7 unconventional ways to move on from your ex
Life’s not fair. How to deal with it.
Why people hate you (5 most common reasons)