To err
is human; to forgive is divine.
… Allexander Pope
You
must forgive those who transgress against you before you can look to
forgiveness from above.
….Talmud
Forgive
us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us.
… The Lord’s
Prayer
Life
is short and we have not too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who
are travelling the dark way with us. Oh, be swift to love! Make haste to be
kind!
… Henri F. Amiel
Life is
too short to be little.
… Benjamin
Disraeli
There are many fine things which you
mean to do some day, under what you think will be more favourable
circumstances. But the only time that is surely yours is the present, hence
this is the time to speak the word of appreciation and sympathy, to do the
generous deed, to forgive the fault of a thoughtless friend, to sacrifice self
a little more for others. Today is the day in which to express your noblest
qualities of mind and heart, to do at least one worthy thing which you have
long postponed, and to use your God-given abilities for the enrichment of some
less fortunate fellow traveler. Today you can make your life . . . . significant and worth while. The present
is yours to do with it as you will.
…..Grenville
Kleiser
In this
life, if you have anything to pardon, pardon quickly. Slow forgiveness is
little better than no forgiveness.
… Sir
Arthur W. Pinero
Around the corner I have a friend,
In this great city that has no end;
Yet days go by, and weeks rush on,
And before I know it a year is gone,
And I never see my old friend’s face,
For life is a swift and terrible race.
He knows I like him just as well
As in the days when I rang his bell
And he rang mine. We were younger then,
And now we are busy, tired men:
Tired with playing a foolish game,
Tired with trying to make a name.
“Tomorrow” I say, ‘I will call him Jim,
Just to show that I am thinking of him.”
But tomorrow comes – and tomorrow goes,
And the distance between us grows and
grows.
Around the corner – yet miles away . . .
“Here’s a telegram, Sir . . .
“
Jim died today.”
And that’s what we get, and deserve in the
end :
Around the corner, a vanished friend.
…..
Charles Hanson Towne
As
usual, the great church was filled. Phillips Brooks faced the enormous, hushed
congregation as he had so many times before, Sunday after Sunday—the expectant,
well-dressed congregation waiting for his weekly message.
He
looked into the faces of men and women he long had known, men and women who had
come to him with their problems, who had asked for his help and guidance. How
well he knew what seethed behind the pleasant, smiling masks of their
Sunday-best respectability! How well he knew the petty spites that embittered
their hearts, the animosities that set neighbor against neighbor, the silly
quarrels that were kept alive, he jealousies and misunderstanding, the stubborn
pride.
Today
his message was for those bitter, unbending ones who refused to forgive and
forget. He must make them realize that life is too short to nurse grievances,
to harbor grudges and resentments. He would plead for tolerance and
understanding, for sympathy and kindness. He would plead for brotherly love.
“Oh,
my dear friends!” he said… and it was as though he spoke to each separately and
alone :
“You who
are letting miserable misunderstanding run on from year to year, meaning to
clear them up some day ;
You who
are keeping wretched quarrels alive because you cannot quite make up your mind
that now is the day to sacrifice your pride and kill them;
You who
are passing men sullenly upon the street, not speaking to them out of some
silly spite, and yet knowing that it would fill you with shame and remorse if
you heard that one of those men were dead tomorrow morning;
You who
are letting your neighbor starve, till you hear that he is dying of starvation;
Or
letting your friend’s heart ache for a word of appreciation or sympathy, which
you mean to give him someday; if you only could know and see and feel, all of a
sudden, that “the time is short,” how it would break the spell! How you would
go instantly and do the thing which you might never have another chance to do.”