Happy is the man who can brush aside the offending remarks of another and go on his way.

If I have said something to hurt a man once, I shall not get the better of this by saying many things to please him.

When a man but half forgives his enemy, it is like leaving a bag of rusty nails to interpose between them.

Forgiveness is the fragrance that is left on the heel that crushed the violet.

churches must come to terms with their past and genuinely repent, or there will be no future.

My grandmother had a motto that you should never look down on people unless you are helping them up, and I think that's a very spiritual way of living.

Strength and compassion are not mutually exclusive.

An Israelite could not have sung the familiar song 'God is so good, God is so good, God is so good, he's so good to me' (though the words echo the Psalms) without being reminded also of its ethical consequence: 'God asks me to show that goodness to others.

You can give without loving, but you can never love without giving. The great acts of love are done by those who are habitually performing small acts of kindness. We pardon to the extent that we love. Love is knowing that even when you are alone, you will never be lonely again. & great happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved. Loved for ourselves. & even loved in spite of ourselves.

If you are stone, be magnetic; if a plant, be sensitive; but if you are human be love.

Do not forget, do not ever forget, that you have promised me to use the money to make yourself an honest man.' Valjean, who did not recall having made any promise, was silent. The bishop had spoken the words slowly and deliberately. He concluded with a solemn emphasis: Jean Valjean, my brother, you no longer belong to what is evil but to what is good. I have bought your soul to save it from black thoughts and the spirit of perdition, and I give it to God.

The merciful precepts of Christ will at last suffuse the Code and it will glow with their radiance. Crime will be considered an illness with its own doctors to replace your judges and its hospitals to replace your prisons. Liberty shall be equated with health. Ointments and oil shall be applied to limbs that were once shackled and branded. Infirmities that once were scourged with anger shall now be bathed with love. The cross in place of the gallows: sublime and yet so simple.