Forgiveness & Mercy

圍師必闕 • To a surrounded enemy, you must leave a way of escape.

Sun Tzu The Art of War

The insidious tricks of the enemy may disturb you, but the humility and humanity of Christ should console you. This man emphasizes how high above you Christ has been lifted up; Christ, though, says how low he came down to you.

Augustine of Hippo Confessions

The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.

Marcus Aurelius Meditations

The anger of an ape—the threat of a flatterer:—these deserve equal regard.

Epictetus Discourses & Enchiridion

The wisdom which knows what are and are not dangers is opposed to the ignorance of them

Plato The Republic & Dialogues

And these riches, that are derived from this art of wealth-getting, are truly unlimited; for just as the art of medicine is without limit in respect to health, and each of the arts is without limit in respect of its end...

Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics

攻乎異端，斯害也己。 • To throw oneself into strange teachings is quite dangerous.

Confucius The Analects (Lunyu)

Health is the greatest gift, contentment is the greatest wealth, a trusted friend is the best relative, Nibbana is the greatest bliss.

Gautama Buddha Dhammapada & Sutta Pitaka

If you wish mercy, show mercy to the weak.

Rumi Masnavi & Divan-e Shams

Pardon me, my friends, I have ventured to paint my happiness on the wall.

Friedrich Nietzsche Thus Spoke Zarathustra & Beyond Good and Evil

A punishment that penalizes without forestalling is indeed called revenge.

Albert Camus The Myth of Sisyphus & Notebooks

Hatred is increased by being reciprocated, and can on the other hand be destroyed by love.

Baruch Spinoza Ethics (Ethica)

In his campaigns I find more restraint and reflection than in those of Alexander, who seems to go looking for dangers and charging at them like a rushing torrent which indiscriminately batters and unselectively attacks anything it meets.

Michel de Montaigne Essais

Aime la vérité, mais pardonne à l'erreur.

Voltaire Candide & Philosophical Dictionary

As testy sick men when their deaths be near, No news but health from their physicians know.

William Shakespeare First Folio & Sonnets

An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.

Oscar Wilde De Profundis & Essays

When you want to get revenge on a woman you don't kill her—bosh! you go for her looks. You slit her nostrils—you notch her ears like a sow!

Mark Twain Notebooks & Autobiography

As soon as there is life there is danger.

Ralph Waldo Emerson Essays: First and Second Series

Love is a severe critic. Hate can pardon more than love.

Henry David Thoreau Walden

Conversion in the sense of self-purification, self-realization, is the crying need of the hour. That, however, is not what is meant by proselytising. To those who would convert India, might it not be said, ‘physician heal thyself’?

Mahatma Gandhi The Story of My Experiments with Truth

I have always believed that exercise is the key not only to physical health but to peace of mind.

Nelson Mandela Long Walk to Freedom

In remembering Maya Angelou, it is important to recall her commitment to the struggle for equality, not just for herself, or for women, or for African Americans. She was committed to peace and justice for all.

Maya Angelou I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings & Essays

I feel assured in my mind that your personality will help to soothe the injured souls and bring peace and unity into an atmosphere of mistrust and chaos.

Rabindranath Tagore Gitanjali & Stray Birds

My enemy said to me, "Love your enemy." And I obeyed him and loved myself.

Kahlil Gibran The Prophet

Forgiveness is the key to action and freedom.

Hannah Arendt The Human Condition

After wars peace, after peace, another war. Every day men are born and others die.

Simone de Beauvoir The Ethics of Ambiguity