Quotes on Loving Your Enemies

“The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because generally they are the same people.”- G.K. Chesterton

“Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?”– Abraham Lincoln

That your enemies have been created is God’s doing; that they hate you and wish to ruin you is their own doing. What should you say about them in your mind? “Lord be merciful to them, forgive them their sins, put the fear of God in them, change them!” You are loving in them not what they are, but what you would have them to become. – St. Augustine

It should be of no concern to you how anyone else acts; you are to be My living reflection, through love and mercy. I answered, “Lord, but they often take advantage of my goodness.” That makes no difference, My daughter. That is no concern of yours. As for you, be always merciful toward other people, and especially toward sinners. – Jesus to St. Faustina, Diary of Divine Mercy

“Whenever you are confronted with an opponent, Conquer him with love.”- Mahatma Gandhi

“Love your Enemies, for they tell you your Faults.”- Benjamin Franklin

“Holding anger is like a poison. It eats you from inside. We think that hating is a weapon that attacks the person who harmed us. But hatred is a curved blade. And the harm we do, we do to ourselves.”- Mitch Albom

“The best thing to give to your enemy is forgiveness” – Benjamin Franklin

Persons are not known by intellect alone, not by principles alone, but only by love. It is when we love the other, the enemy, that we obtain from God the key to an understanding of who he is, and who we are. ..we have to see ourselves as similarly accused along with him … and needing, with him, the ineffable gift of grace and mercy to be saved. Then, instead of pushing him down, trying to climb out by using his head as a stepping-stone for ourselves, we help ourselves to rise by helping him to rise. For when we extend our hand to the enemy who is sinking in the abyss, God reaches out to both of us, for it is He first of all who extends our hand to the enemy. It is He who “saves himself” in the enemy, who makes use of us to recover the lost goat which is His image in our enemy.- Thomas Merton

“No one is to be called an enemy, all are your benefactors, and no one does you harm. You have no enemy except yourselves.”- Francis of Assisi

The patient man goes through a great and salutary purgatory when he grieves more over the malice of one who harms him than for his own injury; when he prays readily for his enemies and forgives offenses from his heart… -Imitation of Christ

My pupil, have great love for those who cause you suffering. Do good to those who hate you. I answered, “O my Master, You see very well that I feel no love for them, and that troubles me.” Jesus answered, It is not always within your power to control your feelings. You will recognize that you have love if, after having experienced annoyance and contradiction, you do not lose your peace, but pray for those who have made you suffer and wish them well. – Jesus to St. Faustina, Diary of Divine Mercy

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