3 Ne. 12:23-24, 43-44; D&C 19:30; 64:9-11; John 8:1-11; Luke 6:26-38; Matt. 18:21-22; Companion to Your Study of the Book of Mormon, Ludlow, p. 269; Psycho-Cybernetics, Maltz, pp. 60-63; The Civil War, Burns-Burns & Ward, pp. 381-382, 410-412; Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, McConkie 1:222-223; Journal of Discourses 23:283-285; Ensign, May 1992, pp. 31-33, 62; refer in this text to 1 Ne. 7:20-21; Mosiah 26:30-31
“(Forgiving others) relieves the offended of the destructive burden that resentment and anger can cause.” (Marion D. Hanks, Conference Report, Oct. 1973, pp. 15-16)
“The nearer we get to our heavenly Father, the more we are disposed to look with compassion on perishing souls… . If you would have God have mercy on you, have mercy on one another.” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 241)
“Recently there came over my desk the poignant words of a father who had erred years ago and who was repentant. He agonized as he related that his sons and daughters refused to forgive him, even to the point of refusing to talk to him or see him in person after more than five years. The Lord tells us in D&C 64:9: ‘Wherefore, I say unto you, that ye ought to forgive one another; for he that forgiveth not his brother his trespasses standeth condemned before the Lord; for there remaineth in him the greater sin.’ I’ve seen many examples … of those who just don’t seem to be able to forgive another… . This surely is one of the more important ingredients in spiritual healing.” (Malcolm S. Jeppsen, Ensign, May 1994, p.18)
“Remember that we must forgive even if our offender did not repent and ask forgiveness… . It frequently happens that offenses are committed when the offender is not aware of it. Something has been said or done [which] is misconstrued or misunderstood. The offended one treasures in his heart the offense, adding to it such other things as might give fuel to the fire and justify his conclusions… . Do we [forgive] or do we sulk in our bitterness, waiting for our offender to learn of it and to kneel to us in remorse? And this reconciliation suggests also forgetting. Unless you forget, have you forgiven? … No bitterness of past frictions can be held in memory if we forgive with all our hearts.” (Spencer W. Kimball, Conference Report, Oct. 1949, pp. 132-133)
“Consider this lesson taught to me many years ago by a patriarch… . He married his sweetheart… . They were deeply in love, and she was expecting their first child. The night the baby was to be born, there were complications… . After many hours of labor, the condition of the mother-to-be became desperate. Finally the doctor was located. In the emergency, he acted quickly and soon had things in order. The baby was born and the crisis, it appeared, was over. Some days later, the young mother died from the very infection that the doctor had been treating at another home that night. John’s world was shattered… . As the weeks wore on, his grief festered. ‘That doctor should not be allowed to practice,’ he would say. ‘He brought that infection to my wife. If he had been careful, she would be alive today.’ He thought of little else, and in his bitterness, he became threatening. Today, no doubt, he would have been pressed by many others to file a malpractice suit. And there are lawyers who would see in his pitiable condition only one ingredient—money! … One night a knock came at his door. A little girl said simply, ‘Daddy wants you to come over. He wants to talk to you.’ ‘Daddy’ was the stake president. A grieving, heartbroken young man went to see his spiritual leader… . The counsel from that wise servant was simply, ‘John, leave it alone. Nothing you do about it will bring her back. Anything you do will make it worse. John, leave it alone.’ My friend told me then that this had been his trial—his Gethsemane. How could he leave it alone? Right was right! A terrible wrong had been committed and somebody must pay for it… . He determined to follow the counsel of that wise spiritual leader. He would leave it alone. Then he told me, … ‘It was not until I was an old man that I could finally see a poor country doctor—overworked, underpaid, run ragged from patient to patient, with little medicine, no hospital, few instruments, struggling to save lives, and succeeding for the most part. He had come in a moment of crisis, when two lives hung in the balance, and had acted without delay.’ … And that is the counsel I bring again to you. If you have a festering grudge, if you are involved in an acrimonious dispute, [Mormon 8:20]. I say, therefore, John, leave it alone. Mary, leave it alone.” (Boyd K. Packer, Conference Report, Oct. 1987, p. 19)
“‘Blame keeps wounds open. Only forgiveness heals!’ (O Pioneers! by Willa Cather). Recently I read where an elderly man disclosed at the funeral of his brother, with whom he had shared, from early manhood, a small, one room cabin near Canisteo, New York, that following a quarrel, they had divided the room in half with a chalk line and neither had crossed the line nor spoken a word to the other since that day—sixty-two years before! What a human tragedy—all for the want of mercy and forgiveness… . ‘He [who] cannot forgive others breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass if he would ever reach heaven; for everyone has need to be forgiven.’” (Thomas S. Monson, Ensign, May 1995, pp. 59-60)
“Life is too short to be spent nursing animosities or in keeping a box score of offenses against us… . We don’t want God to remember our sins, so there is something fundamentally wrong in our relentlessly trying to remember those of others. When we have been hurt, undoubtedly God takes into account what wrongs were done to us and what provocations there are for our resentments, but clearly the more provocation there is and the more excuse we can find for our hurt, all the more reason for us to forgive and be delivered from the destructive hell of such poisonous venom and anger. It is one of those ironies of godhood that in order to find peace, the offended as well as the offender must engage the principle of forgiveness.” (Jeffrey R. Holland, Ensign, Nov. 1996, p. 83)