Careful Words

forgive (v.)

To err is human, to forgive divine.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Essay on Criticism. Part ii. Line 325.

Pray you now, forget and forgive.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Lear. Act iv. Sc. 7.

  Cosmus, Duke of Florence, was wont to say of perfidious friends, that "We read that we ought to forgive our enemies; but we do not read that we ought to forgive our friends."

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Apothegms. No. 206.

  Cosmus, Duke of Florence, was wont to say of perfidious friends, that "We read that we ought to forgive our enemies; but we do not read that we ought to forgive our friends."

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Apothegms. No. 206.

Too late I stayed,—forgive the crime!

Unheeded flew the hours;

How noiseless falls the foot of time

That only treads on flowers.

William Robert Spencer (1770-1834): Lines to Lady A. Hamilton.