On Grace Received

“The quality of mercy is not strained. It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath. It is twice blest: it blesseth him that gives and him that takes.”

“We do pray for mercy, and that same prayer doth teach us all to render the deeds of mercy.”

“How would you be, If He, which is the top of judgement, should But judge you as you are? O, think on that, And mercy then will breathe within your lips, Like man new made.”

“He shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.”

“Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.”

“In all this the sweet eye of pity and love is lifted never off us, nor the working of mercy ceaseth.”

“To those who are good to me, I am good; and to those who are not good to me, I am also good; and thus all get to be good.”

“Jean Valjean, my brother, you no longer belong to evil, but to good. It is your soul that I buy from you.”

Forgiving lifted wellbeing most in relationships people were committed to, which suggests that mercy does its deepest work where the tie was meant to last.

Two longitudinal studies found that as people grew more forgiving their wellbeing rose with them, and feeling connected to other people helped account for the change.

Asked to recall a betrayal, people who had forgiven showed calmer hearts and lower blood pressure than those who had not. The body keeps its own account of mercy.