Repentance, in simple words, is a state of sincere regret and remorse for wrong actions.
In simpler words, quotes referring to repentance and what it entails are repentance quotes. These quotes could be generally accepted or based on different beliefs of people.
Candidly, repentance is one of the most challenging actions of humans. Leaving an old way of life for a new one or admitting wrongdoings compounds the level of difficulty it poses to individuals.
Most times, when repentance is spoken of, it is related to religion or a relationship with God; meanwhile, it should not stop at that point as it matters more to fellow humans around us.
However the case may be, the bottom line of it all is repentance has been a valuable tool for sustaining relationships, society, and the world at large. Below are 65 repentance quotes from brilliant writers compiled for you. Several other repentance quotes have been generated based on different individuals' perspectives and beliefs. Take a look at some of them.
Repentance Love Quotes
Love is a great element of peace and reconciliation among individuals. This means that without love and peace, reconciliation is not feasible. Likewise, for repentance to be complete between both parties (the offended and the offender), love is needed. Below are some repentance love quotes that may help you.
"Remorse is the consciousness of doing wrong with no sense of love; penitence the same consciousness with the feeling of sorrow and tenderness added."
-Frederick W. Robertson.
"If you are renewed by grace, and were to meet your old self, I am sure you would be very anxious to get out of his company."
-Charles H. Spurgeon.
"Certainly we should be very active in seeking God, and Jesus himself called us to 'ask, seek, knock' in order to find him. Yet those who enter a relationship with God inevitably look back and recognize that God's grace had sought them out, breaking them open to new realities."
-Tim Keller.
"God is not looking for repayment, but repentance. What heals a broken relationship is sincere love and contrition"
-Frederica Mathewes-Green.
"Anger begins with folly and ends with repentance"
-Pythagoras.
"I say to you, the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe."
-Elizabeth George Speare.
Quotes On Repentance Principles
Complete repentance requires some heartfelt principles that must be put into consideration and steps that must be taken. The central concept behind this is avoiding possible punishments and repercussions of the offense. Below are some repentance quotes that contain some principles of repentance to guide you.
"If thou wouldst be justified, acknowledge thine injustice. He that confesses his sin, begins his journey toward salvation. He that is sorry for it, mends his pace. He that forsakes it, is at his journey's end."
-Francis Quarles.
"When we have heartily repented of a wrong, we should let all the waves of forgetfulness roll over it, and go forward unburdened to meet the future."
-Henry Ward Beecher.
"How can I forgive if you are not ready to give up that which caused you to stumble?"
-Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, 'The Mistress of Spices'.
"Repentance is the turning of the soul from the way of midnight to the point of the coming sun."
-Henry Ward Beecher.
"The pattern of the prodigal is: rebellion, ruin, repentance, reconciliation, restoration.
-Edwin Louis Cole.
"Without repentance, how can there be regeneration?"
-Lailah Gifty Akita.
"The proud do not improve, but defend their position by rationalizing. Repentance means change and it takes a humble person to change."
-Ezra Taft Benson.
"The seeds of repentance are sown in youth by pleasure, but the harvest is reaped in age by pain."
-Charles Caleb Colton.
"Never will Christ enter into that soul where the herald of repentance hath not been before him."
-Bishop Hall.
"The most beautiful blessing we have been given is the chance to repent."
-Islamic Proverb.
"The Christian who has stopped repenting has stopped growing."
-A.W. Pink.
"Bad men are full of repentance."
-Aristotle.
"Repentance follows hasty counsels."
-Publilius Syrus.
"There was a day when I died; died to self, my opinions, preferences, tastes and will; died to the world, its approval or censure; died to the approval or blame even of my brethren or friends; and since then I have studied only to show myself approved unto God."
-George Muller.
"The vigor and power and comfort of our spiritual life depends on our mortification of deeds of the flesh."
-John Owen.
"This feeble and most sensitive of spirits could do neither, yet continually did one thing or another, which intertwined, in the same inextricable knot, the agony of heaven-defying guilt and vain repentance."
-Nathaniel Hawthorne, 'The Scarlet Letter'.
"We understand why in the Bible repentance precedes faith. Before people find their need -- love met in God, they are looking to other things, often money, for satisfaction.
So believing in God has to involve a 180-degree turn away (that is, repentance) from the love of money to find contentment and confidence for the future simply in knowing God and depending on His promises."
-Daniel Fuller.
"Oh! anger is an evil thing and spoils the fairest face; It cometh like a rainy cloud upon a sunny place. One angry moment often does what we repent for years: It works the wrong way we ne’re make right by sorrow or tears."
-Edward William Cole, 'Cole's Funny Picture Book'.
Famous Repentance Quotes
A provoked thought could be a stepping stone to change of any kind. Some thought-provoking quotes could change your mindset and perspectives on repentance and instigate change.
"Of all acts of man repentance is the most divine. The greatest of all faults is to be conscious of none."
-Thomas Carlyle.
"Repentance, if it be true, strikes at the root and washes the heart from wickedness."
-Matthew Henry.
"Repentance, as we know, is basically not moaning and remorse, but turning and change."
-J. I. Packer.
"Nothing erases the past. There is repentance, there is atonement, and there is forgiveness. That is all, but that is enough."
-Ted Chiang.
"Repentance is accepted remorse"
-Sophie Swetchine.
"A sinner can no more repent and believe without the Holy Spirit's aid than he can create a world."
-Charles Spurgeon.
"Repentance is nothing else but a reformation of the whole life according to the Law of God."
- John Calvin.
"Genuine repentance must bear the seal of a corrected life."
-Lewis F. Korns.
"Repentance may be old-fashioned, but it is not outdated as long as there is sin."
-J. C. Macaulay.
"A man is restored to his gracious state through repentance than any religious action."
-Lailah Gifty Akita.
"Repentance is the next happiest state to that of sinlessness."
-Lorinus.
"A religion that does not begin with repentance is certain to end there – perhaps too late."
- Unknown*
*Do you know where this quote originated? Please let us know at hello@kidadl.com.
"Riches lies in repentance"
-Lailah Gifty Akita.
"The beginning of repentance is the confession of guilt."
-John Calvin.
"People who cover their faults and excuse themselves do not have a repentant spirit."
-Watchman Nee.
"Repentance means you change your mind so deeply that it changes you"
-Bruce Wilkinson.
"Repentance is an attitude that leads to action."
-John Blanchard.
"Repentance is a change of the mind and regeneration is a change of the man."
-Thomas Adams.
"Repentance is ultimate honesty."
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
Repentance Prayer Quotes
Religions are keen promoters of repentance not only between their believers and their God but also between fellow brethren. Below are some repentance prayer quotes of different men compiled together for you.
"May the mercy of God grant you the grace unto repentance."
-Lailah Gifty Akita.
"Repentance and faith are distasteful to the unregenerate; they would sooner repeat a thousand formal prayers than shed a solitary tear of true repentance."
-Charles Spurgeon.
"Late repentance is seldom true, but true repentance is never too late."
-Ralph Venning.
"I pray for repentance that will bring healing to the land. Deliver the leaders and the people from curses that have come upon the land."
-Kimberly Daniels, 'Prayers That Bring Change'.
"You may have to declare your forgiveness a hundred times the first day and the second day, but the third day will be less and each day after, until one day you will realize that you have forgiven completely.
And then one day you will pray for his wholeness and give him over to me so that my love will burn from his life every vestige of corruption."
-William Paul Young, 'The Shack'.
"Faith and repentance are the same; they are not two separate decisions. One cannot trust Christ as Savior without repenting or changing his mind. The very fact that he trusts Christ for salvation shows that he has changed his mind regarding sin, salvation, and God."
-Curtis Hutson.
"Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate."
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 'The Cost of Discipleship'.
"I think there are many who would like to be saved but have been presented the faulty idea that repentance is turning from sin and therefore they are convinced that they cannot be saved.
Oh, if we would only make salvation plain and explain to men that we are not saved by doing anything; rather we are saved by trusting in what Jesus has already done."
-Curtis Hutson.
True Repentance Quotes
An essential part of the repentance process is acceptance which can only be achieved by true repentance. True repentance comes with sincere remorse and total consciousness of being the guilty one whose wrongdoings need forgiveness and relationship amendments. Below are some true repentance quotes that could guide you.
"True repentance never leads to despair. Its leads home. It leads to grace."
-John Ortberg.
"True repentance means making amends with the person when at all possible."
-Lawana Blackwell.
"True repentance does not permit repetition."
-Spencer W. Kimball.
"True repentance hates the sin, and not merely the penalty; and it hates the sin most of all because it has discovered and felt God's love."
-William Taylor.
"A true repentance shuns the evil itself, more than the external suffering or the shame."
-William Shakespeare.
"Real repentance produces confession and forsaking of sin, reconciliation and restitution, separation from the world, submission to the lordship of Christ and filling of the Holy Spirit."
-Vance Havner.
"Four marks of true repentance are: acknowledgement of wrong, willingness to confess it, willingness to abandon it, and willingness to make restitution."
-Corrie Ten Boom.
"No repentance is true repentance which does not recognize Jesus as Lord over every area of life."
-John C. Chapman.
"True repentance is about transformation, not torture or torment."
-Dieter F. Uchtdorf.
"True faith begins with true repentance for whatever we have been doing that is wrong."
-Rick Joyner.
"True repentance has a double aspect. It looks upon things past with a weeping eye, and upon the future with a watchful eye."
-Robert Smith.
"True repentance always involves reform."
-Hosea Ballou.
"True repentance begins with knowledge of sin. It goes on to work sorrow for sin. It leads to confession of sin before God. It shows itself before a person by a thorough breaking off from sin. It results in producing a deep hatred for all sin."
-J. C. Ryle.
"True repentance will entirely change you; the bias of your souls will be changed, then you will delight in God, in Christ, in His Law, and in His people."
-George Whitefield.
