These apology quotes will inspire you. The goal of an apology is generally forgiveness, reconciliation, and restoration of the relationship between the people involved in the conflict.
Below you will find a collection of motivating, knowledgeable, and encouraging apology quotes, apology sayings, and apology proverbs.
Inspirational Apology Quotes
- “Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so, you apologize for the truth.” ~ Benjamin Disraeli
- “Accept everything about yourself – I mean everything, You are you and that is the beginning and the end – no apologies, no regrets.” ~ Henry A. Kissinger
- “I recognize that by saying that I’m deeply sorry, it might not be enough and sufficient to address the pain and the hurt that I have caused you. Therefore, I want to ask for your forgiveness for my actions, and I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me.” ~ Marion Jones
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“Never ruin an apology with an excuse.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
- “When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.” ~ Dalai Lama
- “Right actions in the future are the best apologies for bad actions in the past.” ~ Tryon Edwards
- “Maturity is the ability to reap without apology and not complain when things don’t go well.” ~ Jim Rohn
- “The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget.” ~ Thomas Szasz
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“If you even dream of beating me you’d better wake up and apologize.” ~ Muhammad Ali
- “You can always say sorry but the real apology is when you hear the sadness in their voice and see the look in their eyes. And you realize that they have hurt themselves just as much.” ~ Kid Cudi
- “Grudges are a waste of perfect happiness. Laugh when you can. Apologize when you should and let go of what you can’t change.” ~ Drake
- “There’s one sad truth in life I’ve found While journeying east and west – The only folks we really wound Are those we love the best. We flatter those we scarcely know, We please the fleeting guest, And deal full many a thoughtless blow To those who love us best.” ~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox
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“It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.” ~ William Blake
- “It is often easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission.” ~ Grace Hopper
- “Let the wife make the husband glad to come home, and let him make her sorry to see him leave.” ~ Martin Luther , Apology quotes husband
- “You will always be too much of something for someone: too big, too loud, too soft, too edgy. If you round out your edges, you lose your edge. Apologize for mistakes. Apologize for unintentionally hurting someone – profusely. But don’t apologize for being who you are.” ~ Danielle LaPorte
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“I’m sorry my existence is not very noble or sublime.” ~ Keanu Reeves
- “Sacrifice is at the heart of repentance. Without deeds, your apology is worthless.” ~ Bryan Davis
- “Never make a defense or apology before you are accused.” ~ Charles I of England
- “It is a good rule in life never to apologize. The right sort of people do not want apologies, and the wrong sort take a mean advantage of them.” ~ P. G. Wodehouse
- “The best way to have the last word is to apologize.” ~ Joyce Meyer
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“I’m sorry you’re angry is not an apology.” ~ Lisa Lutz
- “True friends stab you in the front.” ~ Oscar Wilde , Apology quotes best friend
- “Men are taught to apologize for their weaknesses, women for their strengths.” ~ Lois Wyse
- “More people should apologize, and more people should accept apologies when sincerely made.” ~ Greg LeMond
- “Cheyenne Autumn was received not too successfully. I still think it was a very good movie. It was kinda Ford’s apology for the way he had treated Indians in his past pictures.” ~ Richard Widmark
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“In the case of the Japanese, they usually commit suicide before they make any apology.” ~ Chuck Grassley
- “An apology might help, but you can change your life without one.” ~ Robin Quivers
- “No sensible person ever made an apology.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “To apologize is to lay the foundation for a future offense.” ~ Ambrose Bierce
- “Eating words has never given me indigestion.” ~ Winston Churchill
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“I guess I have learned now that life becomes easier when you learn to accept an apology you never got.” ~ Celina Jaitly
- “I’m sorry, if you were right, I’d agree with you.” ~ Robin Williams
- “I sit on a man’s back, choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am very sorry for him and wish to ease his lot by all possible means – except by getting off his back.” ~ Leo Tolstoy
- “I want you to answer this question: Why should you settle for anything less than an authentic conservative who will fight for your views and values without an apology? Think about that.” ~ Rick Perry
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“When you have to apologize, it is well, I suppose, to get the thing over quickly.” ~ Dorothy Parker
- “It takes a great deal of character strength to apologize quickly out of one’s heart rather than out of pity. A person must possess himself and have a deep sense of security in fundamental principles and values in order to genuinely apologize.” ~ Stephen Covey
- “True remorse is never just a regret over consequences; it is a regret over motive.” ~ Mignon McLaughlin
- “I don’t ask for an apology because it’s only tomorrow’s fish-and-chip paper.” ~ Tracey Emin
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“Apologies only account for that which they do not alter.” ~ Benjamin Disraeli
- “A hero is someone we can admire without apology.” ~ Kitty Kelley
- “Apology is only egotism wrong side out.” ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
- “I will not deny but that the best apology against false accusers is silence and sufferance, and honest deeds set against dishonest words.” ~ John Milton
- “If God doesn’t destroy Hollywood Boulevard, he owes Sodom and Gomorrah an apology.” ~ Jay Leno
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“Real friends stab you in the front.” ~ Jonathan Davis
- “I will begin my presidency with a jobs tour. President Obama began with an apology tour. America, he said, had dictated to other nations. No Mr. President, America has freed other nations from dictators.” ~ Mitt Romney
- “Never forget the nine most important words of any family- I love you. You are beautiful. Please forgive me.” ~ H. Jackson Brown, Jr. , Apology quotes love
- “I am very conscious that I am not wise at all.” ~ Socrates
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“Chocolate says “I’m sorry” so much better than words.” ~ Rachel Vincent
- “An apology is the superglue of life. It can repair just about anything.” ~ Lynn Johnston
- “Sometimes men present a swagger that suggests a prowess, whether it’s sexual or financial. L.A. seems to be a place where trying too hard is almost a given. Some people are unapologetic about how blatantly they represent who they are through what they wear or drive. Subtlety is in short supply.” ~ Michael C. Hall
- “I am sorry to say that sometimes matters of very small importance waste a good deal of precious time, by the long and repeated speeches and chicanery of gentlemen who will not wholly throw off the lawyer even in Congress.” ~ William Whipple
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“Bad excuses are worse than none.” ~ Thomas Fuller
- “Money, which represents the prose of life, and which is hardly spoken of in parlors without an apology, is, in its effects and laws, as beautiful as roses.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “I’m not a Hollywood basher because enough good movies come out of the Hollywood system every year to justify its existence, without any apologies.” ~ Quentin Tarantino
- “Every minute you are thinking of evil, you might have been thinking of good instead. Refuse to pander to a morbid interest in your own misdeeds. Pick yourself up, be sorry, shake yourself, and go on again.” ~ Evelyn Underhill
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“I am not very moved by historical apologies.” ~ Tom Paulin
- “A businessman is the only man who is forever apologizing for his occupation.” ~ Gilbert K. Chesterton
- “We inadvertently bombed the Chinese Embassy. But Clinton now is working very hard. He has sent a letter of apology to the Chinese. And, he’s also given them a gift certificate for future nuclear secrets.” ~ David Letterman
- “If Bush said just once: ‘Boy. I hope you accept my apology as a country,’ or showed some humanity.” ~ Burt Bacharach
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“Yep, ouch. He and apologies didn’t get along.” ~ Larissa Ione
- “A stiff apology is a second insult… The injured party does not want to be compensated because he has been wronged; he wants to be healed because he has been hurt.” ~ Gilbert K. Chesterton
- “A hero is someone we can admire without apology.” ~ Kitty Kelley
- “The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone.” ~ Harriet Beecher Stowe
- “Our systems, perhaps, are nothing more than an unconscious apology for our faults, a gigantic scaffolding whose object is to hide from us our favorite sin.” ~ Henri Frederic Amiel
Summary: An apology is an expression of regret or remorse for actions while apologizing is the act of expressing regret or remorse.
