People say forgiveness is a virtue, but what does it mean to be magnanimous? These Minister Louis Farrakhan quotes will show you.

Most dictionaries define the adjective “magnanimous” as a trait of a person who is generous or forgiving, especially toward a rival or less powerful person. Magnanimity is often portrayed as the character of being great of mind and heart.

It encompasses, usually, a refusal to be petty, a willingness to face danger, and actions for noble purposes. At 87 years young, the Minister Louis Farrakhan has made a career of practicing magnanimity, with decades of service to the public under his belt.

As the head of the Nation of Islam, he remains a leader for communities both nationally and abroad. Throughout his career, he has faced challenge after challenge, always demonstrating magnanimity even in the face of harsh opposition and criticism.

No matter your profession or lot in life, all of us can benefit from exuding magnanimity, particularly during difficult times. Here are some Minister Louis Farrakhan quotes that can provide insight and reflection opportunities for those looking to demonstrate forgiveness and be more magnanimous on their journey.

Minister Louis Farrakhan quotes on forgiveness

1. “You cannot make a person open up to you and accept your forgiveness. When you have wronged somebody, and you know you have wronged them, your duty is to repent and ask for forgiveness.”

Everyday Application: Forgiveness is good for your soul. It doesn’t mean you owe the person anything or are required to let them back in your lives. It just means that you forgive them and no longer hold anger in your heart. If you are the person seeking forgiveness, understand that might be all you get. Forgiveness does not always mean you get more chances.

2. “In life there are circumstances, and by His active will or His permissive will, God allows things to happen in our lives to bring out of us what is within.”

Everyday Application: Our hardships and struggles often bring out the best in us. They are an opportunity for us to reach the next level. When tragic things happen it can difficult to believe that a loving God would allow us to go through pain, but through faith people believe there is a reason for it.

3. “So somebody does some evil to you, it ain’t what goes in, but how you respond. And it is not what they do that defiles you, it is how you respond to what is done to you that defiles you.”

Everyday Application: Our reactions and responses are always a matter of choice. You can choose anger and hatred, or you can choose forgiveness. Pick the path that heals your soul.

4. “When God forgives, it allows him to come to our rescue.”

Everyday Application: Find strength in your faith and let the light of God help heal you. God’s forgiveness is a part of your faith, so let it wash over you and free you from guilt.

5. “When you understand who you are, then all you need is the right mind in you. You were made by God in his image after his likeness, so all of you are God’s children, children of the most high god. made in God’s image. The problem with the gods is that you are not thinking like a god, you are thinking like the world.”

Everyday Application: Understanding who you are is an important part of personal growth. If your faith is an important part of who you are, then do your best to live a life that emulates the way God would want you to live.

6. “Forgive us our debts as we forgive those who have sinned against us. Will you this morning forgive? Somebody in here that has done you wrong and they are sitting nearby, maybe its mother at home, maybe its father, maybe it’s someone you haven’t spoken to. Release it. Get it out of your way. Because it is not what went in that defiles you, it’s how you and I respond.

Everyday Applications: He doesn’t say to let toxic people in your life and allow them to trample on your boundaries. He says to forgive and release it. Carrying around all that anger is just hurting you!

7. “The evil that people do to us that we do not handle well, sets up blockages. Like how the blood has to circulate through the body to give it life, but when there are blockages in the veins and the blood can’t get through, then the blockages have to be removed or they bring about the death of the organism. When people do you wrong, and you set up in your minds: dislike, hatred, this is disease and it presents an impediment to our journey to God.”

Everyday Application: Read The Body Keeps The Score! This is an excellent book about what happens to us physically because of “the evil that people do to us.” There are many helpful tips in here to understand trauma.

8. “Forgiveness allows for God to come to us, even though we are stained by sin, forgiveness allows us to approach one another.”

Everyday Application: Forgiveness can very well be a bridge that helps you approach someone after a big falling out. However, it doesn’t always have to be that. Forgiveness is good because it helps improve your overall well-being.

9. “The things that people do to us that are evil, they stick, the good things that people do to us we can hardly remember. That’s a sign that good is your natural state and evil is an apparition.

Everyday Application: There is a reason the human brain remembers negative things instead of positive things. It happens because our brains are wired to remember high stress emotions. Try and deliberately shift your focus to the positive things that happen!

10. “There is a principle that permits God to come to us, without this principle, this act or action of God, without this principle, he cannot come to us, he cannot save us from ourselves. What is that principle? That principle is forgiveness.”

Everyday Application: Forgiveness is a central theme to faith and religion. It is what God offers us for our sins. We can not be perfect, but we can also try and live decent lives that require a little less forgiveness. Treat others how you want to be treated, and offer them forgiveness as well!

Minister Louis Farrakhan quotes about growing in religion

11.“True religion comes from within.”

Everyday Application: Regardless of which religious doctrine you follow, being a true believer is a matter of heart and character. Do you do your best to live according to your values? Does your soul embrace the beliefs that you have been taught? Look deep within and investigate who you are and what religion means to you.

12. “When you grow starting with law, starting with imposing limits on yourself, you grow into that out of which the law came. You grow into love”

13. Jesus said, “It’s not what goes in that defiles a man, it is what comes out.”

Everyday Application: You choose your actions, behaviors, and words. Sure, what you consume into your heart and mind matters, but it isn’t the deciding factor on who you are. The best thing to do is to make sure you consume what you need to for your inside and outside actions to align.

14. “Forgive, and be forgiven, and let’s get on with the business of turning nothing into something.”

Everyday Application: Holding on to anger and resentment only poisons you. Let go of grudges, and find a way to move on. Forgiving someone doesn’t mean everything is instantly the way it was before, it doesn’t even mean you have to let them back into your life. It just means that you have reached a place of acceptance and look toward what really matters, without slowly dying on the inside.

15. “Many of us are separated, one from another because of some trespass that they did to us or we did to them. And we are holding on to that.”

16. “When we break faith with God and commit that which is against God’s will and God’s law, this is that which separates us from God and gradually disconnects us from God.”

17. “We responded to our enslavement with bitterness, but since it is the will of God, let’s remove the bitterness and say ‘God you knew what you were doing, you fitted us out now for your glory’ no longer not pitied, no longer not loved, now we are the people of God.”

18. “Our sins have caused us to be scattered within, and now separated one from another where hatred abides where there should be love.”

19. “None of us have pity on the other, our community is wrapped with senseless violence, and we have become the number one beaters, haters, shooters, haters, killers, and destroyers of ourselves.”

Minister Louis Farrakhan quotes for life

20. “Unfaithfulness is what breaks our bond.”

Everyday Application: Keeping your word and building relationships built on faith and respect is essential in fostering genuine human connections. Being unfaithful could mean betraying those connections. It could also mean breaking the bond with God when we are unfaithful. What does faithfulness look like to you?

21. “United we can solve our problems, divided we have nothing.”

Everyday Application: We are all much stronger together than we are alone. Yet, we let so many things in this world divide us like religion, wealth, and politics. However, the truth is that there are many more things that could unite us, starting with empathy, compassion, humanity, and love. The world would be a much better place if we could remember that we are all in this together.

22. “History is our guide, and without a knowledge of history, we are lost!”

23. “A wise man who has the moment in his hand should not let that moment slip.”

24. “Never exalt people because they’re in your family; never exalt people because they’re your color; never exalt people because they’re your kinfolk. Exalt them because they’re worthy.”

25. “But if I thought on it, I would like to be remembered as a brother who loved his people and did everything that I knew to fight for them, the liberation of our people.”

26. “Did you see the Pope went to South America? I thought about him in Ecuador, Honduras and Bolivia. Three countries in South America. And the Pope, he asked them to forgive the church. Did you hear that brothers and sisters? He didn’t say forgive Jesus. The church that was killing indigenous people wasn’t connected to Jesus. They were connected to a cross.”

27. “They should regard me as what I am. I am a spiritual leader and teacher.”

28. “Sin separates us from God and from ourselves. Even when you have been reduced to nothing by sin, God makes himself available. He allows you and me to recognize the void in our lives.

29. “Sin reduced you to nothing, but God said ‘I am going to take nothing and use it for my glory.’”

30. “I don’t think about my legacy if indeed, I have one.”

Tips for life from Minister Louis Farrakhan quotes

31. “Work hard to discover your gift and you will never envy or hate another human being who is manifesting theirs.”

32. “Who is it that says a woman should be quiet? Who is it that says that her voice should not be heard in the house of God? When the very universe out of which he created all things, was a dark womb before he put his hands upon it.”

33. “We honor women, for as a woman is our teacher in the first instance, why can’t she be our teacher in our last instance and lead us to God?”

34. “Prayer, the giving of charity, the giving of ourselves, and the eternal struggle of good against evil, right against wrong, light against darkness, all is in the nature in which we are created. So religion comes from within. And whenever we do not practice the principles like we should, we lapse into spiritual death.”

35. “Divine and human nature is built by God on principles. A principle is a rule of action. God has built you and me on certain principles that form the basis of human nature and divine nature. And these same principles form what we call religion. All revealed scripture is built on the nature of God and the human being.”

36. “And I hope that five years and 10 years from now, I’ll be a better man, a more mature man, a wiser man, a more humble man, and a more spirited man to serve the good of my people and the good of humanity.”

37. “We are all gifted, but we have to discover the gift, uncover the gift, nurture and develop the gift and use it for the Glory of God and for the liberation struggle of our people.”

38. “Overall, the challenge of leadership is both moral and one of developing the characteristics that make us respected by one another.”

39. “Our lips are full of praise, but our hearts are far removed from the prophets we all claim. That’s why the world is in the shape that it’s in.”

40. “There really can be no peace without justice. There can be no justice without truth. And there can be no truth unless someone rises up to tell you the truth.”

Minister Louis Farrakhan quotes to inspire change

41 “Naturally, when one makes progressive steps, there may be some who see it as a betrayal of their goals and interests.”

42. “Our communities don’t have peace because they are not safe; they are not secure.”

43. “Harlotry and adultery were punishable by death because adultery produces death, it produces the death of a relationship but it also produces the death of the self.”

44. “Without an advocate for the poor, without a new state of mind in America, the country lies on the brink of anarchy.”

45. “I am hoping that in this year of the family we will go into our families and reconcile differences.”

46. “Because as a youngster I longed to see the Black man free and I longed to see anyone stand up for us.”

47. “Black leadership has to recognize that principles more than speech, character more than a claim, is greater in advancing the cause of our liberation than what has transpired thus far.”

48. “He who gives you the diameter of your knowledge prescribes the circumference of your activities.”

49. “If we can put the names of our faiths aside for the moment and look at principles, we will find a common thread running through all the great religious expressions.”

50. “You must recognize that the way to get the good out of your brother and your sister is not to return evil for evil.”

Feelings of vengeance and hatred can keep us in a prison. A magnanimous gift to one’s self is to forgive those who have hurt us.

When we forgive we set a person free and discover that the prisoner was ourselves. As the Minister Louis Farrakhan once said “You must recognize that the way to get the good out of your brother and your sister is not to return evil for evil.”

In a world where more and more people feel the bitter pains of injustice, Farrakhan’s declaration that we must not return evil for evil is needed now more than ever. We can all learn from this philosophy.

Before his career as a spiritual leader, Farrakhan was known as “The Charmer” because of his sonorous voice and love for music. As a calypso singer, he awed audiences with his skills as a vocalist.

However, he chose to uplift his community over a career in music. For over half a century, the Minister’s calling has spanned some of the most difficult iterations of American culture and his commitment to magnanimity has kept him strong.

As a young man, his leadership ability gave strength to those aiming to overcome Jim Crow laws. During his formative years as a minister, his efforts and acumen helped many to pioneer the Civil Rights movement, transforming America as a whole.

As a seasoned leader, he organized the Million Man March, an event aimed at reversing the negative narratives and stereotypes of black men often portrayed in popular media. Farrakhan has had many accomplishments during his decorated career. He has overcome numerous obstacles and health-related problems in order to pursue his mission as the leader of the Nation of Islam.

These Minister Louis Farrakhan quotes and his life are an example of how discipline, a positive attitude, and magnanimity can be harnessed to overcome even the most difficult challenges.