Quotes About Compassion

Our toddlers speak of plants and animals as if they were people, extending to them self and intention and compassion -- until we teach them not to. We quickly retrain them and make them forget. When we tell them that the tree is not a who, but an it, we make that maple an object; we put a barrier between us, absolving ourselves of moral responsibility and opening the door to exploitation.

Across the market stalls and blankets, warmth and compassion were changing hands.

It would be so satisfying to provide for the well-being of others— like being a mother again, like being needed.

Our toddlers speak of plants and animals as if they were people, extending to them self and intention and compassion—until we teach them not to. We quickly retrain them and make them forget.

As I listen to them, I hear another whisper from the swaying stand of cattails, from spruce boughs in the wind, a reminder that caring is not abstract. The circle of ecological compassion we feel is enlarged by direct experience of the living world, and shrunken by its lack.

Something is broken when the food comes on a Styrofoam tray wrapped in slippery plastic, a carcass of a being whose only chance at life was a cramped cage.

Nor did I need anyone's pity, but I would accept it with grace, because I have been well trained. Rudeness was a sign of weakness. Grace stemmed from power, the powere to accept anything and move on.

I think God made babies cute so we don't eat them.

He shook his head again. 'I just can't figure out why anyone in his right head would bother these Virgin River women.' 'Yeah. Makes no sense.' Jack said.

I asked Phil Prentiss what he would do if they never got a baby and he said they'd die with a lot of excess love in their hearts…." "And let's not," Jack said. "Let's spend every drop. On the kids, on our families, on your patients, on the town. On people we don't know yet and the ones who have been our good friends forever. On each other. Let's spend our last drop as we're taking our last breaths.

Thanks a lot. You could have cut the girl some slack. We haven't had anything pretty to look at around here since Bradley's old golder retriever died died last fall.

But, Marcie had reminded herself, I don't know the weight of anyone else's burdens—only my own. She didn't judge. She didn't feel smart or strong enough to judge.

Sarah, I'm going to take care of you whether you like it or not.

People tend to treat a miscarriage like a heavy period but it's a death. You lost your baby. You have to take time to grieve.

What we wish other people would do has nothing to do with us. That's not moral fiber, that's being judgmental and unforgiving." "I've never been judgmental or unforgiving a day in my life," Maureen protested. "Know

We'll get everything straightened out. This has gone on long enough—we have to bring it to a close." She was quiet for a long moment before she said, "We?" He gave her shoulders a squeeze. "Come on, don't you feel like we're in this together? I want to help, Ellie. You got screwed, by Arnie, by the court, all around. You don't deserve this." She

Protect yourself from people who have the habit of being mean,

and there. Sometimes she gave

found this man. I fell in love with his kindness, his patience. He saw me, all of me, and he didn't turn away. He let me in. He held back my hair while I puked my way through detox. He spoonfed me broth while I slowly fought my way back to living.

No doubt about it: Mac would make an excellent mother.

Maybe Stoney has a thing for strays. Or maybe, like most bartenders, he recognizes a lost soul when he sees one.

The world would be a better place if more people spent time drinking cheap coffee in church basements.

Basically, even good people do really bad things if they think no one cares. The banality of evil.

If you hoard other people's tragedies, does that make your own easier to bear?