Quotes About Compassion

Get rid of the idea that God wants you to sacrifice yourself for others, and that you can secure his favor by doing so; God requires nothing of the kind. What he wants is that you should make the most of yourself, for yourself, and for others; and you can help others more by making the most of yourself than in any other way.

There is nothing wrong with anything; there is nothing wrong with anybody.

These two forces of love, one selfish and self-seeking, the other charitable ( caritas ) and loving, continue to struggle with one another for domination in a man's soul.

I don't know about you, but I only have one life, and I don't want to spend it in a sewer of injustice.

Revenge and punishment both imply, "Even if I'd been you, and I'd had your life, I would never have done what you did." And that in turn implies, "I wouldn't have done it, because I'm better than you." But the person who says, "I'm better than you," is taking a serious step in a very dangerous direction. And the person who says, "Even if I'd had your life, I would never have done what you did," is very probably wrong.

One thing I have learned hard, if indeed I have learned it now: it is a reduction of our humanity to hide from pain, our own or others'. To hide from anything. That was Marian's text. Be open, be available, be exposed, be skinless. Skinless? Dance around in your bones.

A poem isn't selfish. It speaks to people.

and so give your uncommon readers a chance to join you in the solidarity of pain and love and the vision of human possibility. But isn't it enough? For lack of the full heart's desire, won't it serve?

She is also capable of a noble generosity, and of cramming it down on the head of the recipient like a crown of thorns.

Is it compulsory to be one of the immortals? We're all decent godless people, Hallie. Let's not be too hard on each other if we don't set the world afire. There's already been enough of that.

What if we had born Bushmen in the Kalahari? What if our parents had been undernourished villagers in Uttar Pradesh, and we faced the problem of commanding the attention of the world on a diet of five hundred calories a day, and in Urdu? What good is an ace if the other cards in your hand are dogs from every town

I cried because I had no shoes. Then I met a man who had no feet.

Human qualities and emotions like love, charity, compassion, tolerance, patience, friendship, desire, hatred, ill-will, ignorance, conceit, etc., need no sectarian labels; they belong to no particular religion.

Being impatient or angry at suffering does not remove it. On the contrary, it adds a little more to one's troubles, and aggravates and exacerbates a situation already disagreeable. What is necessary is … the understanding of the question of suffering, how it comes about, and how to get rid of it[.]

Hatred is never appeased by hatred in this world; it is appeased by love. This is an eternal Law.

The Buddha says: 'Never by hatred is hatred appeased, but it is appeased by kindness. This is an eternal truth.

You think the only people who are people, are the people who look and think like you. But if you walk the footsteps of a stranger, you'll learn things you never knew you never knew.

This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God.

Young man I think I know you—I think this face is the face of the Christ himself,Dead and divine and brother of all, and here again he lies.

The habit of giving only enhances the desire to give.

I do not ask the wounded person how he feels, I myself become the wounded person.

If you cannot forgive because of hurt inflicted by others, you will be unwilling to be vulnerable for fear of being hurt again. Because people are sinners, you cannot love and you cannot minister without getting hurt.

How do you demonstrate a love for God and others in the heat of a contract negotiation in which you perceive the other party to be unreasonable? The Bible gives you no clear-cut answer. God designed the ambiguity in which you are forced to live in order to keep you trusting in Him.

Confrontation is one of the highest expressions of love. When done in love and compassion, confrontation is one the kindest things you can do for another person. A refusal to confront when needed, is one of the most selfish things you can do.