Quotes About Compassion

I don't know who it was, but someone, maybe or maybe not Henry James, said that there are two kinds of people in the world: those who upon seeing someone else suffering think, That could happen to me, and those who think, That will never happen to me. The first kind of people help us to endure, the second kind make life hell.

There's a certain kind of person who, having read this far, is anxiously wondering: Does something bad happen to the dog?

If I bring him home though, I swear he'll spend the rest of his life waiting by the door. And he deserves better than that, don't you think?' Yes, I think, my heart breaking. You can't explain death. And love deserves better than that.

Weren't there millions upon millions of people suffering from various humanitarian crises that millions upon millions of other people simply chose to forget? Why could we not turn our attention to the teeming sufferers already in our midst? And here, perhaps, was a last chance for us to redeem

to talk like that, like there's no hope, I don't know, that just seems wrong to me. I don't think anyone has the right to tell people there's no hope. You can't just get up and tell people there's no hope! And it doesn't make sense. He thinks you can take away people's hope and then expect them to—what did he say?—love and take care of each other?

And if that's what he had to do in order not to suffer, on top of everything else, the pain of guilt, that's all right with me. That's all right with me.

Why do people often find animal suffering harder to accept than the suffering of other human beings?

And just because there are other people who've lost someone to suicide doesn't mean that what I'm feeling is something that can be shared.

If I were truly talented, as I once imagined I was, then I would have understood long ago that life is just about people.

Catherine [of Siena] compares justice combined with mercy with a precious pearl. Justice without mercy would be dark, cruel, more like injustice than justice. But mercy without justice would be like salve on a sore which should be cleansed with the red-hot iron; if the salve is applied before the wound is cleansed it only makes it smart, and does not heal it

He felt as if the roots of his own life were intertwined with those of his brothers and sisters, somewhere deep down in the dark earth. Every blow that struck, every injury that ate away at the marrow of one of them was felt by all.

Her father's marvelous gentleness was not because he lacked a keen enough perception of the faults and wretchedness of others; it came from his constant searching of his own heart before God, crushing it in repentance over his own failings. No

Catherine [of Siena] sent the Pope five oranges which she had candied and covered with gold leaf... She develops the theme of the difference between the bitter and the sweet pain, and gives the Pope a recipe for making candied oranges.

Saint Olav turned her eyes toward Christ on the cross—see, Kristin: God's love.

Overcome and sobbing, the young woman sank down before the cross at the side of the road, where thousands of pilgrims had lain and thanked God because helping hands were extended to them on their journey through the perilous and beautiful world.

she had learned that the world is like a tavern - where he who has naught more to spend from is cast out at the door.

There is no worthier work for the man person who has been graced with the ability to see even a small part of God's Mercy than to serve him and to keep vigil for the people whose sight is still clouded by the shadow of worldly matters.

You are so good. So good, you're always feeling so much. And sometimes it feels like you're gonna bust wide open from all the feeling, don't it? People like you are the best in the world, but you sure do suffer for it.

She believed in not judging other people based on how they looked and in having what she called "an open mind.

And if there's one thing I know for sure it's that you never shun somebody because you don't agree with them. We're ever one of us children of God.

Being afraid of somebody who's different'll make an awful meanness come over you.

You can use the Word to judge and condemn people or you can use it to love them.

Nobody can just let a person be.

An ethic gone wrong is an essential preliminary to the sweat-shop or the concentration camp and the death march.