Quotes About Compassion

Before every session, I take a moment to remember my humanity. There is no experience that this man has that I cannot share with him, no fear that I cannot understand, no suffering that I cannot care about, because I too am human. No matter how deep his wound, he does not need to be ashamed in front of me. I too am vulnerable. And because of this, I am enough.

I suspect that the most basic and powerful way to connect with another person is to listen. Just listen. Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention. And especially if it's from the heart. When people are talking, there's no need to do anything but receive them. Just take them in. Listen to what they're saying. Care about it. Most times caring about it is even more important than understanding it.

I am no longer as inspired by expertise as I once was. Perhaps the worth of any lifetime is measured more in kindness than in competency.

Protecting ourselves from loss rather than grieving and healing our losses is one of the major causes of burnout. Very few of the professionals I have treated for burnout actually came in saying that they were burned out. I don't think most of them knew. The most common thing I've been told is, 'There's something wrong with me. I don't care anymore. Terrible things happen in front of me and I feel nothing.

As a human being, I know I can never hope to have the depth and breadth of perspective to know whether any of my actions will ultimately harm or heal.

Understanding the suffering is beyond me. Understanding the healing is, too. But in this moment, I am here. Use me.

We are all here for a single purpose: to grow in wisdom and to learn to love better.

No matter what means we use, service is always a work of the heart. There are times when the power of science is so seductive that we may come to feel that all that is required to serve others is to get our science right, our diagnosis, our treatment. But science can never serve unless it is first translated by people into a work of the heart.

Medicine is as close to love as it is to science, and its relationships matter even at the edge of life itself.

We've all got our issues, our baggage experiences, our pet peeves, our weaknesses, our harebrained ideas, our nutty hang-ups and quirks, and areas of our character that God is still working on. That's just the way it is on this side of eternity. So we have to be willing to freely give and receive grace and to give and receive help. Because when we don't, people wind up isolated, hurting, and wondering if it's worth the risk to connect with others.

Love is infinitely more powerful than hate,

These are the hands of Rachel Joy Scott and one day, will touch millions of people's hearts.

When kindness comes at the expense of truth, it is not a kindness worth having.

When kindness comes at the expense of truth, it is not a kindness worth having. And when generosity leads to silence or abuse, it is not a generosity worth giving.

Silence made space for other people's words, which was important for those who needed to be listened to.

So you never know when you can get through. p 179 Jack the Bus Driver talking about helping a woman on the bus who was an alcoholic

Just because I am not a saint does not mean that I am a demon

I realize, as the tightness yields in my shoulders and hips and feet, that Beth might well have wanted me to meet her drivers because I needed them, too." p 167

I am a pacifist, danm it! And now I'm bleeding. What is wrong with you, you sick sicko?

You don't have to be friends with everybody, you just can't be unkind to anybody.

Bruises on the soul hurt even more than bruises on the leg and take longer to heal. Maybe the trick is to try to avoid smashing into stuff so much. And then to be kind to ourselves as we slowly heal.

I have learned that the things that divide us are far less important than those that connect us.

je ne te hais point

I have put my pen at the service of some of the most persecuted and misunderstood people in the world.