Quotes About Compassion

She said okay. Probably she thought I was growing up to be one more prick in her life, a junior-varsity Stoner. It's not that I wanted to be mean. But any time I started feeling sorry for her, something in my brain said Don't go there, it's a trap.

They would watch, ears up, forepaws planted, patiently bearing with the mess made by undisciplined humans as the world fell down around them.

nothing wondrous can come in this world unless it rests on the shoulders of kindness.

I wanted to tell them it's not just girls that end up inside four walls of hate and knuckles for breakfast, it can be anybody. Hate comes along and lays out the damn doormat and there you are. But I kept my mouth shut. It's safer knowing more about people than they know about you.

The better part of friendship might be holding one's tongue over the prospect of self-made wreckage.

It divided me from the people I knew, then and later, but in broader human terms I don't pretend that it sets me apart in any great way. A miscarriage is a natural and common event. All told, probably more women have lost a child from this world than haven't. Most don't mention it, and they go on from day to day as if it hadn't happened, and so people imagine that a woman in this situation never really knew or loved what she had

It's not that I wanted to be mean. But any time I started feeling sorry for her, something in my brain said Don't go there, it's a trap. I'd tried all the options with Mom and had only one place left to go on her. Cold.

You have to understand the rhyme and reasons of Dori. Why she was radical and fun like a little girl, even after all her friends left her flat. How she stayed patient with a wheezing, crying man gone old before his time. Why her foot kept bouncing. Her sparkly eyes were not really black, but blue. Bending down to kiss her, I'd see the thinnest crescent of sky blue around the huge black center. Living a life like hers, most people would have lost it a thousand times over.

Well, my stars, the thing was like the Bible—look hard enough in its pages, and you'll find what you seek. Love your neighbor, or slay him with the jawbone of an ass.

Father stared at the trees, giving no indication he'd heard his poor frightened wife, or any of this news. Father would sooner watch us all perish one by one than listen to anybody but himself.

I read what Hallie said about not wanting to save the world, that you didn't choose your road for the reward at the end, but for the way it felt as you went along.

What I want is so simple I almost can't say it: elementary kindness.

Never be mean in anything. Never be false. Never be cruel. I can always be hopeful of you. If that was from him to me, it was more man-to-man talk than I'd ever had in life so far.

What matters in a story is the heart of its hero.

If I got to make just one law, it would be that the men who make the decisions to drop bombs would first, every time, have to spend one whole day taking care of a baby. We were not made to do this killing thing. I swear. Back up. It's a big mistake.

how ridiculous it was. There is no point in treating a depressed person as though she were just feeling sad, saying, There now, hang on, you'll get over it. Sadness is more or less like a head cold—with patience, it passes. Depression is like cancer.

Recently it has been decided, grudgingly, that dark skin or lameness may not be entirely one's fault, but one still ought to show the good manners to act ashamed.

since I myself find in myself no pity to myself.

How could he ever be her friend and not understand this very basic part of who she was? Would he have a friend who chose to marry someone who hated people with Down's syndrome? But, of course, white folks in this country are trained to believe they can have it both ways, like stealing the Indian's land while claiming to admire the Noble Savage. "Listen

Indeed I do know what boys are like, especially that horrid little monster, Adele thought, but said, rather shakily, 'Yes, Emma, you are right to some extent. But occasionally children must be

I expect to pass through this world but once; any good thing, therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to my fellow creature, let me do it now; let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again. —Proverbial saying

be friendly. 'I'm not totally without a brain, Sasha. Of course

How could I forget? I'm her godmother.' Sasha knew Claire so well, knew she needed a moment now, some space to think, so she didn't press. But she was far from finished with the problem. 'Have you spoken with our little musical genius yet?' she asked.

and with great solemnity, 'I'm glad yer stopped 'em fighting. I'm scared