Quotes About Compassion

Happiness does not consist in self-love.

Love of our neighbour, then, has just the same respect to, is no more distant from, self-love, than hatred of our neighbour, or than love or hatred of anything else.

Compassion is a call, a demand of nature, to relieve the unhappy as hunger is a natural call for food.

A friend said, "Ah, I get it. All of my life I have gone into every next event asking, in effect, What's in it for me? Now I see that what I must do is go into every event asking, What can I do for them?" And my friend had grievously missed the point. The great discovery is that we have nothing to give at all to anyone, anywhere.

There is a kind way of assisting our fellow-creatures which is enough to break their hearts while it saves their outer envelope.

I watched the tears run down her cheeks and start to drip from the end of her chin. One part of me wanted to put my arms round her but I daren't. Do that and I'd never be able to let her go.

Sometimes in this life it is necessary to sacrifice oneself for the good of others . - Mam

She passed the needle to the doctor And for once I knew what to do And held her head against mine. I cleaved to that smell And lied into her ear That it would be all right. The veterinarian, whom I'd fought About when to do this thing Said through tears That it would only take a few minutes As if that were not a long time But there was no cry or growl, Only the weight of her in my arms, And then on the world. - Bruce Weigl in the poem May

A great many of the Army officers were very fine in the way that they took care of their men. But there were certain very glaring instances of the opposite condition, and especially among these theorists, these men who were looking upon this whole thing as, perhaps, one looks upon a game of chess, or a game of football, and who were removed from actual contact with the troops.

If you want to have peace of soul, learn to forgive. Jesus' secret was His ability to see into people's hearts. Seeing their anguish and pain helped Him to understand their nastiness. So He could pity them rather than become angry with them. That is what we have to do: try to understand the pain in people's lives...and not take personally what they do to us.

I think most decent people would be horrified at what happens today, even in our enlightened country. There are still mean, self-righteous Pharisees, who have a sick need to punish others whose troubled lives they can never begin to understand, much less feel compassion for.

For the first time he began to understand why Jesus had such compassion for the poor. Jesus could identify with them because they were treated with the same contempt as the religious officials and the law-obsessed hypocrites treated him.

You probably know more about life, real life, than most people. You never really know what life is all about until you have suffered and been humbled and beaten down by life. Then it all of a sudden becomes very real. Jesus did not understand what life was going to be like for him, and he was God, until he went off on his own. He also was one of us, a homeless beggar with nowhere to lay his head.

The world needs to understand Jesus' teaching on forgiveness, and when it does, the world will find its way to peace.

After the soldiers finished with Jesus, they took off the purple cloak and put on him his own clothes, then led him out into the street to begin the march to his crucifixion. Jesus was considerably weakened by the brutal lashing, which left him bleeding profusely

JESUS LOVES YOU—EVERYONE ELSE THINKS YOU'RE AN ASSHOLE

beggars were permitted to enter great houses and solicit directly from the table, but now they are restricted to the doorstep.

On the deepest level, problems such as war and starvation are not solved by economics and politics alone. Their source is prejudice and fear in the human heart — and their solution also lies in the human heart.

Generosity, love, compassion, or devotion do not depend on a high IQ.

Hatred never ceases by hatred; it only ceases by love.

Love, compassion, and peace do not belong to any religion or tradition. They are qualities in each one of us, qualities of our hearts and minds..

An emotion is like a cloud passing through the sky. Sometimes it is fear or anger, sometimes it is happiness or love, sometimes it is compassion. But none of them ultimately constitute a self. They are just what they are, each manifesting its own quality. With this understanding, we can cultivate the emotions that seem helpful and simply let the others be, without aversion, without suppression, without identification.

If we try to practice meditation without the foundation of goodwill to ourselves and others, it is like trying to row across a river without first untying the boat; our efforts, no matter how strenuous, will not bear fruit. We need to practice and refine our ability to live honestly and with integrity.

Unless a practice cools the fires of greed, aversion, and ignorance it is worthless.