Quotes About Compassion

if you meet someone you don't like, or who doesn't treat you right, try to reserve judgment, because you don't know what that person's going through, and it's probably not so much about you at all.

I was wondering if Chester was going to have any kind of memorial. I figured probably not. Clearly his sons wanted nothing to do with him. Ellie was a new grandmother, and not wanting to travel. And who else was there? Obviously no one, or I wouldn't have been roped into taking over his care. It felt like the best possible advertisement for kindness. Treat people well, otherwise you might die and no one will notice or find it especially relevant to their life.

But they suggest something to get you out of what you're feeling, or they find some reason why it's all for the best. I don't understand why people can't just join you in your grief for a moment.

I'm sorry you are having trouble being happy right now, Raymond. We all take turns, I think.

was grateful, because the world looked beautiful in that big storm, and because I knew that somewhere in the world there was somebody who didn't have a can of hot soup, and I did.

Also, I should note that in my opinion, we're all wounded humans. The rest is just a matter of degree.

He's not like the other cops. What does it mean, that I thought that? That I hated him so much?" "That you're human?" "Isn't that really bad, though? I mean, what does that say about me?" I sighed. "Considering you just saw yourself doing it . . . made that observation all on your own, at age thirteen . . . I'd say that puts you quite a bit ahead of most of the adults I know.

We can be angels to each other. We are angels to each other, all the time.

Catherine Ryan Hyde

I'm just advising you to let go of the hate in yourself, because you're the one swallowing that poison every day, not him.

Here's what I learned from Lenny in my sophomore year of high school: the down-and-out character is just as human as everybody else. You may not want to know him in real life, but in fiction, you just might dare. And in knowing him, you get a lesson in humanity: we're more the same than we might imagine. And that even the class outcast has talents. Someone just needs to tell her what they are.

wanted to say, "Be kind to each other, and don't let anybody come between you. And if someone else does come in and break up the marriage, and there's no way around that, at least find a way to equitably share the raising of the children.

People make mistakes all the time. That's more or less the definition of a person: we're a bunch of walking, talking mistake-holders. When I make a mistake, if I was doing my best, I let myself off the hook.

I may hurt you, I will not harm you...

The use of torture is contrary to sound judgment and common sense. Humanity itself cries out against it, and demands it to be utterly abolished.

The more a man knows the more he forgives.

We plunge ourselves into enormous debt and then take two and three jobs to stay afloat. We uproot our families with unnecessary moves just so we can have a more prestigious house. We grasp and grab and never have enough. And most destructive of all, our flashy cars and sports spectaculars and backyard pools have a way of crowding out much interest in civil rights or inner city poverty or the starved masses of India. Greed has a way of severing the cords of compassion. Richard J. Foster, 1981

It is well known that reading quickens the growth of a heart like nothing else.

Oh, I will be cruel to you, Marya Morevna. It will stop your breath, how cruel I can be. But you understand, don't you? You are clever enough. I am a demanding creature. I am selfish and cruel and extremely unreasonable. But I am your servant. When you starve I will feed you; when you are sick I will tend you. I crawl at your feet; for before your love, your kisses, I am debased. For you alone I will be weak.

For there are two kinds of forgiveness in the world: the one you practice because everything really is all right, and what went before is mended. The other kind of forgiveness you practice because someone needs desperately to be forgiven, or because you need just as badly to forgive them, for a heart can grab hold of old wounds and go sour as milk over them.

I know you loved both he and I, the way a mother can love two sons. And no one should be judged for loving more than they ought, only for loving not enough.

Such lonely, lost things you find on your way. It would be easier, if you were the only one lost. But lost children always find each other, in the dark, in the cold. It is as though they are magnetized and can only attract their like. How I would like to lead you to brave, stalwart friends who would protect you and play games with dice and teach you delightful songs that have no sad endings. If you would only leave cages locked and turn away from unloved Wyverns, you could stay Heartless.

This is what comes of having a heart, even a very small and young one. It causes no end of trouble, and that's the truth.

If you want to kill yourself, do not use us as your knife.