Quotes About Compassion

It may appear that the child cares for the parent and feels bad because the parent is suffering. However, if children who assume this kind of responsibility change their behavior in accordance with parental wishes, they are not acting from the heart, but acting to avoid guilt.

The more we interpret noncompliance as rejection, the more likely our requests will be heard as demands. This leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy, for the more people hear demands, the less they enjoy being around us.

an important form of self-compassion is to make choices motivated purely by our desire to contribute to life rather than out of fear, guilt, shame, duty, or obligation.

Seu principal mérito é nos ensinar a nos colocarmos no lugar do outro, desenvolvendo a empatia, que é de grande ajuda até em casos mais difíceis de ruptura e má comunicação.

Assim, quando fazemos algo pouco enaltecedor, nosso desafio é nos autoavaliarmos a cada momento, de modo que nos inspiremos a mudar (1) na direção em que gostaríamos de ir e (2) por respeito e compaixão com nós mesmos, em vez de por ódio, culpa ou vergonha.

What I want in my life is compassion, a flow between myself and others based on a mutual giving from the heart.

All violence is the result of people tricking themselves into believing that their pain derives from other people and that consequently those people deserve to be punished.

At the core of all anger is a need that is not being fulfilled.

We only feel dehumanized when we get trapped in the derogatory images of other people or thoughts of wrongness about ourselves. As author and mythologist Joseph Campbell suggested, "'What will they think of me?' must be put aside for bliss." We begin to feel this bliss when messages previously experienced as critical or blaming begin to be seen for the gifts they are: opportunities to give to people who are in pain.

Analyses of others are actually expressions of our own needs and values.

In this stage, which I refer to as emotional slavery, we believe ourselves responsible for the feelings of others. We think we must constantly strive to keep everyone happy. If they don't appear happy, we feel responsible and compelled to do something about it. This can easily lead us to see the very people who are closest to us as burdens.

focus on clarifying what is being observed, felt, and needed rather than on diagnosing and judging

the more you become a connoisseur of gratitude, the less you are a victim of resentment, depression, and despair. Gratitude will act as an elixir that will gradually dissolve the hard shell of your ego—your need to possess and control—and transform you into a generous being. The sense of gratitude produces true spiritual alchemy, makes us magnanimous—large souled. —Sam Keen, philosopher

I am not easily frightened. Not because I am brave but because I know that I am dealing with human beings, and that I must try as hard as I can to understand everything that anyone ever does. And that was the real import of this morning: not that a disgruntled young Gestapo officer yelled at me, but that I felt no indignation, rather a real compassion

The one who truly follows Christ will draw people unto Him without speaking a word. They will come to know Christ and He will give them rest and peace.

Christ loves everyone, and rejects no one. He cares for all creation, and does not abandon any creature.

We will meet the forces of hate with the power of love. . . . We must say to our white brothers all over the South, We will match your capacity to inflict suffering with our capacity to endure suffering. . . . Bomb our homes and we will still love you. . . . We will so appeal to your heart and conscience that we will win you in the process.

In every human being, black or white, there exists, however dimly, a certain natural identification with every other human being, so that we tend to feel that what happens to a fellow human being also in some way happens to us. Therefore no man can very long continue to abuse another human being without beginning to feel in himself at least some dull answering stir of discomfort.

The arc of the moral universe is long, and it bends toward justice.

The moral: there's never anyone in the other boat. We are always screaming at an empty vessel. An empty boat isn't targeting us. And neither are all the people creating the sour notes in the soundtrack of our day.

I saw a beggar leaning on his wooden crutch, He said to me, "You must not ask for so much." And a pretty woman leaning in her darkened door, She cried to me, "Hey, why not ask for more?" —Leonard Cohen, "Bird on a Wire

If you walk into the examining room with a broken leg, the doctor doesn't pass judgment on how you broke your leg. He doesn't care if you broke your leg committing a crime or kicking the dog or tripping down the stairs or getting hit by a car. He only cares about fixing your leg.

getting mad at people for being who they are makes as much sense as getting mad at a chair for being a chair.

Peter Drucker, who said, "Our mission in life should be to make a positive difference, not to prove how smart or right we are.