Quotes About Compassion

I'm sorry," James says. "I don't speak Mandarin." Here's a liability of his: he always wants to help, but his ignorance makes him useless to his own kind. Not just to this man, but to every lost Mandarin-speaking traveler fumbling in mid-transfer who mistakes him for a helpful guide.

Following the darkened, hushed corridor toward his mother's room, Dagou imagines a future menu for the night nurses. Winnie always said, A little food never hurts. These nurses might like the basics: chicken and broccoli, shrimp with pea pods, garlic eggplant, and house special lo mein. (But for his mother he will concoct a special bone soup with a beaten egg white, seaweed for iron, and black wood ears for lowering the blood pressure.)

Working diligently to straighten up our actions without understanding either what it means to deeply repent or what it is that needs to be scrubbed away by repentance will make us more smug than penetrating. We'll pressure others to do right rather than draw them to want to do right. P195

When Diana put her mind to something, nothing was allowed to stand in her way. As she said, "Because I've been given the gift to shine a light into the dark corners of the world, and get the media to follow me there, I have to use it," and use it she did—to draw attention to a problem and in a very practical way to apply her incredible healing gifts to the victims. —Simone Simmons

Don't lose that anger. Just have a little more patience and forgiveness. For yourself as well.

It doesn't do to sacrifice for people unless they want you to," Clara said. "It's just a waste.

It was inconsiderate, she thought, how blandly people mentioned the future in the sick rooms. Phrases like next summer were always popping out; people made such assumptions about their own continuity.

Occasionally the very youngness of the young moved him to charity—they had no sense of the swiftness of life, nor of its limits.

It ain't a mistake to behave like a human being once in a while

It was a weakness, but he could not bear to disappoint women, even if it was ultimately for their own good.

Son, this is a sad thing," Augustus said. "Loss of life always is. But the life is lost for good. Don't go attempting vengeance. You've got more urgent business… Don't be trying to give back pain for pain.

I don't guess I've watched you punish yourself for thirty years to be totally wrong about you.

I guess we could pile some rocks on her, Call said. I hate just to leave a body laying out. Woodrow, she's mostly et anyway, Gus said. Why spoil the buzzards' picnic?

Don't be trying to give back pain for pain," he said. "You can't get even measures in business like this.

And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Matthew 7:3

Now I look at this story and it seems to be about all of us.

Sometimes not giving is the gift. —KATE FAL

Jag ställer egentligen bara ett moraliskt krav på mänskligheten, men ett ganska strängt: att den skall älska mig.

Medlidenhet er bare en fornem form for forakt

Just listen. Just be. Just witness. Just care. You don't have to fix it.

Always remember, said Petra, a friend is someone who understands your past, believes in you future, and accepts you just the way you are.... And a friend stands by you, Suzanne thought to herself,...No matter what it cost her.

People screw up, you know. You shouldn't hold it against them. You shouldn't expect everyone to know everything you're thinking about or not getting from them. It doesn't mean they don't love you. They screw up. -Bobby

Even now, after Nick had caused me pain, the truth was I didn't want to cause him any. Wasn't that love, after all?

Thing is, either way we cut it, we shouldn't test the people we love