Quotes About Selflessness

Be charitable and indulge to everyone, but thyself.

Then I was a man I only went up the Hill As I had time to kill But kill I did all that was Me and Mine With Me and Mine gone Lost all my will and skill Here I am, an empty vessel Enslaved to the Divine Will and infinite skill

If you ask a tree how he feels to know that he's spreading his fragrance and making people happy, I don't think a tree looks at it that way. I am just like that, and it is just my nature to be like this.

No joy can equal the joy of serving others.

The greatest spiritual practice is to transform love into service

Thou must be emptied of that wherewith thou art full, that thou mayest be filled with that whereof thou art empty.

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console to be understood as to understand to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive it is in pardoning that we are pardoned and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek To be consoled, as to console; Not so much to be understood as To understand; not so much to be Loved as to love; For it is in giving that we receive; It is in pardoning, that we are pardoned

Teach us, good Lord, to serve Thee as Thou deservest:To give and not to count the cost;To fight and not to heed the wounds;To toil and not to seek for rest;To labor and not ask for any rewardSave that of knowing that we do Thy will.

All good things have come to me since I no longer seek them for myself. -Saint John of the Cross

Charity is certainly greater than any rule.

The sacrifices of friendship were beautiful in her eyes as long as she was not asked to make them.

When we contemplate our motivation, we expand our attitude from being concerned with just ourselves to caring for the whole world.

The journey of the bodhisattva warrior starts with the basic attitude of enlarging our motivation to include the welfare of others. This is a simple response to this dark age. Let's begin right now by engaging love and compassion however we can—not tomorrow, but today.

One of my favorite sayings is "If you want to be miserable, think of yourself. If you want to be happy, think of others.

Her uncanny empathy grew out of her tenuous sense of herself. She could shed her own troubles, compensating for her own emptiness, by losing herself in others' traumas—in effect, she could "be" another person, if only momentarily—even as she delivered the sort of compassion she desperately wanted for herself.

I had carried on when all I wanted was to be dead. I had stayed alive for other people. I never stayed alive for myself. I cannot begin to describe the intensity of that effort.

with a job at his tannery. Tomorrow I'll go to Sears's store and stock our cupboard, but for tonight, for the children—" She reached into her apron and pulled out the purse. Lyddie pushed it

I often must sacrifice my own needs and desires for the purpose of giving my children what they need and modeling for them the depths of Christ's love. "...make myself available in the routine tasks and myriad interruptions of daily life b/c I believe it is God's will for me to serve my family through them.

The sacrifice is wasted if the attitude of serving is self-concerned and complaining in nature. How we serve, in other words, is just as important as what we serve.

I always wanted to be a hero--to sacrifice my life in a big way one time--and yet, God has required my sacrifice to be thousands of days, over many years, with one more kiss, one more story, one more meal.

Heaven is eternal. The earth endures. The reason for heaven's eternity and earth's endurance is that they do not live for themselves only, and thereby live forever. The sage steps back but remains in front, the outside always within. Self is realized through selflessness.

For attractive lips, speak words of kindness. For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people. For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry. For beautiful hair, let a child run his or her fingers through it once a day. For poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone....

Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, it's at the end of your arm, as you get older, remember you have another hand: The first is to help yourself, the second is to help others.