c2p-cmd/Good-Quotes-Authors huggingface dataset:
In a world where very few people care if you live or die, there is a light that shines in the distance. It has a name that they call hope and it carries with it people that never stop caring. They learned long ago that extending mercy was not a choice, but a place where God lives.
— Shannon L. Alder
The fundamental principle of morality which we seek as a necessity for thought is not, however, a matter only of arranging and deepening current views of good and evil, but also of expanding and extending these. A man is really ethical only when he obeys the constraint laid on him to help all life which he is able to succour, and when he goes out of his way to avoid injuring anything living. He does not ask how far this or that life deserves sympathy as valuable in itself, nor how far it is capable of feeling. To him life as such is sacred. He shatters no ice crystal that sparkles in the sun, tears no leaf from its tree, breaks off no flower, and is careful not to crush any insect as he walks. If he works by lamplight on a summer evening, he prefers to keep the window shut and to breathe stifling air, rather than to see insect after insect fall on his table with singed and sinking wings.
— Albert Schweitzer, The Animal World of Albert Schweitzer
Let integrity, humility, kindness, compassion, peace, and unity follow you wherever you go. We still have a chance at making this world a better place for us and our future generations. Stop Complaining about all the negativity in this world and start contributing more positive words, decisions, and actions to it.
We're better off not worrying about ourselves, and to do that, we have to worry about others.
— V.C. Andrews, Pearl in the Mist
Never embarrass a student in front of others. Embarrass yourself often to relieve the tension, but do not paint them into a corner.
— Harry Gilbert
...that tender compunction of the honest-minded, so different from the hateful intoxication of criminals...
— Marquis de Sade
Humanity need not be taught in schools, it is a gift and skill one should master.
— Ama H. Vanniarachchy
In all our lives, however, there are many days when we die a little, when we are wounded by loss or failure, or by fear, or by seeing the suffering of others for whom we are able to offer only pity, for whom we are powerless to offer aid, we are beyond mercy.
— Dean Koontz, Odd Apocalypse
Every living thing is sacred to me. Compassion and love can heal this world, which is set on fire of violence and hatred. I will teach the world about compassion, and end the suffering by halting these floods of sorrow. Said Prince Siddhartha and began his journey of saving the man kind.” ,
— Ama H. Vanniarachchy, The Kind Prince
Be Relentless in your Compassion for it is Your Power.
— Odille Rault
Humanity is not only ‘great acts’ spending thousands, putting your name on headlines. Humanity is to be kind to every living being, to be compassionate towards all, even to the tiniest animal, seen and unseen. Some people consider killing ants or pest normal, but I find it is an act of extreme cruelty. By killing them you violate their rights to live. We must remember that the earth and the universe belongs to all of us. We are just another species out of millions of species, and we share the universe with them and most importantly, remember that we belong to each other.
— Ama H. Vanniarachchy
...Daisy doesn't even go to his funeral, Nick and Jordan part ways, and Daisy ends up sticking with racist Tom... you can tell Fitzgerald never took the time to look up at clouds during sunset, because there's no silver lining at the end of that book, let me tell you. I do see why Nikki likes the novel, as it's written so well. But her liking it makes me worry now that Nikki really doesn't believe in silver linings, because she says The Great Gatsby is the greatest novel ever written by an American, and yet it ends so sadly. One thing's for sure, Nikki is going to be very proud of me when I tell her I finally read her favorite book. -Silver Linings Playbook, p. 9
— Matthew Quick
How can I be so captured by my own imagination that I can truly connect both to the person I'm playing and to the person I'm playing wi
— Alan Alda
We'd incorporated Asia into our bones - its colours and laughter, its smells, its rhythms, its tolerance and patience, its compassion, its lack of ageism.
— Jane Wilson-Howarth, A Glimpse of Eternal Snows: A Journey of Love and Loss in the Himalayas
I have never had better opinions of woman than I had of her
— Thomas Cranmer
No one reaches out to you for compassion or empathy so you can teach them how to behave better. They reach out to us because they believe in our capacity to know our darkness well enough to sit in the dark with them.
— Brené Brown, The Power of Vulnerability: Teachings of Authenticity, Connections and Courage
You can't fix things with a hug, but you can't make them any worse either.
— Dean Koontz, Brother Odd
People, generally, are equally insecure. They just show it (or hide it) differently.
— Criss Jami, Healology
The Oscar-nominated documentary The Act of Killing tells the story of the gangster leaders who carried out anti-communist purges in Indonesia in 1965 to usher in the regime of Suharto.The film’s hook, which makes it compelling and accessible, is that the filmmakers get Anwar —one of the death-squad leaders, who murdered around a thousand communists using a wire rope—and his acolytes to reenact the killings and events around them on film in a variety of genres of their choosing.In the film’s most memorable sequence, Anwar—who is old now and actually really likable, a bit like Nelson Mandela, all soft and wrinkly with nice, fuzzy gray hair—for the purposes of a scene plays the role of a victim in one of the murders that he in real life carried out.A little way into it, he gets a bit tearful and distressed and, when discussing it with the filmmaker on camera in the next scene, reveals that he found the scene upsetting. The offcamera director asks the poignant question, “What do you think your victims must’ve felt like?” and Anwar initially almost fails to see the connection. Eventually, when the bloody obvious correlation hits him, he thinks it unlikely that his victims were as upset as he was, because he was “really” upset. The director, pressing the film’s point home, says, “Yeah but it must’ve been worse for them, because we were just pretending; for them it was real.”Evidently at this point the reality of the cruelty he has inflicted hits Anwar, because when they return to the concrete garden where the executions had taken place years before, he, on camera, begins to violently gag.This makes incredible viewing, as this literally visceral ejection of his self and sickness at his previous actions is a vivid catharsis. He gagged at what he’d done.After watching the film, I thought—as did probably everyone who saw it—how can people carry out violent murders by the thousand without it ever occurring to them that it is causing suffering? Surely someone with piano wire round their neck, being asphyxiated, must give off some recognizable signs? Like going “ouch” or “stop” or having blood come out of their throats while twitching and spluttering into perpetual slumber?What it must be is that in order to carry out that kind of brutal murder, you have to disengage with the empathetic aspect of your nature and cultivate an idea of the victim as different, inferior, and subhuman. The only way to understand how such inhumane behavior could be unthinkingly conducted is to look for comparable examples from our own lives. Our attitude to homelessness is apposite here.It isn’t difficult to envisage a species like us, only slightly more evolved, being universally appalled by our acceptance of homelessness.“What? You had sufficient housing, it cost less money to house them, and you just ignored the problem?”They’d be as astonished by our indifference as we are by the disconnected cruelty of Anwar.
— Russell Brand
When we take into consideration the needs of both ourselves and others, we communicate honestly, compassionately and effectively.
— Aletheia Luna, Quiet Strength: Embracing, Empowering and Honoring Yourself as an Introvert
Give Compassion: Every day the average person fights epic battles never told just to survive.
— Ken Poirot
You must love and respect yourself enough to never be a victim under any circumstance.
— Gary   Hopkins
The healthy should be reminded that we are all dying because it is through our own reminder of mortality that we accelerate our good intentions, into actions people can see.
— Shannon L. Alder
Wherever you are, be there with love. Be there with compassion, kindness, and gratitude. Smile and show you care.
— Debasish Mridha
It's the pointless things that give your life meaning. Friendship, Compassion, Art, Love. All of them are pointless. But, they're what keeps life from being meaningless.
— Tim Winton
We aren't really called to save the world, not even to save one person; Jesus does that. We are just called to love with abandon. We are called to enter into our neighbors' sufferings and love them right there.
— Katie J. Davis
Mostly we think of people with great authority as higher up, far away, hard to reach. But spiritual authority comes from compassion and emerges from deep inner solidarity with those who are 'subject' to authority. The one who is fully like us, who deeply understands our joys and pains or hopes and desires, and who is willing and able to walk with us, that is the one to whom we gladly give authority and whose 'subjects' we are willing to be.It is the compassionate authority that empowers, encourages, calls forth hidden gifts, and enables great things to happen. True spiritual authorities are located in the point of an upside-down triangle, supporting and holding into the light everyone they offer their leadership to.
— Henri J.M. Nouwen, Bread for the Journey: A Daybook of Wisdom and Faith
Revere the unity of all-that-iscarry out your daily activities with compassion;if you do not limit your compassion,you yourself will not be limited.
— Lao Tzu
Love draws you out of your cocoon of self-absorption to attune to others. Love allows you to really see another person, holistically, with care, concern, and compassion.
— Barbara L. Fredrickson, Love 2.0: How Our Supreme Emotion Affects Everything We Feel, Think, Do, and Become
Compassion‬ is medicine to a wounded heart. When we show compassion to those who are suffering we preach Jesus in another way.
— Paul Gitwaza
If kindness isn't your strong suit, then you need to change clothes.
— Donna Marie Timney
You must rely on reason and science,” she said, “and be guided by a likewise rational ethic of human concern. You must do your utmost as individuals to improve your understanding, ability and compassion.
— Ken MacLeod, Descent
Many people close themselves off from the world when they are under pressure. That is understandable. I have gone through periods when I didn’t want to meet people because I didn’t feel good about my situation in life and that made my life even more stressful. Remind yourself often about how much of an impact compassion and friendship can have on your life. You need to get out there, be compassionate and share your time and your life with your friends and other people that need your support. It’s worth it on every level.
— Gudjon Bergmann, Yes! You Can Manage Stress
Heaven’s Tao is impartial,yet those who follow its compassionate waywill always be nourished
— Lao Tzu
There's iron, they say, in all our blood, And a grain or two perhaps is good; But his, he makes me harshly feel, Has got a little too much of steel.
— Anonymous
When you can begin to see the similarities between you and your work colleagues in respect of ‘being human’ and the collective challenges we all face, it makes life much easier to deal with, especially when met with overbearing behaviour.
— Christopher Dines, Mindfulness Burnout Prevention: An 8-Week Course for Professionals
It is not loving to impose our own grid onto others. We need to understand their situation and their needs accurately, and this comes from listening to them, not coming in with our own assumptions.
— Matt Perman, What's Best Next: How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done
Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be kind. Always.
— Brad Meltzer
Sometimes when you're surrounded by dirt...you're a better witness for what's beautiful.
— Matt de la Pena, Last Stop on Market Street
Nonviolence aims at doing no harm to living being. Compassion aims at doing good to all being.
— Amit Ray, Nonviolence: The Transforming Power
Compassion stands on the pillars of trust, love, awareness and detachment.
— Amit Ray, Nonviolence: The Transforming Power
When we are in constant pain, we cannot empathize with others, nor can we help them. It is only when we allow ourselves to open up to our own nourishment that we are free to feed the rest of the world. And thus, to attend to one's own suffering is the most selfless act.
— Vironika Tugaleva
Our current contempt for poverty stems from information overload--this is the enabler---our over education as privileged people-- perhaps the real culprit--and our secret assurance that we ourselves owe no one anything beyond the exhausting daily round. We will defend our lack of idealism to anyone and be horrifyingly well received in this age. Indeed, many so called financial "philosophies" are in fact nothing more than elaborate justification for one petty selfishness after the next.
— John Thomas Allen
Compassion means removal of suffering – suffering of the self and the others.
— Amit Ray, Nonviolence: The Transforming Power
Attain complete emptiness,Hold fast to stillness.Understanding the ordinary: Mind opens.Mind opening leads to compassion,Compassion to nobility,Nobility to heavenliness,Heavenliness to TAO. TAO endures. Your body dies.There is no danger.
— Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
...and awakening, at that moment, to the thrilling prospect of complete surrender, not just of one’s lips but of one’s entire body to a lover’s mercy, we recognized that the gap between compassion and surrender is love’s darkest, deepest region.
— Orhan Pamuk
The war has changed you, too, Caroline. Your faith is stronger, your compassion deeper, your love more intense than ever before. It's as if all the qualities I saw in you and fell in love with have been refined and purified.
— Lynn Austin, Candle in the Darkness
Compassion dervies from the Latin patiri and the Greek pathein, meaning "to suffer, undergo or experience." So "compassion" means "to endure [something] with another person," to put ourselves in somebody else's shoes, to feel her pain as though it were our own, and to enter generously into his point of view. That is why our hearts, discover what gives us pain, and then refuse, under any circumstance whatsoever, to inflict that pain on anybody else. Compassion can be defined, therefore, as an attitude of principled, consistent altruism.
— Karen Armstrong, Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life
Few of us would regret the years it takes to complete an education or master a crucial skill. So why complain about the perseverance needed to become a well-balanaced and truly compassionate human being?
— Matthieu Ricard
Everything is going to be alright' doesn't mean stubbing your toe won't hurt anymore, but it reinforces that what takes place today, good or bad, is just a small piece of the larger puzzle
— Brian A.  Jackson, Mushroom Medicine: The Healing Power of Psilocybin & Sacred Entheogen History
Whenever tragic loss occurs, you either resist or you yield. Some people become bitter or deeply resentful; others become compassionate, wise, and loving. Yielding means inner acceptance of what is.You are open to life.
— Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose
Live with an open mind and an open heart. Always choose love over fear and kindness over cruelty.
— Laurence Overmire, The One Idea That Saves the World: A Call to Conscience and a Call to Action
The more love you put off to the world in all aspects, the more it will return to you.
— Brian A.  Jackson, Mushroom Medicine: The Healing Power of Psilocybin & Sacred Entheogen History
Few of us would regret the years it takes to complete an education or master a crucial skill. So why complain about the perseverance needed to become a well-balanced and truly compassionate human being?
— Matthieu Ricard, Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill
If the Internal enemy of hatred is not tamed, when one tries to tame external enemies, they increase. Therefore, it is a practice of the wise to tame themselves by means of the forces of love and compassion.
— Bodhisattva Tokmay Sangpo
Some people find God in love; I find God in suffering. I've known for some time what my life's work is, using my hands as tools to relieve suffering.
— Kayla Mueller
When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the edges of your field or pick the fallen fruit. Leave these for the poor and the stranger.
— Leviticus 19:10
Humility, kindness, integrity, and compassion are the fragrances that I wear, and I strongly recommend that you try them.
Despite your best efforts, not everyone wants to be helped. Make a difference where you can and be at peace with the rest.
— Gary   Hopkins
Sadly, we live in a world where if you do good things, there are no financial rewards. If you poison the earth, there is a fortune to be made.
— June Stoyer
A homely face does not guarantee a homely character. Appearance is the body, character is the spirit, and the soul bears the most vital qualities.
— Michael Bassey Johnson
Imagine walking along a sidewalk with your arms full of groceries, and someone roughly bumps into you so that you fall and your groceries are strewn over the ground. As you rise up from the puddle of broken eggs and tomato juice, you are ready to shout out, 'You idiot! What's wrong with you? Are you blind?' But just before you can catch your breath to speak, you see that the person who bumped into you is actually blind. He, too, is sprawled in the spilled groceries, and your anger vanishes in an instant, to be replaced by sympathetic concern: 'Are you hurt? Can I help you up?' Our situation is like that. When we clearly realize that the source of disharmony and misery in the world is ignorance, we can open the door of wisdom and compassion.
— B. Alan Wallace, Tibetan Buddhism from the Ground Up: A Practical Approach for Modern Life
Whether we have happiness or not depends on the seeds in our consciousness. If our seeds of compassion, understanding, and love are strong, those qualities will be able to manifest in us. If the seeds of anger, hostility and sadness in us are strong, then we will experience much suffering. To understand someone, we have to be aware of the quality of the seeds in his consciousness. And we need to remember that his is not solely responsible for those seeds. His ancestors, parents, and society are co-responsible for the quality of the seeds in his consciousness. When we understand this, we are able to feel compassion for that person. With understanding and love, we will know how to water our own beautiful seeds and those of others, and we will recognize seeds of suffering and find ways to transform them.
— Thich Nhat Hanh, Your True Home: The Everyday Wisdom of Thich Nhat Hanh: 365 days of practical, powerful teachings from the beloved Zen teacher
I imagine it feels like bathing in ice to the person touching her. But how does it feel to her? Cold as she is, it must surely burn like fire.
— Orson Scott Card
The world is full of what seem like intractable problems. Often we let that paralyze us. Instead, let is spur you to action. There are some people in the world that we can't help, but there are so many more that we can. So when you see a mother and her children suffering in another part of the world, don't look away. Look right at them. Let them break your heart, then let your empathy and your talents help you make a difference in the lives of others. Whether you volunteer every week or just a few times a year, your time and unique skills are invaluable.
— Melinda Gates
Even in the most compassionate, humankind's limited scope of mercy was reserved for their own.
— Stephenie Meyer, The Host
We each have the power to give. It’s the most gratifying feeling ever. By reaching out to help another human being you're sending ripples of positive change.
— Dana Arcuri, Harvest of Hope: Living Victoriously Through Adversity: A 50-Day Devotional
God wants to lead you to places you cannot get to without Him, and He does that by the power of His Spirit. He can bring you into the realm of the miraculous—not as a show, but as a demonstration of His love and compassion for the lost, hurting, or needy. Who among us doesn’t want or need that?
— Stormie Omartian
Beware pride
—  it would have us seek revenge from those most deserving of our pity.
We can never know how much they deserve our sympathy, but we have to give it unreservedly as they are people innately full of the divine who instead choose to behave infernally owing to poor programming.
— Thomm Quackenbush, Pagan Standard Times: Essays on the Craft
Frequently, people confront us who seemed to be egging the world into calling them on their miserable actions so they can have the pleasure of angry vengeance or an excuse to attract attention. Our compassion cannot be giving them what they think they want, since it is unreasonable to want to be hateful.
— Thomm Quackenbush, Pagan Standard Times: Essays on the Craft
As compassionate beings, we cannot harm others, not even through our inaction.
— Thomm Quackenbush, Pagan Standard Times: Essays on the Craft
I love this life and even if to be taken from me, I will love that you have yours. Cherish all life, for life is worth cherishing.
— Tom Althouse, The Frowny Face Cow
Through the mind and judgment,it is not possible to understandoneself and others.True understanding isa compassionate heart.
— Human Angels, 365 Wisdom Pills
Let us think about our attitude of compassion and understanding with which we choose to respond to what is happening around us
— Kishore Bansal
Take care of your people" is one of the principle lessons of military leadership. If we take care of our people on deployment, why should that change when we come home?
— Eric Greitens, The Heart and the Fist: The Education of a Humanitarian, the Making of a Navy SEAL
Have you noticed that you feel better around some people than others? You smile more in their presence and afterward feel a little lighter, a bit more cheerful? I think of those people as “purveyors of hope.” They help me to know that beyond every mountain I face there is a path...even if I can't see it from the valley.
— Steve Goodier
What if today you gave yourself permission to be outrageously kind? What if you extended as much good will and kindness as you can possibly muster to every person you meet? And what if you did it with no thought of reward? I'm sure of one thing: it will be a day you will never regret.
— Steve Goodier
The greatest gift you can give is your time.  Not money, not items, not food, not pretty cards with handwritten sentiment, but time.  People need your presence.  The way you can help a soul the most is to simply be there.
— Richelle E. Goodrich, Making Wishes
I remember a time in a class on a cold winter morning a Japanese girl came with a surgical mask & I thought “wow people would go to extremes NOT to get sick in Japan” afterwards on a break I approached her & asked in a cynical manner: why the mask? Are you afraid of catching a cold? & then she said “in Japan you use it when YOU are under the weather & you don’t want other people to get sick, it is the polite thing to do” wow! that's a lesson I will never forget
— Pablo
Love gives insight, Maggie, and insight often gives foreboding. Listen to me, let me supply you with books; do let me see you sometimes, be your brother and teacher, as you said at Lorton. It is less wrong that you should see me than that you should be committing this long suicide.
— George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss
Outrage is easy, cheap, and oversold. The nation needs less anger and more thoughtful reflection, less shouting and more listening, less dissembling and more honesty.
— Mario Cuomo, Reason to Believe
When someone is being particularly mean and nasty, I simply think to myself, he or she used to be a cute little baby, I wonder what happened?
— Ben Carson, One Nation: What We Can All Do to Save America's Future
When we accept ourselves as we are, we aren't "settling" or "keeping the problem in place." We're showing love and compassion for ourselves-for our feelings, our situation, and our history.
— Nick Ortner, The Tapping Solution: A Revolutionary System for Stress-Free Living
4-19-10 Monday 1:00 P.M. Today the gas was turned off – more panic reactions. I’m wondering if the darkest hour is just before the dawn and all those wonderful cliches. I don’t see anyway out of my current situation, at least any quality of life I’m willing to accept. It’s just too much to think about right now. I lost the gas stove, the heat, and the water heater. Hmm cold showers, but found an electric crock pot and frying pan, and I still have the microwave. I don’t know what I’ll do if I lose the water. My mother told me there’s a family who pitched a tent in the forest preserve. Somehow the father’s still working and keeping his two kids in school, with a little help from a local church.  And it’s good to know the forest rangers have a heart and have looked the other way. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that they’ve dropped off some food and supplies. Isn’t that America.
— Andrew Neff, The Mind Game Company: The Players
In church, the rules of the lifeboat don't apply. Church is the refuge where the Kingdom of God is emulated, not mocked.
— Donald Miller, Searching for God Knows What
Its not the falling down that counts but what you do next that counts the most. Don't spend your time on your knees if you have fallen, instead get up and dust your knees clean and walk!
— Matt Broadway-Horner, Managing Depression with CBT For Dummies
When your eyes beholds mine, I am mesmerized only to be your wife in bad times more than the best ones. Because whatever one say Marriage is all about Compassion
— Tanya Sehgal
Love is so wonderful and free to give, and it’s the one thing they can’t make you pay taxes on.
— Stanley Victor Paskavich, Stantasyland: Quips Quotes and Quandaries
Empathy is a special application of the imagination. The ability to imagine what it would be like to experience what someone else is experiencing can be crucial to moral sensitivity.
— Gene Edward Veith Jr., Reading Between the Lines
It was happening. At least in that little section of the salon, women were connecting and doing what women knew how to do, show compassion, nurturing—helping someone fit in.
— Terri Gillespie, Cut It Out!
In life I've learnt to CHERISH the moments with those I meet in life, CONQUER my fears, CLIMB the ladder of opportunities, COUNT my blessings, and CARE for the needy.
— Goitsemang Sandra Mvula
I'd always follow Nixon's orders, but you can't order somebody to be happy.
— Charles W. Colson, Born Again
Why does it matter what I own,how I look, what I wear,if I don't help out a friend in need,if I've forgotten to love and care.
— Abhishek Sainani
Happiness will bloom With fragrance and beautyIf you plant the seeds of loveWith a deep driving desire in the garden of hopeAnd nurture with tenderness,Compassion, and care;If you are always eager to share.
— Debasish Mridha
Love, gratitude, compassion, and kindness are the sources of all enduring, pure happiness.
— Debasish Mridha
Perhaps a seemingly dull, boring person is not a person who lacks personality, but rather a person with so much personality most other things bore them.
— Criss Jami, Killosophy
Being a leader is not about finding ways to get others to serve you, but knowing how to serve your followers.
— A.J. Darkholme, Rise of the Morningstar
hold value; not price, carry moral; not pride. be of compassion; not selfishness,humble in your approach to live and loving with your gift to share.
— Nikki Rowe
We have a choice. We can embrace our humanness, which means embracing our broken natures and the compassion that remains our best hope for healing. Or we can deny our brokenness, forswear compassion, and, as a result, deny our own humanity.
— Bryan Stevenson
You know the world has gone mad when those who have enlightened, compassionate views and future visions, are accused of borderline insanity, ridiculed and criticised for thinking positively.
— Mango Wodzak, Destination Eden
Use the talents you’ve developed to create goodwill, to ease the burdens of those who are not as fortunate and to seek truth humbly, without insisting that you hold the only keys to it.
— Laura Burroughs
Compassion means knowing that I may never find that person who understands my pain but through my struggle I can become one who understands.
— Rachel Hamilton
I believe that the more time we spend choosing to run the deep inner-peace circuitry of our right hemispheres, the more peace we will project into the world, and the more peaceful our planet will be.
— Jill Bolte Taylor
The essence of an individual is made up of both their soul and spirit. Spirit is basically life energy, while the soul is what gives a person the ability to feel compassion, love, and all the things that make one human.
— Deanna Chase, Haunted on Bourbon Street
I want a future abortion conversation known for its openness, respect and empathy, so instead of generating more heat, anger and conflict, I practice pro-voice.
— Aspen Baker, Pro-Voice: How to Keep Listening When the World Wants a Fight
Look at this woman. This beauty. What an act of grace. What a gift she gave me.Shame makes people abandon their children and drink themselves to death. It also keeps us from true happiness. An apology is a glorious release. Anastasia gave me a huge gift. That e-mail changed me. It rearranged my molecules. She has lived a life of struggle and decided not to pick up the armor. She teaches me about compassion. She makes her journey about open hearts. She is not ashamed.Thank you thank you thank you.
— Amy Poehler
consistent affection for his characters is what sets Tolstoy apart. Flaubert is equally “objective,” he says, but “Flaubert’s objectivity is charged with irritability and Tolstoy’s with affection. For Flaubert everyone and everything is somehow at fault. For Tolstoy everyone and everything has a saving grace.”“By loving people without cause, he discovered indubitable causes for loving them.” It would be hard to find a more succinct description of the chief work of the Holy Spirit in the human heart.
— Lionel Trilling
She had wild eyes, slightly insane. She also carried an overload of compassion that was real enough and which obviously cost her something.
— Charles Bukowski, Women
Treat people like people. Beware of pity and patronization because in them, you can't see when you're unashamedly looking down on someone.
— Criss Jami, Killosophy
I'm not asking you to walk in my shoes
—  I'd never wish my afflictions on anyone. But could you walk beside me on secure ground and reach to hold my hand?
When you serve the humanity with compassion and kindness,You express your spontaneous love and inner greatness.
— Debasish Mridha
The nature of humanity, its essence, is to feel another's pain as one's own, and to act to take that pain away,. There is a nobility in compassion, a beauty in empathy, a grace in forgiveness.
— John Connolly, The Killing Kind
They say compassion is the only voice; a gift which can help mend the broken, lift the fallen and soften the hardened.
— Aisha Mirza
Everyone carries a burden. Only the weight differs.
— Kathy Katona McIntosh
I was not always that way, but perhaps the shadow Earth, where I spent so many years, mellowed me a bit, and maybe my hitch in the dungeons of Amber reminded me somewhat of the quality of human suffering. I do not know. I only know that I could not pass by the hurt I saw on the form of someone much like someone who had once been a friend.
— Roger Zelazny, The Guns of Avalon
Our tenderness, compassion and kindness go with sensitive generous heart that should not be abused by others.
— Angelica Hopes, Landscapes of a Heart, Whispers of a Soul
Beauty is wasted on the self-absorbed.
— Lorii Myers
If you banish the dragons, you banish the heroes...
— Andrew Solomon
Disgust at idols strengthened his love for idolaters, and the man who once held Gentile neighbors at a distance now listened to their problems, fears, and temptations.
— John Charles Pollock, The Apostle: The Life of Paul
A saint or monk can afford to be compassionate to all, but a leader or boss cannot always be kind. He may soon be without a job himself if he is unduly compassionate, and chances are, no one would show him any compassion then.
— Awdhesh Singh, The Secret Red Book of Leadership
We must remember that the most powerful medicine we can offer for suffering of any kind is simply kindness. It says, "You're not alone. I see you; I hear you; I'm with you.
— Ponlop
Great compassion is the root of altruistic action, the object of amazement to the world;there is no greater source of help and happiness.
— Dalai Lama XIV
New converts displayed a most un-Roman concern for the sick man.
— John Charles Pollock, The Apostle: The Life of Paul
Gods tender mercies are over all His creatures.
— Psalm 145 9
The word 'survivor' carries a weight of remembrance that has broken the minds and bodies of more than a few men and women. It also contains a humbling light of recognition that compels many to do whatever they can to help reinforce the efforts of those who might be 'at risk' of not just giving up on their dreams, but of giving up on their continued existence.
— Aberjhani, Illuminated Corners: Collected Essays and Articles Volume I.
Curious, he thought, how, if you knew a person long enough, he could elicit every kind of emotion from you, every possible reaction, envy, admiration, pity, irritation, fury, fondness, jealousy, love, disgust. But in the end all human beings became candidates for compassion, all of us, without exception...and if we could recognize this from the beginning, what a saving in pain and grief and misery.
— Rohinton Mistry, Family Matters
Death is a tragedy whether it is in the death of one girl-woman in London or seventy-seven men, women, and children in Norway. We know this, but perhaps it needs to be said over and over again so we do not forget.I have never considered compassion a finite resource. I would not want to live in a world where such was the case.
— Roxane Gay, Bad Feminist
He said that knowledge was of little use without wisdom, and that there was no wisdom without spirituality, and that true spirituality always included service to others. As he explained many times, the essence of a good physician consisted of a capacity for compassion and a sense of the ethical, without which qualities the sacred art of healing degenerated into simple charlatanism.
— Isabel Allende, Daughter of Fortune
If a person shows anger to you, and you show anger in return, the result is disaster. If you nurse hatred, you will never be happy, even in the lap of luxury. By contrast, if you control your anger and show its opposite - love, compassion, tolerance, and patience - then not only do you remain in peace, but gradually the anger of others also will diminish.
— Dalai Lama XIV, How to Be Compassionate: a Handbook for Creating Inner Peace and a Happier World
The tremendous danger is that this belief - that genuine happiness comes only from pleasant feelings - becomes a strong motivation to stay closed to anything unpleasant. But by staying closed to all unpleasantness, we also stay closed to our own wellspring of compassion.
— Joseph Goldstein, A Heart Full of Peace
Yoga teaches us that we can have whatever we may want in life if we are willing to provide it for others first.
— Sharon Gannon, Yoga and Vegetarianism: The Path to Greater Health and Happiness
There is no real need to save others, because they will help themselves learning from us, when we choose to shine our light of unconditional love. Through our loving examples others can create, for themselves, an opportunity to act the way they are inspired by us.
— Raphael Zernoff
West couldn't simply leave the man like this, he didn't have it in him."Goodman Heath," he said as he approached, and the peasant looked up at him, surprised. He fumbled for his hat and made to rise, muttering apologies."No, please, don't get up." West sat down on the bench. He stared at his feet, unable to look the man in the eye. There was an awkward silence. "I have a friend who sits on the Commission for Land and Agriculture. There might be something he can do for you…" He trailed off, embarrassed, squinting up the corridor.The farmer gave a sad smile. "I'd be right grateful for anything you could do.""Yes, yes, of course, I'll do what I can." It would do no good whatsoever, and they both knew it. West grimaced and bit his lip. "You'd better take this," and he pressed his purse into the peasant's limp, calloused fingers. Heath looked at him, mouth slightly open. West gave a quick, awkward smile then got to his feet. He was very keen to be off."Sir!" called Goodman Heath after him, but West was already hurrying down the corridor, and he didn't look back.
— Joe Abercrombie, The Blade Itself
The world could be a little less cruel, if we nurture each other while we grow; learn understanding while we transform and maintain a humble attitude whilst we succeed.
— Nikki Rowe
The individual is capable of both great compassion and great indifference. He has it withing his means to nourish the former and outgrow the latter.
— Norman Cousins
To know another person is to Know How to live and work with her. To know another person in a moral sense is to Know How to respect her... Respect must show in action.
— Kathryn Pyne Addelson, Impure Thoughts: Essays on Philosophy, Feminism, and Ethics
You are the very creator and co-creator of your own reality. When you allow yourself to remember what you already know about yourself on the spirit level, you shine the light of unconditional love, compassion and understanding. You become more of who you truly are, when you choose compassion and kindness. It must start from being kind to yourself.
— Raphael Zernoff
It seems that, without clarity and honesty, we don't progress. We just stay stuck in the same vicious cycle. But honesty without kindness makes us feel grim and mean, and pretty soon we start looking like we've been sucking on lemons. We become so caught up in introspection that we lose any contentment or gratitude we might have had. The sense of being irritated by ourselves and our lives and other people's idiosyncrasies becomes overwhelming. That's why there's so much emphasis on kindness.
— Pema Chodran
Help them, but don't make friends with them.
— Pat Conroy, South of Broad
An act of kindness is uplifting to the soul.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
People walk in the door because they need you to take care of them -- to feed them or fix them.
— Wally Lamb
Let the world feel your compassion: Help save kidnapped Yazidi females!
— Widad Akreyi
Jesus showed compassion for the hurting and the lost, and so should you.
— Jim George
Let everything we do and say be an expression of the beauty in our heart, always based on love.
— Miguel Ruiz
We overcome the evil in the world by the charity and compassion of God, and in so doing we drive all evil out of our own hearts. The evil that is in us is more than moral. There is a psychological evil, the distortion caused by selfishness and sin. Good moral intentions are enough to correct what is formally bad in our moral acts. But in order that our charity may heal the wounds of sin in our whole soul it must reach down into the furthest depths of our humanity, cleaning out all the infection of anxiety and false guilt that spring from pride and fear, releasing the good that has been held back by suspicion and prejudice and self-conceit. Everything in our nature must find its right place in the life of charity, so that the whole man may be lifted up to God, that the entire person may be sanctified and not only the intentions of his will.
— Thomas Merton, No Man Is an Island
Silence frees us from the need to control others. One reason we can hardly bear to remain silent is that it makes us feel so helpless. We are accustomed to relying upon words to manage and control others. A frantic stream of words flows from us in an attempt to straighten others out. We want so desperately for them to agree with us, to see things our way. We evaluate people, judge people, condemn people. We devour people with our words. Silence is one of the deepest Disciplines of the Spirit simply because it puts the stopper on that. When we become quiet enough to let go of people, we learn compassion for them.
— Richard J. Foster, Freedom of Simplicity: Finding Harmony in a Complex World
You cannot save people from themselves. All you can do is stand firmly in your hopes for them, with compassion.
— Bryant McGill, Simple Reminders: Inspiration for Living Your Best Life
P71- if i do not love the world if i do not love life if i do not love people i cannot enter into dialogue.
— Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed
The moral crisis she'd just gone through made her feel indulgent toward the faults, the delinquencies of others. How thoroughly a human being can be buffeted and over-mastered by fate had been borne in upon her with appalling force.
— Emmuska Orczy, The Scarlet Pimpernel
In a world of limited resources, our wealth is at the expense of the poor. To put it simply, if we have it, others cannot.
— Richard J. Foster, Freedom of Simplicity: Finding Harmony in a Complex World
Kind words are salve to a cankered soul
—  spread generously.
I am not posing these questions only to the world at large. I query us who own Christ as our life. Can God be pleased by the vast and increasing inequities among us? Is he not grieved by our arrogant accumulation, while Christian brothers and sisters elsewhere languish and die? Is it not obligatory upon us to see beyond the nose of our own national interest, so that justice may roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream? Is there not an obligation upon us to do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God is we want to live in his wonderful peace?
— Richard J. Foster, Freedom of Simplicity: Finding Harmony in a Complex World
Tears are not a sign of weakness. They are a sign of compassion.
— Jim George
To be good, is to be like God. Our purpose in life is to try and reach that standard. We will always fall short, but in our lifetime if we try our best to make a world where everyone is treated equally with respect, empathy, and compassion, the big payoff is that we will be rewarded with that exact thing in Heaven.
— Lewis N. Roe, From A To Theta: Taking The Tricky Subject Of Religion And Explaining Why It Makes Sense In A Way We Can All Understand
Those who’ve left their bootprints in the trenches are those who value human life most. They get unwanted glimpses into the savage nature we really have underneath all the expensive clothes and moisturized skin. This of course, rules out the politicians, feminists, and liberals who are far too cozy hiding behind their daddies’ wallets and sophomoric mentalities as those who feign having tasted the true consequence of a single blood-drop darkening the sand.
— Bruce Crown, Forlorn Passions
We all have a grain of god in us. We do get opportunities to realize it, when moments in life demand selfless deeds of compassion from us. But we often squander them.
— Ashok Kallarakkal
Anybody Can Hate. Hate is Easy...Living Side by Side with Compassion, Tolerance and Respect Takes Real Courage.
— Jeffrey A.  White
He keeps his voice kindly but remote. A cross between a pedagogue, soothsayer, and a benevolent uncle – that should be his tone.
— Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake
The world hangs like a heart-shaped locket around my neck.
— Pam Farrel, Woman of Influence: Ten Traits of Those Who Want to Make a Difference
Kindness is the way you live your life every day.
— Jeffrey A.  White
As the aperture of your heart opens to love you will receive more of the light of compassion, acceptance, gentleness, grace and understanding.
— Bryant McGill, Simple Reminders: Inspiration for Living Your Best Life
Nothing on earth is as unbearable as dealing with other people if you are a person who lacks compassion and understanding.
— Bryant McGill, Simple Reminders: Inspiration for Living Your Best Life
Love is that which gives of itself.
— Vivian Amis, The Essentials of Life
Lead with honesty, total integrity, compassion, patience and tolerance — toward yourself!
— Bryant McGill, Simple Reminders: Inspiration for Living Your Best Life
What is success? What does it mean that someone is successful? Success can be different things to different people. For us being successful is a conscious choice to be oneself. Success does not have to be dependent on any external circumstances and rules dictated by the mainstream society. It does not matter where we live and what we possess. When we love and support ourselves unconditionally choosing to be ourselves as much as we can, this is for us, Being Successful.
— Raphael Zernoff
A tearless heart is a callous heart.
— Jim George
Patience is not a natural gift of a leader, it is a learned one. The more you broaden your awareness, understanding, and compassion, the better results you will get out of your people.
— -Shandel Slaten
Have compassion for people as long as you are one of them too.
— Bryant McGill, Simple Reminders: Inspiration for Living Your Best Life
The world is focused on success, which is defined as riches and fame. Define your success as a person of values. Make love, compassion, and kindness your only success and everything else will be available to you.
— Raphael Zernoff
Dare to love every person, including yourself.
— Bryant McGill, Simple Reminders: Inspiration for Living Your Best Life
True compassion comes by living in the shoes of another, providing a perspective closer to that of God.
— Jason Micheal Ratliff
Before you call yourself a Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu or any other theology, learn to be human first.
— Shannon L. Alder
If it were true love, he would never make you sacrifice your dignity to be with him. He would respect you and treat you as if you were sacred to his heart. If he loved you as dearly as he professes to love Christ, then he would never let anyone that loved him suffer or lower their self worth to be with him. True love is compassion, respect and honorable acts that prove love.
— Shannon L. Alder
It's easy to make a mess when you're not the one who has to clean it up.
— Criss Jami, Killosophy
If our church is not marked by caring for the poor, the oppressed, the hungry, we are guilty of heresy.
— Ignatius of Loyola
By becoming interested in the cause, we are less likely to dislike the effect.
— Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People
Some strive to make themselves great. Others help others see and find their own greatness. It's the latter who really enrich the world we live in
— Rasheed Ogunlaru
Jesus never says to the poor: ‘come find the church’, but he says to those of us in the church: ‘go into the world and find the poor, hungry, homeless, imprisoned.
— Tony Campolo
Nowhere in the bible did it say, “Only show compassion and empathy to those you can trust.” If we did that, we would be burying homeless people every day.
— Shannon L. Alder
You can't change a regime on the basis of compassion. There's got to be something harder.
— Nadine Gordimer, The Quotable Gordimer; or, The Wit and Wisdom of Nadine Gordimer
True resistance begins with people confronting pain... and wanting to do something to change it.
— bell hooks, Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics
You'll be ready for this change - when you're ready – not a moment before. Don't beat yourself up if you're not ready.
— Kelly    Martin, When Everyone Shines But You - Saying Goodbye To I'm Not Good Enough
In every guilty man, there is an element of innocence. This is what makes any absolute condemnation revolting. We do not think enough about pain" Albert Camus
— Robert Zaretsky, A Life Worth Living: Albert Camus and the Quest for Meaning