Compassion Quotes

The most treasured and sacred moments of our lives are those filled with the spirit of love. The greater the measure of our love, the greater is our joy. In the end, the development of such love is the true measure of success in life.

~ Joseph B. Wirthlin

As the pain that can be told is but half a pain, so the pity that questions has little healing in its touch. What Lily craved was the darkness made by enfolding arms, the silence which is not solitude, but compassion holding its breath.

~ Edith Wharton

Be kind to people whether they deserve your kindness or not. If your kindness reaches the deserving good for you if your kindness reaches the undeserving take joy in your compassion.

~ James Fadiman

Sometimes, you will go through awful trials in your life and then a miracle happens--God heals you. Don’t be disheartened when the people you love don’t see things like you do. There will be Pharisees in your life that will laugh it off, deny that it happened, or will mock your experience based on righteousness they think you don't possess. God won't deny you a spiritual experience because you are not a spiritual leader. He loves everyone equal. The only people that really matter in life are the people that can “see” your heart and rejoice with you.

~ Shannon L. Alder

We have to make mistakes, it's how we learn compassion for others.

~ Curtis Sittenfeld

Humans — who enslave, castrate, experiment on, and fillet other animals — have had an understandable penchant for pretending animals do not feel pain. A sharp distinction between humans and 'animals' is essential if we are to bend them to our will, make them work for us, wear them, eat them — without any disquieting tinges of guilt or regret. It is unseemly of us, who often behave so unfeelingly toward other animals, to contend that only humans can suffer. The behavior of other animals renders such pretensions specious. They are just too much like us.

~ Carl Sagan

The nature of compassion isn't coming to terms with your own suffering and applying it to others: It's knowing that other folks around you suffer and, no matter what happens to you, no matter how lucky or unlucky you are, they keep suffering. And if you can do something about that, then you do it, and you do it without whining or waving your own fuckin' cross for the world to see. You do it because it's the right thing to do.

~ John Connolly

When two humans have lived together for many years it usually happens that each has tones of voice and expressions of face which are almost unendurably irritating to the other. Work on that. Bring fully into the consciousness of your patient that particular lift of his mother's eyebrows which he learned to dislike in the nursery, and let him think how much he dislikes it. Let him assume that she knows how annoying it is and does it to annoy - if you know your job he will not notice the immense improbability of the assumption. And, of course, never let him suspect that he has tones and looks which similarly annoy her. As he cannot see or hear himself, this easily managed.

~ C.s. Lewis

Thus, when we plead for the gift of charity, we aren't asking for lovely feelings toward someone who bugs us or someone who has injured or wounded us. We are actually pleading for our very natures to be changed, for our character and disposition to become more and more like the Savior's, so that we literally feel as He would feel and thus do what He would do.

~ Sheri Dew

One smile has the power to...Calm fears.Soften stone walls.Warm a cold heart.Invite a new friend.Mimic a loving hug.Beautify the bearer.Lighten heavy loads.Promote good deeds.Brighten a gloomy day.Comfort a grieving spirit.Offer hope to the forlorn.Send a message of caring.Lift the downtrodden soul.Patch up invisible wounds.Weaken the hold of misery.Act as medicine for suffering.Attract the companionship of angels.Fulfill the human need for recognition.Who knew changing the world would prove so simple?

~ Richelle E. Goodrich

Don't judge without having heard both sides. Even persons who think themselves virtuous very easily forget this elementary rule of prudence.

~ Josemaría Escrivá

Listening is an attitude of the heart, a genuine desire to be with another which both attracts and heals. (attr to J. Isham)

~ Sura Hart

Sensitive people care when the world doesn't because we understand waiting to be rescued and no one shows up. We have rescued ourselves, so many times that we have become self taught in the art of compassion for those forgotten.

~ Shannon L. Alder

When we refuse to work with our disappointment, we break the Precepts: rather than experience the disappointment, we resort to anger, greed, gossip, criticism. Yet it's the moment of being that disappointment which is fruitful; and, if we are not willing to do that, at least we should notice that we are not willing. The moment of disappointment in life is an incomparable gift that we receive many times a day if we're alert. This gift is always present in anyone's life, that moment when 'It's not the way I want it!

~ Charlotte Joko Beck

Walk with me for a while, my friend—you in my shoes, I in yours—and then let us talk.

~ Richelle E. Goodrich

Bahujanahitāya bahujanasukhāya lokānukampāya:For the good of the many, for the happiness of the many, out of compassion for the world.

~ Gautama Buddha

Compassion is like mother giving love to her children. Mother’s ways are higher than others, even when everyone rejects, mother accepts with her arms open and wide.

~ Amit Ray

Give freely to the world these gifts of love and compassion. Do not concern yourself with how much you receive in return, just know in your heart it will be returned.

~ Steve Maraboli

I don't want my life to be defined by what is etched on a tombstone. I want it to be defined by what is etched in the lives and hearts of those I've touched.

~ Steve Maraboli

Compassion is not religious business, it is human business, it is not luxury, it is essential for our own peace and mental stability, it is essential for human survival.

~ Dalai Lama Xiv

The exaggerated dopamine sensitivity of the introvert leads one to believe that when in public, introverts, regardless of its validity, often feel to be the center of (unwanted) attention hence rarely craving attention. Extroverts, on the other hand, seem to never get enough attention. So on the flip side it seems as though the introvert is in a sense very external and the extrovert is in a sense very internal - the introvert constantly feels too much 'outerness' while the extrovert doesn't feel enough 'outerness'.

~ Criss Jami

Behold I do not give lectures or a little charity, when I give I give myself.

~ Walt Whitman

Let us remember that animals are not mere resources for human consumption. They are splendid beings in their own right, who have evolved alongside us as co-inheritors of all the beauty and abundance of life on this planet

~ Marc Bekoff

In the things that really matter--our covenants, the commandments, and following the prophet--we need to be completely united. In the non-essentials, we have our agency to handle things as we see fit. But, in all things, regardless of whether we make the same choices or not, we are to treat each other with dignity and respect, both of which are evidences of charity in our hearts and lives.

~ Sheri Dew

LOVE of others is the appreciation of one's self. MAY your egotism be so gigantic that you comprise mankind in your self-sympathy.

~ Mina Loy

Compassion is, by definition, relational. Compassion literally means “to suffer with,” which implies a basic mutuality in the experience of suffering. The emotion of compassion springs from the recognition that the human experience is imperfect.

~ Kristin Neff

When morality comes up against profit, it is seldom that profit loses.

~ Shirley Chisholm

Close both eyes see with the other one. Then we are no longer saddled by the burden of our persistent judgments our ceaseless withholding our constant exclusion. Our sphere has widened and we find ourselves quite unexpectedly in a new expansive location in a place of endless acceptance and infinite love.

~ Gregory J. Boyle

There is no small act of kindness.Every compassionate act makes large the world.

~ Mary Anne Radmacher

The most worth-while thing is to try to put happiness into the lives of others.

~ Robert Baden-Powell

One of the most important things you can do on this earth is to let people know they are not alone.

~ Shannon L. Alder

When we know ourselves to be connected to all others, acting compassionately is simply the natural thing to do.

~ Rachel Naomi Remen

For animals that are overworked, underfed, and cruelly treated; for all wistful creatures in captivity that beat their wings against bars; for any that are hunted or lost or deserted or frightened or hungry; for all that must be put to death...and for those who deal with them we ask a heart of compassion and gentle hands and kindly words.

~ Albert Schweitzer

You know what?' said Vimes aloud. 'This is going to be the world's first democratically killed dragon. One man, one stab.'Then you've got to stop them. You can't let them kill it!' said Lady Ramkin.Vimes blinked at her.Pardon?' he said.It's wounded!'Lady, that was the intention, wasn't it? Anyway, it's only stunned,' said

~ Terry Pratchett

I am not going to change who I am. I am human and I know how to love, and be kind, and be compassionate to those who are weaker than me. Just because I have power doesn't mean I have to use it!

~ Garth Nix

Today I will take the opportunity to do unanticipated good.

~ Steve Maraboli

We often get caught up in our own reactions and forget the vulnerability of the person in front of us.

~ Sharon Salzberg

Compassionate love may be strong. It sobs, it burns, then it wipes away its tears – and it does nothing.

~ Alexander Herzen

How could it ever be to our purpose to rob another living being of his or her purpose?

~ Will Tuttle

Those who unlock your compassion are those to whom you've been assigned.

~ Mike Murdock