COMPASSION / EMPATHY / KINDNESS

Related States & Conditions | Syntonic | Dystonic

Kindness in words creates confidence.
Kindness in thinking creates profoundness.
Kindness in giving creates love.
Laozi
570-490 BCE, Chinese Philosopher, Founder of Daoism

Perfect kindness acts without thinking of kindness.
Laozi

No act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted.
Aesop
fl. c. 550 BCE, Khemetic (Egyptian) Fabulist
"The Lion and the Mouse"

Kindness effects more than severity.
Aesop
"The Wind and the Sun"

We are to live so that no harm or pain is caused by our thoughts, words, or deeds to any other being.
Patanjali
c. 200-150 BCE, Indian Philosopher,Writer

The reward of charity depends entirely upon the extent of the kindness in it.
Babylonian Talmud
Tractate Sukkah, Jewish Sacred Text

Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for kindness.
Seneca
c. 4 BCE-65 CE, Spanish-Roman Stoic Philosopher, Poet, Dramatist, Essayist, Rhetorician, Statesman

I was hungered, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in.
Jesus of Nazareth
c. 5-c. 38 CE, Jewish Prophet, Mystic, Founder of Christianity
The Bible , Matthew 23:35

Constantly remind yourself, "I am a member of the whole body of conscious things." If you think of yourself as a mere "part," then love for mankind will not well up in your heart; you will look for some reward in every act of kindness and miss the boon which the act itself is offering. Then all your work will be seen as a mere duty and not as the very porthole connecting you with the Universe itself.
Marcus Aurelius
121-180, Roman Emperor, Stoic Philosopher
Meditations, Book 7:13, in Two Suns Rising , Jonathan Star, ed., 1991

Those desiring speedily to be
A refuge for themselves and other beings
Should interchange the terms "I" and "other,"
And thus embrace a sacred mystery.
Shantideva
7th Century Indian Buddhist Scholar
The Way of the Boddhisattva , Padmakara, tr.

The quality of mercy is not strain'd;
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blessed:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
William Shakespeare
1564-1616, English Poet, Dramatist, Actor
The Merchant of Venice , IV.1

If there is any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not deter or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again.
William Penn
1644-1718, English Quaker, Founder of the State of Pennsylvania

On that best portion of a good man's life;
His little, nameless, unremembered acts
Of kindness and love.
William Wordsworth
1770-1850, English Lyrical Poet
"Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey," 1798

Kindness causes us to learn, and to forget, many things.
Madame Swetchine
1782-1857, Russian Writer
The Writings of Madame Swetchine

A man, to be greatly good, must imagine intensely and comprehensively; he must put himself in the place of another and in many others; the pains and pleasures of his species must become his own.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
1792-1822, English Poet, Dramatist, Essayist

Listening to people talking I could enter into their lives, feel their tattered clothes on my back, walk with my feet in their shoes; their desires, their needs, all passed into my soul, or my soul passed into theirs.
Honore de Balzac
1799-1850, French Writer

A good heart is better than all the heads in the world.
Edward Bulwer-Lytton
1803-1873, English Writer, Politician

If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we would find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
1807-1882, American Poet, Writer

Kind thoughts are rarer than either kind words or kind deeds. They imply a great deal of thinking about others. This in itself is rare. But they also imply a great deal of thinking about others without the thoughts being criticisms. This is rarer still.
Frederick Faber
1814-1963, English Priest, Hymnwriter
Spiritual Conferences

Kindness is a language the dumb can speak and the deaf can hear and understand.
Christian Bovee
1820-1904, American Lawyer, Writer
Thoughts, Feelings and Fancies , 1857

Compassion is perhaps the greatest emotion that man possesses.
Fyodor Dostoevsky
1821-1881, Russian Writer

Let them at all times concern themselves with doing a kindly thing for one of their fellows, offering to someone love, consideration, thoughtful help. Let them see no one as their enemy, or as wishing them ill, but think of all humankind as their friends; regarding the alien as an intimate, the stranger as a companion, staying free of prejudice, drawing no lines.
'Abdu'l-Baha
1844-1921, Iranian Baha'i Leader
Selections from the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Baha , 1978

Benevolence doesn't consist in those who are prosperous pitying and helping those who are not. Benevolence consists in fellow feeling that puts you upon actually the same level with the fellow who suffers.
Woodrow Wilson
1856-1924, 28th US President

True kindness presupposes the faculty of imagining as one's own the suffering and joys of others.
André Gide
1869-1951, French Writer, Critic, Dramatist, Poet, 1947 Nobel Laureate
Pretexts

Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that awareness, you have good manners – no matter what fork you use.
Emily Post
1873-1960, American Writer, Educator

Open your eyes and look for some man, or some work for the sake of men, which needs a little time, a little friendship, a little sympathy, a little sociability, a little human toil … Who can reckon up all the ways in which that priceless fund of impulse, man, is capable of exploitation! He is needed in every nook and corner. Therefore search and see if there is not some place where you may invest your humanity.
Albert Schweitzer
1875-1965, German Theologian, Philosopher, Musician, Physician, Missionary, 1952 Nobel Laureate

Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust and hostility to evaporate.
Schweitzer

Of course, understanding of our fellow-beings is important. But this understanding becomes fruitful only when it is sustained by sympathetic feeling in joy and sorrow.
Albert Einstein
1879-1955, German-American Mathematical Physicist, 1921 Nobel Laureate
Ideas and Opinions

Empathy is not merely the basic principle of artistic creation. It is also the only path by which one can reach the truth about life and society.
Nagai Kafu
1879-1959, Japanese Writer, Educator

Compassion is the desire that moves the individual self to widen the scope of its self-concern to embrace the whole of the universal self.
Arnold Toynbee
1889-1975, English Historian, Scholar
The Toynbee-Ikeda Dialogue

If life is worth anything, it is that it teaches a lesson of kindliness.
Lin Yutang
1895-1976, Chinese Writer, Dramatist, Translator
My Country and My People

Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind.
Eric Hoffer
1902-1983, American Writer, Philosopher, Longshoreman
The Passionate State of Mind, And Other Essays , 1955

Compassion for me is just what the word says; it is 'suffering with.' It is an immediate participation in the suffering of another to such a degree that you forget yourself and your own safety and spontaneously do what is necessary.
Joseph Campbell
1904-1987, American Mythologist, Educator, Writer

The love of our neighbour in all its fullness simply means being able to say to him, "What are you going through?"
Simone Weil
1909-1943, French Philosopher, Essayist, Mystic

Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat … We must find each other.
Mother Teresa
1910-1997, Albanian Nun, Missionary, 1979 Nobel Laureate

The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another.
Thomas Merton
1915-1968, American Trappist Monk, Writer

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.
John F. Kennedy
1917-1963, 35th US President

Hot heads and cold hearts never solved anything.
Billy Graham
1918-, American Evangelist

Life is just a short walk from the cradle to the grave – and it sure behoves us to be kind to one another along the way.
Alice Childress
1920-1994, African-American Dramatist, Writer
"A Candle in a Gale Wind," in Mari Evans, Black Women Writers , 1984

If someone listens, or stretches out a hand, or whispers a kind word of encouragement, or attempts to understand a lonely person, extraordinary things begin to happen.
Loretta Girzaitis
1920-, American Writer

Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness, and understanding you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again.
Og Mandino
1923-1996, American Writer, Motivational Speaker

Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom.
Theodore Rubin
1923-, American Psychiatrist

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.
Leo Buscaglia
1924-1998, American Educator, Writer

Compassion is the sometimes fatal capacity for feeling what it is like inside someone else's skin. It is the knowledge that there can never really be any peace and joy for me until there is peace and joy finally for you too.
Frederick Beuchner
1926-, American Cleric, Writer

As soon as you see that the person you call your enemy is also suffering, you will be ready to love and accept him. The idea of "enemy" vanishes and is replaced by the reality of someone who is suffering and needs our love.
Thich Nhat Hanh
1926-, Vietnamese Buddhist Master, Poet, Writer, Activist
Teachings on Love , 1998

Compassion and nonviolence help us to see the enemy's point of view, to hear his questions, to know his assessment of ourselves. For from his view we may indeed see the basic weaknesses of our own condition, and if we are mature, we may learn and grow and profit from the wisdom of the brothers who are called the opposition.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
1929-1968, African-American Civil Rights Leader, Cleric, 1964 Nobel Laureate
The Words of Martin Luther King, Jr. , Coretta Scott King, ed., 1983

The heart that breaks open can contain the whole universe.
Joanna Macy
1929-, American Writer

Compassion is the basis of all truthful relationships: it means being present with love – for ourselves and for all life, including animals, fish, birds, and trees. Compassion is bringing our deepest truth into our actions, no matter how much the world seems to resist, because that is ultimately what we have to give this world and one another.
Ram Dass
1931-, American Psychologist, Teacher, Writer
in Ram Dass & Mirabai Bush, Setting Out on the Path of Service , 1992

Compassion and love are not mere luxuries. As a source of both inner and external peace, they are fundamental to the continued survival of our species.
Dalai Lama
1935-, Tibetan Leader, 14th Dalai Lama, Teacher, Writer
in The Times , 1999 June

History shows that most of the positive or beneficial developments in human society have occurred as a result of care and compassion.
Dalai Lama

Because we all share a wish for happiness and an identical need for love, it is possible to feel that anyone we meet, in whatever circumstances, is a brother or sister. We do not need to become religious; nor do we need to believe in an ideology. I believe that at every level of society the key to a happier and more successful world is the growth of compassion.
Dalai Lama

Whether people are beautiful and friendly or unattractive and disruptive, ultimately they are human beings, just like oneself. Like oneself, they want happiness and do not want suffering. Furthermore, their right to overcome suffering and be happy is equal to one's own. Now, when you recognize that all beings are equal in both their desire for happiness and their right to obtain it, you automatically feel empathy and closeness for them. Through accustoming your mind to this sense of universal altruism, you develop a feeling of responsibility for others: the wish to help them actively overcome their problems. Nor is this wish selective; it equally applies to all.
Dalai Lama

It is our lack of love for ourselves that inhibits our compassion toward others. If we make friends with ourselves, then there is no obstacle to opening our hearts and minds to others.
Pema Chodron
1936-, American Buddhist Nun, Writer

Often the most loving thing we can do when a friend is in pain is to share the pain – to be there even when we have nothing to offer except our presence and even when being there is painful to ourselves.
M. Scott Peck
1936-, American Psychiatrist, Writer
The Different Drum

Simplicity of living, if deliberately chosen, implies a compassionate approach to life. It means we are choosing to live our daily lives with some degree of conscious appreciation of the condition of the rest of the world.
Duane Elgin
1943-, American Writer, Activist
Voluntary Simplicity

Spiritual energy brings compassion into the real world. With compassion, we see benevolently our own human condition and the condition of our fellow beings. We drop prejudice. We withhold judgment.
Christina Baldwin
1946-, American Writer

Those who have suffered understand suffering and therefore extend their hand.
Patti Smith
1946-, American Poet, Lyricist, Singer

It's so easy to laugh. It's so easy to hate. It takes strength to be gentle and kind.
Stephen Morrissey
1959-, British Rock Singer, Songwriter

The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention.
Anonymous

There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up.
- John Andrew Holmes

If we revision human nature to include our innate capacity for empathy, then acting on behalf of others leads to self-fulfillment, rather than personal privation.
- Tom Hurley

Compassion allows us to bear witness to suffering, whether it is in ourselves or others, without fear; it allows us to name injustice without hesitation, to act strongly, with all the skill at our disposal.
- Sharon Salzberg

The care of rivers is not a question of rivers, but of the human heart.
- Tanaka Shozo

If you make fun of bad persons you make yourself beneath them … Be kind to bad and good, for you don't know your own heart.
- Sarah Winnemucca
Native American, Paiute
in Life Among the Paiute

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