Thich Nhat Hanh
A compassionate person sees himself or herself in every being.
-Thich Nhat Hanh
Albert Pike
What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world remains and is immortal.
-Albert Pike
Joel Osteen
Being good to people is better than preaching a sermon. Being kind and compassionate speaks louder than words.
-Joel Osteen
James Pierce
Compassion comes naturally when you lose your overinflated sense of self-importance.
-James Pierce
Thomas Merton
Compassion is the keen awareness of the interdependence of all things.
-Thomas Merton
Patrik Baboumian
Those who are truly strong can afford to show compassion.
-Patrik Baboumian
Dalai Lama
Anger and hatred are signs of weakness, while compassion is a sure sign of strength.
-Dalai Lama
Jeff Brown
Compassion. It’s not just a word. It’s a way of being. It’s not just a concept. It’s love in action.
-Jeff Brown
Pema Chödrön
Compassion for others begins with kindness to ourselves.
-Pema Chödrön
Lord Krishna
When a person responds to the joys and sorrows of others as though they were his own, he or she has attained the highest spiritual union.
-Lord Krishna
Booker T. Washington
Those who are happiest are those who do the most for others.
-Booker T. Washington
Jiddu Krishnamurti
When I understand myself, I understand you, and out of that understanding comes love.
-Jiddu Krishnamurti
Maxime Lagacé
Wise people don’t feel diminished while listening to others.
-Maxime Lagacé
Isabel Allende
We only have what we give.
-Isabel Allende
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Being nice counts the most when you are nice to people ignored by others.
-Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Shane Parrish
Everybody sees things their way. Nobody wants to see things through the eyes of others.
-Shane Parrish
Dalai Lama
If we human beings help each other, serve each other, with compassion, we’ll be happy.
-Dalai Lama
Ralph Waldo Emerson
The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
Russell Simmons
Compassion is the ultimate expression of your highest self.
-Russell Simmons
Sheeta
A king without compassion does not deserve a kingdom. No matter how many weapons you may have, no matter how great your technology might be, the world cannot live without love.
-Sheeta
Martin Luther King Jr
True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.
-Martin Luther King Jr
Ram Dass
The soul is composed of love, compassion, wisdom, peace, and joy. Those are all in us.
-Ram Dass
Maya Angelou
My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.
-Maya Angelou
14th Dalai Lama
Compassion is the radicalism of our time.
-14th Dalai Lama
Pema Chödrön
Knowing pain is a very important ingredient of being there for another person.
-Pema Chödrön
Pema Chödrön
Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It’s a relationship between equals.
-Pema Chödrön
Paulo Coelho
Tolerance and compassion are qualities of fearless people.
-Paulo Coelho
Deepak Chopra
No matter how dark the times we must face reality and quietly work for the common good and collective evolution with love and compassion.
-Deepak Chopra
Susan Sontag
Compassion is an unstable emotion. It needs to be translated into action, or it withers.
-Susan Sontag
Arthur Schopenhauer
Compassion is the basis of morality.
-Arthur Schopenhauer
Maxime Lagacé
Create meaning by caring for others.
-Maxime Lagacé
Shane Parrish
The best way to be successful is to make others successful.
-Shane Parrish
Roy T. Bennett
More smiling, less worrying. More compassion, less judgment. More blessed, less stressed. More love, less hate.
-Roy T. Bennett
Cesar Chavez
Kindness and compassion towards all living beings is a mark of a civilized society.
-Cesar Chavez
Joseph Addison
True benevolence or compassion, extends itself through the whole of existence and sympathizes with the distress of every creature capable of sensation.
-Joseph Addison
Ali ibn Abi Talib
Be like a flower that gives its fragrance even to the hand that crushed it.
-Ali ibn Abi Talib
Maxime Lagacé
If it’s about logic, numbers and competition, we are screwed. If it’s about emotion, love and collaboration, we have a chance.
-Maxime Lagacé
Paulo Coelho
May love fill your heart, compassion guides your mind, faith rules your soul.
-Paulo Coelho
Rhonda Byrne
Gratitude eliminates fear, worry, grief, and depression, and brings happiness, kindness, compassion, understanding, and peace of mind.
-Rhonda Byrne
Kurt Vonnegut
God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.
-Kurt Vonnegut
Steve Maraboli
“A kind gesture can reach a wound that only compassion can heal.”
-Steve Maraboli
Karen Armstrong
“In compassion, when we feel with the other, we dethrone ourselves from the center of our world and we put another person there.”
-Karen Armstrong
Barbara Kingsolver
“Empathy is really the opposite of spiritual meanness. It’s the capacity to understand that every war is both won and lost. And that someone else’s pain is as meaningful as your own.”
-Barbara Kingsolver
Confucius
“Wisdom, compassion, and courage are the three universally recognized moral qualities of men.”
-Confucius
Pema Chodron
“Compassion for others begins with kindness to ourselves.”
-Pema Chodron
Helen Keller
“Life is an exciting business, and most exciting when it is lived for others.”
-Helen Keller
Maya Angelou
“When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed.”
-Maya Angelou
Norman Cousinsnone
“The individual is capable of both great compassion and great indifference. He has it within his means to nourish the former and outgrow the latter.”
-Norman Cousinsnone
Dalsaku Ikeda
“Humanity’s collective mission in the cosmos lies in the practice of compassion.”
-Dalsaku Ikeda
Cheryl Strayed
“Compassion is about giving all the love that you’ve got.”
-Cheryl Strayed
Elizabeth Lesser
“Look for a way to lift someone up. And if that’s all you do, that’s enough.”
-Elizabeth Lesser
Daniel Goleman
“True compassion means not only feeling another’s pain but also being moved to help relieve it.”
-Daniel Goleman
Tao Te Ching
“With compassion one becomes courageous. Compassion brings triumph when attacked; it brings security when maintained.”
-Tao Te Ching
Henry Ward Beecher
“Compassion will cure more sins than condemnation.”
-Henry Ward Beecher
Bhagavad Gita
“Out of compassion, I destroy the darkness of their ignorance. From within them I light the lamp of wisdom and dispel all darkness from their lives.”
-Bhagavad Gita
Kristen Neff
“Having compassion for yourself means that you honor and accept your humanness.”
-Kristen Neff
Dalai Lama
“Compassion and tolerance are not a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength.”
-Dalai Lama
Martin Scorsese
“And as I’ve gotten older, I’ve had more of a tendency to look for people who live by kindness, tolerance, compassion, a gentler way of looking at things.”
-Martin Scorsese
Dr. Prem Jagyasi
“Taking time to relax every day, spending quality time with friends, and practicing mindfulness are some of the tried and tested ways of developing self-compassion.”
-Dr. Prem Jagyasi
Kristin Neff
“When we give ourselves compassion, we are opening our hearts in a way that can transform our lives.”
-Kristin Neff
Jack Kornfield
“Our sorrows and wounds are healed only when we touch them with compassion.”
-Jack Kornfield
Pema Chodron
“Having compassion starts and ends with having compassion for all those unwanted parts of ourselves.”
-Pema Chodron
Andrew Boyd
Compassion hurts. When you feel connected to everything, you also feel responsible for everything. And you cannot turn away. Your destiny is bound with the destinies of others. You must either learn to carry the Universe or be crushed by it. You must grow strong enough to love the world, yet empty enough to sit down at the same table with its worst horrors.
-Andrew Boyd
John Connolly
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
Thich Nhat Hanh
There’s no place where deep listening and loving speech are inappropriate.
-Thich Nhat Hanh
Thich Nhat Hanh
Gentleness is powerful. When we use gentle and loving speech, we are able to transform anger, fear, resentment and suspicion in our communication. The whole intention of loving speech is to understand the other person and to be understood.
-Thich Nhat Hanh
Thich Nhat Hanh
When we can free ourselves from the idea of separateness, we have compassion, we have understanding, and we have the energy we need to help.
-Thich Nhat Hanh
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
When someone is caught up in the whirlpool of their own mind, you can only feel compassion for them, not anger.
-Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Jack Kornfield
Compassion recognizes the suffering of another as a reflection of our own pain. Compassion is shared suffering.
-Jack Kornfield
Eckhart Tolle
Compassion arises when you recognize that all are suffering from the same sickness of the mind, some more acutely than others.
-Eckhart Tolle
Alain de Botton
You didn’t choose how you looked; yet we keep judging others as if they chose and are how they look.
-Alain de Botton
14th Dalai Lama
As a human being, I am committed to the promotion of what I call basic human values, by which I mean especially compassion.
-14th Dalai Lama
14th Dalai Lama
Generosity is the most natural outward expression of an inner attitude of compassion and loving-kindness.
-14th Dalai Lama
Maxime Lagacé
If we are not tolerant and loving with others, who will be with ourselves?
-Maxime Lagacé
Thich Nhat Hanh
Every one of us has the capacity to love, to forgive, to understand, and to be compassionate.
-Thich Nhat Hanh
Bhagavad Gita
They live in wisdom who see themselves in all and all in them, who have renounced every selfish desire and sense-craving tormenting the heart.
-Bhagavad Gita
Mahatma Gandhi
A man’s true wealth hereafter is the good he has done to his fellowmen.
-Mahatma Gandhi
Jiddu Krishnamurti
Compassion, as love, is something which is not of the mind.
-Jiddu Krishnamurti
Anne Frank
The fruit of love is service, which is compassion in action.
-Mother Teresa
Anne Frank
No one has ever become poor by giving.
-Anne Frank
Albert Einstein
Our task must be to free ourselves… by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and it’s beauty.
-Albert Einstein
Ram Dass
We must be very compassionate with ourselves, and each time just center again, quiet again and begin again.
-Ram Dass
Dalai Lama
If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.”
-Dalai Lama
Ken Poirot
“Give Compassion: Every day the average person fights epic battles never told just to survive.”
-Ken Poirot
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
“We must learn to regard people less in the light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer.”
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bill Bullard
“The highest form of knowledge is empathy.”
-Bill Bullard
Rachael Joy Scott
“Compassion is the greatest form of love humans have to offer.”
-Rachael Joy Scott
Tom Althouse
“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
Dalai Lama
“Love and compassion are the true religions to me. But to develop this, we do not need to believe in any religion.”
-Dalai Lama
Bob Thurman
“Until you have real compassion, you cannot recognize love.”
-Bob Thurman
Mary Davis
“We can’t heal the world today but we can begin with a voice of compassion, a heart of love, an act of kindness.”
-Mary Davis
Heather Wolf
“There is no such thing as tough love. Love is kind, love is compassionate, love is tender.”
-Heather Wolf
John Holmes
“There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up.”
-John Holmes
Jackie Chan
“Sometimes it takes only one act of kindness and caring to change a person’s life.
-Jackie Chan
Plato
“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.”
-Plato
Princess Diana
“Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for you.”
-Princess Diana
Mary Anne Radmacher
“There is no small act of kindness. Every compassionate act makes large the world.”
-Mary Anne Radmacher
Leo Buscaglia
“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
Charles Glassman
“Kindness begins with the understanding that we all struggle.”
-Charles Glassman
Dalai Lama
“Whether one believes in a religion or not, and whether one believes in rebirth or not, there isn’t anyone who doesn’t appreciate kindness and compassion.”
-Dalai Lama
William John Bennett
“A kind and compassionate act is often its own reward.”
-William John Bennett
Bob Kerrey
“Unexpected kindness is the most powerful, least costly, and most underrated agent of human change.”
-Bob Kerrey