KINDNESS/CARING/COMPASSION
1. A bit of fragrance always clings to the hand that gives roses. ~Chinese Proverb
2. A fellow who does things that count, doesn't usually stop to count them. ~Albert Einstein (adapted)
3. A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you and were helped by you will remember you when forget-me-nots have withered. Carve your name on hearts, not on marble. ~Charles H. Spurgeon
4. A good heart is better than all the heads in the world. ~Edward Lytton
5. A kind and compassionate act is often its own reward. ~William John Bennett
6. A kind deed a day, like little drops of rain, Makes a mighty ocean and a gracious nation. ~Lin Hsiu Nei
7. A kind heart is a fountain of gladness, making everything in its vicinity into smiles. ~Washington Irving
8. A kind word is like a Spring day. ~Russian Proverb
9. A little kindness from person to person is better than a vast love for all humankind. ~Richard Dehmel
10. A love for humanity came over me, and watered and fertilised the fields of my inner world which had been lying fallow, and this love of humanity vented itself in a vast compassion. ~Georg Brandes
11. A person who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person. ~Dave Barry, "Things That It Took Me 50 Years to Learn"
12. A person who sows seeds of kindness enjoys a perpetual harvest. ~Unknown
13. A person's true wealth is the good he or she does in the world. ~Mohammed
14. A religious man is a person who holds God and man in one thought at one time, at all times, who suffers harm done to others, whose greatest passion is compassion, whose greatest strength is love and defiance of despair. ~Abraham Joshua Heschel
15. All major religious traditions carry basically the same message, that is love, compassion and forgiveness the important thing is they should be part of our daily lives. ~Dalai Lama
16. Always be a little kinder than necessary. ~James M. Barrie
17. Always be kind, for everyone is fighting a hard battle. Plato
18. 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
19. As great scientists have said and as all children know, it is above all by the imagination that we achieve perception, and ompassion, and hope. ~Ursula K. LeGuin
20. As much as we need a prosperous economy, we also need a prosperity of kindness and decency. ~Caroline Kennedy Schlossburg
21. As the bus slowed down at the crowded bus stop, the Pakistani bus conductor leaned from the platform and called out, "Six only!" The bus stopped. He counted on six passengers, rang the bell, and then, as the bus moved off, called to those left behind: "So sorry, plenty of room in my heart - but the bus is full." He left behind a row of smiling faces. It's not what you do, it's the way that you do it. ~The Friendship Book of Francis Gay, 1977
22. At the end of the day, love and compassion will win. ~Terry Waite
23. Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. ~Plato
24. Before I was humiliated I was like a stone that lies in deep mud, and he who is mighty came and in his compassion raised me up and exalted me very high and placed me on the top of the wall. ~Saint Patrick
25. 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
26. Being considerate of others will take your children further in life than any college degree. ~Marian Wright Edelman
27. But my experience is that people who have been through painful, difficult times are filled with compassion. ~Amy Grant
28. By swallowing evil words unsaid, no one has ever harmed his stomach. ~Winston Churchill
29. Children, even infants, are capable of sympathy. But only after adolescence are we capable of compassion. ~Louise J. Kaplan
30. Compassion alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil proceeding within us. ~Eric Hoffer
31. Compassion automatically invites you to relate with people because you no longer regard people as a drain on your energy. ~Chogyam Trungpa
32. Compassion brings us to a stop, and for a moment we rise above ourselves. ~Mason Cooley
33. Compassion has no place in the natural order of the world which operates on the basis of necessity. Compassion opposes this order and is therefore best thought of as being in some way supernatural. ~John Berger
34. Compassion is a call, a demand of nature, to relieve the unhappy as hunger is a natural call for food. ~Joseph Butler
35. Compassion, kindness, and concern can be found everywhere in America. And if we have learned nothing else from this [Sept. 11th] tragedy, we have learned that our time on earth is short, so there is simply no time for hate. ~Sandra Dahl, wife of Jason Dahl, pilot of Flight 93
36. Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust and hostility to evaporate, ~Albert Schweitzer
37. Deeds of kindness are equal in weight to all the commandments. ~The Talmud
38. Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame. ~Alexander Pope, Epilogue to the Satires, 1738
39. Don't be yourself - be someone a little nicer. ~Mignon McLaughlin
40. Don't wait for people to be friendly, show them how. ~Unknown
41. Every day I see at least one person who is struggling or having a hard day, and I try to smile or say, 'Hi,' even if I don't know them. Sometimes that simple 'Hi' — that reaching out to them in a friendly way — could change how they're feeling. Someone once wrote, 'Make yourself a blessing to someone. Your kind smile or pat on the back just might pull someone back from the edge.' I live by that. ~Sara, high school student
42. Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each one of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation. ~Robert Kennedy
43. For attractive lips, speak words of kindness. ~Audrey Hepburn
44. Giving connects two people, the giver and the receiver, and this connection gives birth to a new sense of belonging. ~Deepak Chopra
45. Giving is the secret of a healthy life. Not necessarily money, but whatever a person has of encouragement, sympathy and understanding. ~John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
46. Have you had a kindness shown?
Pass it on;
‘Twas not given for thee alone,
Pass it on;
Let it travel down the years,
Let it wipe another’s tears,
Till in Heaven the deed appears,
Pass it on. ~Henry Burton
47. He who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love. ~St. Basil (330-379), Greek religious leader
48. How beautiful a day can be When kindness touches it! ~George Elliston
49. How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these. ~George Washington Carver
50. How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single minute before starting to improve the world. ~Anne Frank
51. Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough. ~Franklin D. Roosevelt
52. I always prefer to believe the best of everybody, it saves so much trouble. ~Rudyard Kipling
53. I expect to pass through life but once. If therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again. ~William Penn
54. I learned that it is the weak who are cruel, and that gentleness is to be expected only from the strong. ~Leo Rosten
55. I soothe my conscience now with the thought that it is better for hard words to be on paper than that Mummy should carry them in her heart. ~Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl
56. If every man's internal care
Were written on his brow,
How many would our pity share
Who raise our envy now? ~Peitro Metastasio
57. 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
58. If those who owe us nothing gave us nothing, how poor we would be. ~Antonio Porchia
59. If thou are a master, be sometimes blind; if a servant, sometimes deaf. ~Thomas Fuller
60. If we cannot be clever, we can always be kind. ~Alfred Fripp
61. If we should deal out justice only, in this world, who would escape? No, it is better to be generous, and in the end more profitable, for it gains gratitude for us, and love. ~Mark Twain
62. If you haven't any charity in your heart, you have the worst kind of heart trouble. ~Bob Hope
63. If you light a lamp for somebody, it will also brighten your path. ~Buddhist saying
64. If you step on people in this life, you're going to come back as a cockroach. ~Willie Davis
65. If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. ~Dalai Lama
66. In about the same degree as you are helpful, you will be happy. ~Karl Reiland
67. In the midst of global crises such as pollution, wars and famine, kindness may too easily be dismissed as a soft issue, or a luxury to be addressed after the urgent problems are solved. But kindness is the greatest need in all those areas — kindness toward the environment, toward other nations, toward the needs of people who are suffering. Until we reflect basic kindness in everything we do, our political gestures will be fleeting and fragile. Simple kindness may be the most vital key to the riddle of how human beings can live with each other in peace, and care properly for this planet we all share. ~Bo Lozoff
68. It is not for him to pride himself who loveth his own country, but rather for him who loveth the whole world. The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens. ~Baha'u'llah
69. It is our special duty, that if anyone needs our help, we should give him such help to the utmost of our power. ~Cicero
70. It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice. ~Unknown
71. It's only me, but I can change a life. ~Liz, high school student
72. I've found what's truly sacred in life's small things...Hopefully, the world can be changed through acts of kindness, acts of affection and love--the idea of doing normal, everyday things that actually have an effect down the line...Be kind. Because the opposite works as well. You can send your hatred to the future. And we all know the end result. ~Sting
73. Just because an animal is large, it doesn’t mean he doesn’t want kindness; however big Tigger seems to be, remember that he wants as much kindness as Roo. ~Pooh's Little Instruction Book (inspired by A.A. Milne)
74. Kind words can be short and easy to speak but their echoes are truly endless. ~Mother Teresa
75. Kind words produce their own image in men's souls; and a beautiful image it is. They soothe and quiet and comfort the hearer. They shame him out of his sour, morose, unkind feelings. We have not yet begun to use kind words in such abundance as they ought to be used. ~Blaise Pascal
76. Kind words, kind looks, kind acts and warm handshakes, these are means of grace when men in trouble are fighting their unseen battles. ~John Hall
77. Kindness and honesty can only be expected from the strong. ~Unknown
78. Kindness builds self-esteem. It provides students with an opportunity to feel pride in who they are and in what they do. ~Unknown
79. Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind. ~Eric Hoffer
80. Kindness gives birth to kindness. ~Sophocles (447 BC)
81. Kindness has always mattered to our father. He taught us to honor people, and he has encouraged us since before I can remember to empathize with human suffering. When I was a teenager he’d say, 'Ann, go do something that helps people. Do something of service. It will always make you feel good about your life.' ~Ann Curry, news anchor
82. Kindness in words creates confidence, kindness in thinking creates profoundness, kindness in feeling creates love. ~Lao-Tzu
83. Kindness is an inner desire that makes us want to do good things even if we do not get anyting in return. It is the joy of our life to do them. When we do good things from this inner desire, there is kindness in everything we think, say, want, and do. ~Emanuel Swedenborg
84. Kindness is gladdening the hearts of those who are traveling the dark journey with us. ~Henri-Frederic Amiel
85. Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not. ~Samuel Johnson
86. Kindness is more than deeds. It is an attitude, an expression, a look, a touch. It is anything that lifts another person. ~C. Neil Strait
87. Kindness is the golden chain by which society is bound together. ~Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
88. Kindness is the greatest wisdom. ~Unknown
89. Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see. ~Mark Twain
90. Kindness is the light that dissolves all walls between souls, families, and nations. ~Paramahansa Yogananda
91. Kindness, like a boomerang, always returns. ~Unknown
92. Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God’s kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile. ~Mother Teresa
93. Life is mostly froth and bubble,
Two things stand like stone,
Kindness in another's trouble,
Courage in your own. ~Adam Lindsay Gordon
94. Life is not so short but that there is always time enough for courtesy. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
95. Life is short but there is always time for courtesy. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
96. Life's most persistent and urgent question is, What are you doing for others? ~Martin Luther King, Jr.
97. Love all
Serve all
Help ever
Hurt never ~Sathya Sai Baba
98. Love and kindness are never wasted. They always make a difference. They bless the one who receives them, and they bless you, the giver. ~Barbara De Angelis
99. Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get — only what you are expecting to give. ~Katherine Hepburn
100. Love someone who doesn't deserve it. ~Unknown
101. Love thy neighbor, and if it requires that you bend your understanding of the truth, the Truth will understand. ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com
102. Make it a practice to judge persons and things in the most favorable light at all times and under all circumstances. ~Saint Vincent de Paul
103. Man is honored for his wisdom, loved for his kindness. ~S. Cohen
104. Never look down on anybody unless you're helping him up. ~Jesse Jackson
105. Never miss an opportunity to make others happy, even if you have to leave them alone in order to do it. ~Unknown
106. No act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted. ~Aesop
107. Of all the ways you can think of, none has a sixteenth part of the value of loving kindness. Loving kindness is a freedom of the heart which takes in all the ways. It is luminous, shining, blazing forth. ~Itivuttaka Sutta
108. Once you begin to acknowledge random acts of kindness--both the ones you have received and the ones you have given--you can no longer believe that what you do does not matter. ~Dawna Markova
109. One can pay back the loan of gold, but one dies forever in debt to those who are kind. ~Malayan Proverb
110. One man cannot hold another man down in the ditch without remaining down in the ditch with him. ~Booker T. Washington
111. One of the most difficult things to give away is kindness; it usually comes back to you. ~Unknown
112. One who knows how to show and to accept kindness will be a friend better than any possession. ~Sophocles
113. Only a life lived for others is worth living. ~Albert Einstein
114. Only your compassion and your loving kindness are invincible, and without limit. ~Thich Nhat Hanh
115. Open your heart - open it wide; someone is standing outside. ~Quoted in Believe: A Christmas Treasury by Mary Engelbreit
116. People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. ~Bonnie Jean Wasmund
117. Power is the ability to do good things for others. ~Brooke Astor
118. Real charity doesn't care if it's tax-deductible or not. ~Dan Bennett
119. Real generosity is doing something nice for someone who will never find out. ~Frank A. Clark
120. Remember that everyone you meet is afraid of something, loves something and has lost something. ~H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
121. Remember there's no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end. ~Scott Adams
122. Right actions for the future are the best apologies for wrong ones in the past. ~Tyron Edwards
123. Seek not good from without; seek it within yourselves, or you will never find it. ~Epictetus (2nd century)
124. Something that has always puzzled me all my life is why, when I am in special need of help, the good deed is usually done by somebody on whom I have no claim. ~William Feather
125. Sometimes someone says something really small, and it just fits right into this empty place in your heart. ~Unknown
126. Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair, but manifestations of strength and resolution. ~Kahlil Gibran
127. The best portion of a good man's life - his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love. ~William Wordsworth
128. The best practical advice I can give to the present generation is to practice the virtue which the Christians call love. ~Bertrand Russell
129. The best way to knock the chip off your neighbor's shoulder is to pat him on the back. ~Author Unknown
130. The center of human nature is rooted in ten thousand ordinary acts of kindness that define our days. ~Stephen Jay Gould
131. The everyday kindness of the back roads more than makes up for the acts of greed in the headlines. ~Charles Kuralt
132. The first and highest law must be the love of man to man. Homo homini Deus est - this is the supreme practical maxim, this is the turning point of the world's History. ~Ludwig Feuerbach, The Essence of Christianity
133. The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him his own. ~Benjamin Disraeli
134. The greatest pleasure I know is to do a good action by stealth, and to have it found out by accident. ~Charles Lamb (1775-1834), British essayist
135. The ideas that have lighted my way have been kindness, beauty and truth. ~Albert Einstein
136. The kindest word in all the world is the unkind word, unsaid. ~Author Unknown
137. The kindness and affection from the public have carried me through some of the most difficult periods, and always your love and affection have eased the journey. ~Diana, Princess of Wales
138. The more sympathy you give, the less you need. ~Malcolm S. Forbes
139. The most important trip you may take in life is meeting people halfway. ~Henry Boye
140. The only people with whom you should try to get even are those who have helped you. ~John E. Southard
141. The smallest good deed is better than the grandest good intention. ~Duguet
142. The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit. ~Nelson Henderson
143. The various features and aspects of human life, such as longevity, good health, success, happiness, and so forth, which we consider desirable, are all dependent on kindness and a good heart. ~The Dalai Lama
144. The worth of any lifetime is measured more in kindness than in competency. ~Rachel Naomi Remen M.D.
145. There is hunger for ordinary bread, and there is hunger for love, for kindness, for thoughtfulness, and this is the great poverty that makes people suffer so much. ~Mother Teresa
146. There is no effect more disproportionate to its cause than the happiness bestowed by a small compliment. ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com
147. There is no greater loan than a sympathetic ear. ~Frank Tyger
148. There is one word which may serve as a rule of practice for all one's life - reciprocity. ~Confucius
149. This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness. ~The Dalai Lama
150. Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves. ~James Matthew Barrie
151. Though we all have the fear and the seeds of anger within us, we must learn not to water those seeds and instead nourish our positive qualities — those of compassion, understanding, and loving kindness. ~Thich Nhat Hanh
152. To be able to practice five things everywhere under heaven constitutes perfect virtue... gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness, and kindness. ~Confucius (551-479 BC)
153. To err on the side of kindness is seldom an error. ~Liz Armbruster
154. To give and then not feel that one has given is the very best of all ways of giving. ~Max Beerbohm
155. To give without any reward, or any notice, has a special quality of its own. ~Anne Morrow Lindbergh
156. Today I bent the truth to be kind, and I have no regret, for I am far surer of what is kind than I am of what is true. ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com
157. Today, give a stranger one of your smiles. It might be the only sunshine he sees all day. ~Unknown
158. 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
159. 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
160. Treat everyone with politeness, even those who are rude to you - not because they are nice, but because you are. ~Unknown
161. Waste no more time talking about great souls and how they should be. Become one yourself! ~Marcus Aurelius
162. We always prefer war on our own terms to peace on someone else's. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic's Notebook, 1966
163. We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak. ~Epictetus
164. We need a new ethos of greater responsibility and caring. ~Hillary Rodham Clinton
165. We're here for a reason. I believe a bit of the reason is to throw little torches out to lead people through the dark. ~Whoopi Goldberg
166. What this world needs is a new kind of army - the army of the kind. ~Cleveland Amory
167. What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness? ~Jean Jacques Rousseau
168. When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people. ~Abraham Joshua Heschel
169. When we feel love and kindness toward others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for, but it helps us also to develop inner happiness and peace. ~The Dalai Lama
170. When you are kind to others, it not only changes you, it changes the world. ~Harold Kushner
171. When you are kind to someone in trouble, you hope they'll remember and be kind to someone else. And it'll become like wildfire. ~Whoopi Goldberg
172. When you do a kindness for others with the purest of intentions, you are letting its essence trickle out of you. If you do it enough it becomes a river. And I'm betting that its source is endless. I don't think you have to worry about giving too much of it away. ~Unknown
173. Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for kindness. ~Seneca, philosopher (4 BC)
174. Wise sayings often fall on barren ground; but a kind word is never thrown away. ~Sir Arthur Helps
175. You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
176. You can't live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you. ~John Wooden