Famous Quotes & Sayings

Martha Beck

Most unhappy people need to learn just one lesson: how to see themselves through the lens of genuine compassion, and treat themselves accordingly.

Paul Goodman

No good has ever come from feeling guilty, neither intelligence, policy, nor compassion. The guilty do not pay attention to the object but only to themselves, and not even to their own interests, which might make sense, but to their anxieties.

Pat Conroy

She thought she brought a gift of compassion for those exhausted souls who had not received a chest portion from the people who raised them. If compassion and therapy did not work, she could always send her patients to the local pharmacy for drugs.

Compassion to an offender who has grossly violated the laws is, in effect, a cruelty to the peaceable subject who has observed them.

Rachel Scott

I have this theory that if one person can go out of their way to show compassion then it will start a chain reaction of the same.

Nhat Hanh

By taking a look at your anger it can be transformed into the kind of energy that you need - understanding and compassion.

Nhat Hanh

When you look deeply into your anger, you will see that the person you call your enemy is also suffering. As soon as you see that, the capacity of accepting and having compassion for them is there.

Nhat Hanh

Shallow understanding accompanies poor compassion; great understanding goes with great compassion.

Nhat Hanh

Compassion is a mind that removes the suffering that is present in the other.

Nhat Hanh

Do not live with a vocation that is harmful to humans and nature. Do not invest in companies that deprive others of their chance to live. Select a vocation that helps realise your ideal of compassion.

Nhat Hanh

Anyone who is practicing understanding and compassion can exemplify true power. Anyone can be a Buddha.

Nhat Hanh

All violence is injustice. Responding to violence with violence is injustice, not only to the other person but also to oneself. Responding to violence with violence resolves nothing; it only escalates violence, anger and hatred. It is only with compassion that we can embrace and disintegrate violence. This is true in relationships between individuals as well as in relationships between nations.

Nhat Hanh

We try to live every moment like that, dwelling peacefully in the present moment, and respond to events with compassion.

Nhat Hanh

Meditation is to get insight, to get understanding and compassion, and when you have them, you are compelled to act.

Nhat Hanh

To love our enemy is impossible. The moment we understand our enemy, we feel compassion towards him/her, and he/she is no longer our enemy.

Nhat Hanh

Compassion is a verb.

Nhat Hanh

A bodhisattva is someone who has compassion within himself or herself and who is able to make another person smile or help someone suffer less. Every one of us is capable of this.

Nhat Hanh

In the moment when we are able to smile, to look at ourselves with compassion, our world begins to change.

Noah Webster

Relief of distress or compassion shown to victims of misfortune. A blessing that is an act of Divine compassion.

Patti Smith

Within that moment was trust, compassion, and our mutual sense of irony. He was carrying death within him and I was carrying life. We were both aware of that, I know.

Nick Rahall

Today, our actions must be motivated only by our intense desire to achieve a just and lasting peace. The compassion and charity of the American people should be reflected in this legislation, though sadly, they are silenced.

Natasha Lyonne

I have a deep compassion for the idea that it's okay to be myself. The idea that anything 'other' is bad and wrong and broken is so wildly off base.

Muhammad Ali

I have not lost [Allah's] hope in us to show compassion where none exists and to extend mercy in the most difficult of circumstances. We as Muslims must lead by example

Lucinda Williams

Have compassion for everyone you meet, even if they don’t want it.

Liv Ullmann

Since suffering confers no rights on its victims, we who witness are the ones responsible for restoring these lost rights.

Margaret Oliphant

imagination is the first faculty wanting in those that do harm to their kind ...

Marianne Williamson

Anyone who is speaking of a greater compassion, a greater humanitarian concern, is a leader paving the path we all need to follow.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our present policies... True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. A true revolution of values will soon look on uneasily upon the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth with righteous indignation.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that a system that produces beggars needs to be repaved. We are called to be the Good Samaritan, but after you lift so many people out of the ditch you start to ask, maybe the whole road to Jericho needs to be repaved.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Ultimately a great nation is a compassionate nation.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

True compassion is more than throwing a coin to a beggar. It demands of our humanity that if we live in a society that produces beggars, we are morally commanded to restructure that society.

Mark Victor Hansen

Lack of forgiveness causes almost all of our self-sabotaging behavior.

Nicholas D. Kristof

Compassion isn't a sign of weakness, but a mark of civilization.