The purpose of human life is to serve, and to show compassion and the will to help others.

We learned about dignity and decency – that how hard you work matters more than how much you make… that helping others means more than just getting ahead yourself.

I have somewhere met with the epitaph on a charitable man which has pleased me very much. I cannot recollect the words, but here is the sense of it: ‚What I spent I lost; what I possessed is left to others; what I gave away remains with me.‘

If you want what you’re saying heard, then take your time and say it so that the listener will actually hear it. You might save somebody’s life. Your own, first.

Compassion is the basis of morality.

I hold that while man exists, it is his duty to improve not only his own condition, but to assist in ameliorating mankind.

Self-sacrifice enables us to sacrifice other people without blushing.

I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.

Dogs and philosophers do the greatest good and get the fewest rewards.

I was a Marine for 41 years, and it wasn’t long enough. We enjoy putting on that uniform.

Great teachers emanate out of knowledge, passion and compassion.

We hand folks over to God’s mercy, and show none ourselves.

Love means to love that which is unlovable; or it is no virtue at all.

We can all be successful and make money, but when we die, that ends. But when you are significant is when you help other people be successful. That lasts many a lifetime.

No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he’d only had good intentions; he had money as well.

My mother’s love has always been a sustaining force for our family, and one of my greatest joys is seeing her integrity, her compassion, her intelligence reflected in my daughters.

I feel like if you’re a really good human being, you can try to find something beautiful in every single person, no matter what.

Your own soul is nourished when you are kind; it is destroyed when you are cruel.

I believe we are still so innocent. The species are still so innocent that a person who is apt to be murdered believes that the murderer, just before he puts the final wrench on his throat, will have enough compassion to give him one sweet cup of water.

This Sunday School has been of help to me, greater perhaps than any other force in my Christian life, and I can ask no better things for you than that you, and all that shall come after you in this great band of workers for Christ, shall receive the same measure of blessedness which I have been permitted to have.

Seek always to do some good, somewhere. Every man has to seek in his own way to realize his true worth. You must give some time to your fellow man. For remember, you don’t live in a world all your own. Your brothers are here too.

You must live for another if you wish to live for yourself.

O wise man! Give your wealth only to the worthy and never to others. The water of the sea received by the clouds is always sweet.

The poorest people are the sweetest people.

When you truly accept that those children in some far off place in the global village have the same value as you in God’s eyes or even in just your eyes, then your life is forever changed; you see something that you can’t un-see.

Rose Adams is a wonderful Christian woman who cared for my mother, Morrow Coffey Graham, in her last years of life.

When we’re looking for compassion, we need someone who is deeply rooted, is able to bend and, most of all, embraces us for our strengths and struggles.

My faith was tested like Job. That’s the message I try to tell other people: just because you believe in God, serve God, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, people gotta realize, it don’t mean things not gonna happen to you.

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.

My mother told me, ‚Son, nobody else but God knows.‘ And that’s what I’m about – reaching out to the people, crying with them, giving them hope. Visiting the hospital, visiting the kids with cancer, visiting the adults, and stuff like that. That’s what I do.

Every man, every woman who has to take up the service of government, must ask themselves two questions: ‚Do I love my people in order to serve them better? Am I humble and do I listen to everybody, to diverse opinions in order to choose the best path?‘ If you don’t ask those questions, your governance will not be good.

It’s so easy to settle for less than God’s best for us because we don’t always feel like taking responsibility for our behavior or putting forth some effort to do what we need to do so we can accomplish great things for God and help people. But the cost of settling for less is actually harder than being completely obedient to God’s will.

To all those who have suffered as a consequence of our troubled past I extend my sincere thoughts and deep sympathy. With the benefit of historical hindsight we can all see things which we would wish had been done differently or not at all.

If the other person injures you, you may forget the injury; but if you injure him you will always remember.

I wish people would love everybody else the way they love me. It would be a better world.

If you’re in trouble, or hurt or need – go to the poor people. They’re the only ones that’ll help – the only ones.

What I remember as a child is that other kids didn’t care about suffering. I always did.

Social Security is based on a principle. It’s based on the principle that you care about other people. You care whether the widow across town, a disabled widow, is going to be able to have food to eat.

Technology is unlocking the innate compassion we have for our fellow human beings.

I hate to see anybody sink. I hate to see anybody lose their dream, lose their home, something like that.

Many people look at me and think they know me but they don’t at all. This is the real me. I am a humble person, a feeling person. A person who cares about others, who wants to help others.

I can do no other than be reverent before everything that is called life. I can do no other than to have compassion for all that is called life. That is the beginning and the foundation of all ethics.

One of the things I’ve never been accused of is not caring about people.

Any religion that professes to be concerned about the souls of men and is not concerned about the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them and the social conditions that cripple them is a spiritually moribund religion awaiting burial.

People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone.

Hell is yourself and the only redemption is when a person puts himself aside to feel deeply for another person.

One of the most pervasive political visions of our time is the vision of liberals as compassionate and conservatives as less caring.

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

Never have we stolen the intelligences of other peoples. On the contrary, in Cuba we have trained tens of thousands of doctors and other top-level professionals, for free, in order to send them back to their own countries.

It’s that wonderful old-fashioned idea that others come first and you come second. This was the whole ethic by which I was brought up. Others matter more than you do, so ‚don’t fuss, dear; get on with it.‘

Here at home, when Americans were standing in long lines to give blood after the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, we squandered an obvious opportunity to make service a noble cause again, and rekindle an American spirit of community.

Better do a good deed near at home than go far away to burn incense.

No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it to anyone else.

The sage does not hoard. The more he helps others, the more he benefits himself, The more he gives to others, the more he gets himself. The Way of Heaven does one good but never does one harm. The Way of the sage is to act but not to compete.

When you play sports like tennis, you’re alone, and that’s a good school for life, but it’s also a good school for life to bring your best and make those around you better, too – helping others in difficult moments.

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.

Today, more than ever before, life must be characterized by a sense of Universal responsibility, not only nation to nation and human to human, but also human to other forms of life.

If we love our country, we should also love our countrymen.

Nothing can make injustice just but mercy.

Our greatness has always come from people who expect nothing and take nothing for granted – folks who work hard for what they have, then reach back and help others after them.

As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.