Pity may represent little more than the impersonal concern which prompts the mailing of a check, but true sympathy is the personal concern which demands the giving of one’s soul.

It’s amazing if you just listen to people. They tell you all the time things that you can do for them, without even realizing what they’re doing. I’ve learned to take notice of those things and if it’s something that I feel God wants me to do, then I try to do that to add joy to their life.

Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, it’s at the end of your arm, as you get older, remember you have another hand: The first is to help yourself, the second is to help others.

When I give somebody something and see their face, it just makes me so happy.

The wise man does not lay up his own treasures. The more he gives to others, the more he has for his own.

I believe in the spirit of equality and the spirit of this country as one of love and compassion and kindness.

I always joke that my kids‘ favorite holiday is Father’s Day. They love the way I celebrate the occasion by writing each of them a thank-you letter and a generous check. It’s my way of letting them know how much I appreciate the great pleasure and privilege of being their dad.

Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.

A family looks for ways to support and inspire one another.

When so many are lonely as seem to be lonely, it would be inexcusably selfish to be lonely alone.

If you want to see the true measure of a man, watch how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.

I spent years studying the teachings of Patanjali, and he reminded us several thousand years ago that when we are steadfast – which means that we never slip in our abstention of thoughts of harm directed toward others – then all living creatures cease to feel enmity in our presence.

Standing in support of children is something we should all be able to get behind, regardless of party affiliation.

In a relationship each person should support the other; they should lift each other up.

Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for a kindness.

The year 2100 will see eugenics universally established. In past ages, the law governing the survival of the fittest roughly weeded out the less desirable strains. Then man’s new sense of pity began to interfere with the ruthless workings of nature. As a result, we continue to keep alive and to breed the unfit.

Let us touch the dying, the poor, the lonely and the unwanted according to the graces we have received and let us not be ashamed or slow to do the humble work.

Be amusing: never tell unkind stories; above all, never tell long ones.

The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.

Anybody who has been discriminated against, who comes from a group that’s been discriminated against, knows what it’s like.

If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world.

Feeling like you’re respected among the people who do the same thing you do is incredible and necessary.

Above all, always be capable of feeling deeply any injustice committed against anyone, anywhere in the world. This is the most beautiful quality in a revolutionary.

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.

Forgive me my nonsense, as I also forgive the nonsense of those that think they talk sense.

It is more agreeable to have the power to give than to receive.

I am a tender-hearted person, and I feel everything to the ninth degree.

I would be stupid not to be on my own side. But I’m a human being, too. And I’m on the side of human beings, rather than on the side of crocodiles.

I just don’t like killing creatures.

Compassion is the basis of morality.

If you have only one smile in you give it to the people you love.

All religions try to benefit people, with the same basic message of the need for love and compassion, for justice and honesty, for contentment.

If you treat people right they will treat you right… ninety percent of the time.

Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.

Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.

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

Children wish fathers looked but with their eyes; fathers that children with their judgment looked; and either may be wrong.

I’m convinced of this: Good done anywhere is good done everywhere. For a change, start by speaking to people rather than walking by them like they’re stones that don’t matter. As long as you’re breathing, it’s never too late to do some good.

Any of us can be happy and have a good attitude when everything is going our way. But I believe it’s the real test of your character and of your faith to say, ‚Things are not going our way, but I’m still being good to people; I’m still attending church; I still have a good attitude.‘

Many religious confessions share common values. They teach that we should do unto others as we would have them do unto us.

When you really listen to another person from their point of view, and reflect back to them that understanding, it’s like giving them emotional oxygen.

My first job in all honesty is going to continue to be mom-in-chief. Making sure that in this transition, which will be even more of a transition for the girls… that they are settled and that they know they will continue to be the center of our universe.

Over the years I’ve seen people lose a spouse and then withdraw and lose interest in life, and I believe we need to resist that.

It sometimes makes people feel better about themselves, you know, to put other people down, or make fun of them, or maybe make mockery of their work and that doesn’t make me feel good at all.

At the Carter Center we work with victims of oppression, and we give support to human rights heroes.

If we want to fight people in the world, we should fight them with pillows – pillows stuffed with food, medicine, music… That would be so much cheaper than bombs.

You can tell the strength of a nation by the women behind its men.

If one does not understand a person, one tends to regard him as a fool.

I give thanks to God and to all the people in the U.K. who have supported me over the years.

There are folks who now know black families – like the Johnsons on ‚Black-ish‘ or the folks on ‚Modern Family.‘ They become part of who you are. You share their pains. You understand their fears. They make you laugh, and they change how you see the world.

The most amazing philanthropists are people who are actually making a significant sacrifice.

A physician is not angry at the intemperance of a mad patient, nor does he take it ill to be railed at by a man in fever. Just so should a wise man treat all mankind, as a physician does his patient, and look upon them only as sick and extravagant.

We do not so much need the help of our friends as the confidence of their help in need.

What air is to the body, to feel understood is to the heart.

Everybody likes a compliment.

Speak the truth, do not yield to anger; give, if thou art asked for little; by these three steps thou wilt go near the gods.

A gift consists not in what is done or given, but in the intention of the giver or doer.

Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.

A good wife is one who serves her husband in the morning like a mother does, loves him in the day like a sister does and pleases him like a prostitute in the night.

Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So, spread your love everywhere you go.

Fine manners need the support of fine manners in others.