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.

Being a good listener is absolutely critical to being a good leader; you have to listen to the people who are on the front line.

It’s a tragedy, in a way, that Americans are brought up to think that they cannot feel for other people and other beings just because they are different. They think they’re different. It’s very limiting.

The greatest gift that you can give to others is the gift of unconditional love and acceptance.

Real magic in relationships means an absence of judgment of others.

Compassion is the basis of morality.

As a Christian, you forgive, and you feed the hungry and clothe the naked, and you visit the sick and comfort the lonely. If I’m a true follower of my lord and saviour Jesus Christ, I got to do the things you’re supposed to be doing.

When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?

Love is when the other person’s happiness is more important than your own.

I didn’t get depressed, I don’t get depressed.

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.

It’s not about changing people; it’s sometimes about changing a situation. How can we build an even better situation for them?

If you deny people their own voice, you’ll have no idea of who they were.

There are people who can do all fine and heroic things but one – keep from telling their happiness to the unhappy.

The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances.

You are 27 or 28 right? It is very tough to live at that age. When nothing is sure. I have sympathy with you.

I implore you to see the universe as a warm and supportive one because you’ll look for evidence to support this view. When you anticipate that the universe is friendly, you see friendly people. You look for circumstances to work in your favor. You anticipate good fortune flowing into your life.

Don’t throw stones at your neighbors if your own windows are glass.

I’m not happy all the time, and I wouldn’t want to be because that would make me a shallow person. But I do try to find the good in everybody.

With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.

The way people look at me these days – that’s the same way I looked at President Obama before I met him. We tend to forget that people who’ve attained a certain position are human.

When you sing with a group of people, you learn how to subsume yourself into a group consciousness because a capella singing is all about the immersion of the self into the community. That’s one of the great feelings – to stop being me for a little while and to become us. That way lies empathy, the great social virtue.

What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.

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

Never find fault with the absent.

The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up.

The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because generally they are the same people.

There are more love songs than anything else. If songs could make you do something we’d all love one another.

Never fret for an only son, the idea of failure will never occur to him.

For a tear is quickly dried, especially when shed for the misfortunes of others.

We have an obligation to help people that cannot help themselves. The mentally retarded, the physically retarded, et cetera.

I’m a people’s man – only the people matter.

Love is the ability and willingness to allow those that you care for to be what they choose for themselves without any insistence that they satisfy you.

Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts.

Love grows by giving. The love we give away is the only love we keep. The only way to retain love is to give it away.

You can see neurosis from below – as a sickness – as most psychiatrists see it. Or you can understand it as a compassionate man might: respecting the neurosis as a fumbling and inefficient effort toward good ends.

We can learn to see each other and see ourselves in each other and recognize that human beings are more alike than we are unalike.

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.

When I write, it’s like choosing which shoes I’m going to put on. More often than not, my lyrics are personal – but I sometimes have to put myself in other people’s shoes.

Men are only as great as they are kind.

I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.

I believe that God breathed life into every person and that every person is made in the image of God and you have accept them as they are, on their journey. I’m not here to preach hate or push people down.

Whenever you’re going through a tough time, generally, you become more compassionate, you become softer, you become more thoughtful, kinder. These are all spiritual qualities that will help you to align yourself with God and God consciousness rather than with a split fear-based consciousness.

Sadly, of course, there is real evil in the world. You watch the news, and you see all of the people suffering and so much cruelty.

The notion that we have even one single veteran living on the streets should be just considered a travesty to all of us.

This is a wonderful planet, and it is being completely destroyed by people who have too much money and power and no empathy.

People who treat other people as less than human must not be surprised when the bread they have cast on the waters comes floating back to them, poisoned.

I don’t have many sad days.

If someone decides they’re not going to be happy, it’s not your problem. You don’t have to spend your time and energy trying to cheer up someone who has already decided to stay in a bad mood. Believe it or not, you can actually hurt people by playing into their self-pity.

Sometimes it’s a form of love just to talk to somebody that you have nothing in common with and still be fascinated by their presence.

If I feel good about my parenting, I have no interest in judging other people’s choices. If I feel good about my body, I don’t go around making fun of other people’s weight or appearance. We’re hard on each other because we’re using each other as a launching pad out of our own perceived deficiency.

The child in you, like all children, loves to laugh, to be around people who can laugh at themselves and life. Children instinctively know that the more laughter we have in our lives, the better.

We need somebody who’s got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it’s like to be a young teenage mom, the empathy to understand what it’s like to be poor or African-American or gay or disabled or old – and that’s the criterion by which I’ll be selecting my judges.

In a gentle way, you can shake the world.

Now that I understand that I’m an addict, I definitely have compassion for my mother. I get it.

Ambition has become a dirty word, and I believe it is a great evolutionary force for the positive. If people fail or go astray in their ambition I can live with it but not with people lowering their expectations, wasting time, slacking off and glorifying failure and stupidity.

Courageous people do not fear forgiving, for the sake of peace.

I never thought of losing, but now that it‘ s happened, the only thing is to do it right. That’s my obligation to all the people who believe in me. We all have to take defeats in life.

Stay humble and be concerned for the less fortunate.

Learning to live for others isn’t something that just comes naturally to anybody. You have to train yourself to do it.

I wouldn’t ever say if you’re having tough times then there must be something wrong with you or your attitude. Life’s a fight. It’s a good fight of faith. I encourage people to stay up, stay hopeful, stay faith-filled.