I’m a pretty tough guy, you know. I’m a pretty hard man. I’ve got a lot of compassion, but I don’t waste time with people.

Breathe in deeply to bring your mind home to your body. Then look at, or think of, the person triggering this emotion: With mindfulness, you can see that she is unhappy, that she is suffering. You can see her wrong perceptions. You can see that she is not beautiful when she says things that are unkind.

Men feel that cruelty to the poor is a kind of cruelty to animals. They never feel that it is an injustice to equals; nay it is treachery to comrades.

When you have enough understanding and compassion in you, then that amount of understanding and compassion will try to express itself in action. And your practice should help you to cultivate more understanding and compassion.

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

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

Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule.

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.

Tears shed for self are tears of weakness, but tears shed for others are a sign of strength.

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.

Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.

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

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.

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

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

What is the appropriate behavior for a man or a woman in the midst of this world, where each person is clinging to his piece of debris? What’s the proper salutation between people as they pass each other in this flood?

Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to cast a stone.

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

Although the big word on the left is ‚compassion,‘ the big agenda on the left is dependency.

God is patient with us to become the God’s children he wants us to be but you really can see him weeping.

Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.

When you have kids, you see life through different eyes. You feel love more deeply and are maybe a little more compassionate. It’s inevitable that that would make its way into your songwriting.

A person once asked me, in a provocative manner, if I approved of homosexuality. I replied with another question: ‚Tell me: when God looks at a gay person, does he endorse the existence of this person with love, or reject and condemn this person?‘ We must always consider the person.

Whoever is spared personal pain must feel himself called to help in diminishing the pain of others. We must all carry our share of the misery which lies upon the world.

A tear dries quickly when it is shed for troubles of others.

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.

If you are not being bullied all I would say – cause I like to talk about the other side of it as well – is you know, be someone that nurtures, and if there’s someone in your class that maybe doesn’t have a lot of friends, be the person that sits with them in the cafeteria sometimes; be the bigger person.

I believe in using words, not fists. I believe in my outrage knowing people are living in boxes on the street. I believe in honesty. I believe in a good time. I believe in good food. I believe in sex.

We need to, you know, restore people. We need to show mercy. I mean, because as much mercy as you show people, that’s the mercy you’re going to be receiving.

While we ourselves are the living graves of murdered animals, how can we expect any ideal living conditions on this earth?

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.‘

You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.

Stay humble and be concerned for the less fortunate.

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.

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

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

We do not judge the people we love.

I am certain no one sets out to be cruel, but our treatment of the elderly ill seems to have no philosophy to it. As a society, we should establish whether we have a policy of life at any cost.

What we have found in this country, and maybe we’re more aware of it now, is one problem that we’ve had, even in the best of times, and that is the people who are sleeping on the grates, the homeless, you might say, by choice.

Jesus never mistreated anyone just because they mistreated Him. He confronted them in a spirit of gentleness and then continued to love them.

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 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.

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.

Each one of them is Jesus in disguise.

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.

Let us fill our hearts with our own compassion – towards ourselves and towards all living beings.

I don’t like to see animals in pain. That was very uncomfortable to me. I don’t like factory farming. I’m not an advocate for the meat industry.

You pity the fool because you don’t want to beat up a fool! You know, pity is between sorry and mercy. See, if you pity him, you know, you won’t have to beat him up. So that’s why I say fools, you gotta give another chance because they don’t know no better. That’s why I pity them!

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

Every time I see documentaries or infomercials about little kids with cancer, I just freak out. It affects me on the highest emotional level… Anytime I think about it, it makes me sadder than anything I can think of.

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

To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer.

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

The poor don’t know that their function in life is to exercise our generosity.

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

It is not my nature, when I see a people borne down by the weight of their shackles – the oppression of tyranny – to make their life more bitter by heaping upon them greater burdens; but rather would I do all in my power to raise the yoke than to add anything that would tend to crush them.

I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.

The happiest people I know as a nation are the Burmese; their brightness and cheeriness are proverbial. Kindness to animals is one of their greatest ‚weaknesses‘; no Burmese will kill an animal, even if it is to put it out of pain.

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

The just is close to the people’s heart, but the merciful is close to the heart of God.

There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.