It’s good to remember that in crises, natural crises, human beings forget for awhile their ignorances, their biases, their prejudices. For a little while, neighbors help neighbors and strangers help strangers.

Be nice to the whites, they need you to rediscover their humanity.

I want to destroy ownership in order that possession and enjoyment may be raised to the highest point in every section of the community.

It is not until you become a mother that your judgment slowly turns to compassion and understanding.

Every nation in every region now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.

One of the most important things you learn from the Internet is that there is no ‚them‘ out there. It’s just an awful lot of ‚us.‘

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.

I’m doing everything that I can, working with experts, really studying the statistics to figure out a way we can make it cool or normal to be kind and loving.

What do you regard as most humane? To spare someone shame.

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

It is not what a lawyer tells me I may do; but what humanity, reason, and justice tell me I ought to do.

Although the circumstances of our lives may seem very disengaged, with me standing here as the First Lady of the United States of America and you just getting through school, I want you to know we have very much in common. For nothing in my life ever would have predicted that I would be standing here as the first African-American First Lady.

There can be no better grounding for a lifetime as an author than to see humanity in all its various guises through the lens of the reporter for the town.

The love we give away is the only love we keep.

While the rest of the world has been improving technology, Ghana has been improving the quality of man’s humanity to man.

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.

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.

The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: ‚If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?‘ But… the good Samaritan reversed the question: ‚If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?‘

A laugh, to be joyous, must flow from a joyous heart, for without kindness, there can be no true joy.

No man, who continues to add something to the material, intellectual and moral well-being of the place in which he lives, is left long without proper reward.

People have me pinned as a shark or a predator in some way, and in no way am I that. I wouldn’t want to hurt anyone. I want to defend people. I want to help people.

The thing to do, it seems to me, is to prepare yourself so you can be a rainbow in somebody else’s cloud. Somebody who may not look like you. May not call God the same name you call God – if they call God at all. I may not dance your dances or speak your language. But be a blessing to somebody. That’s what I think.

We shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do.

You may be rich, but there is one thing you can’t afford – that is, if you are a good sort – you can’t afford to spend money on your own luxuries while there are people around you wanting the necessaries of life.

I would go to the deeps a hundred times to cheer a downcast spirit. It is good for me to have been afflicted, that I might know how to speak a word in season to one that is weary.

I can hear you, the rest of the world can hear you and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.

Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve.

Remember that the revolution is what is important, and each one of us, alone, is worth nothing.

Let it be our delight to find our society in the circle of which Jesus is the center, and let us make those our friends who are the friends of Jesus.

I do not believe in God; his existence has been disproved by Science. But in the concentration camp, I learned to believe in men.

The world is indebted for all triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression.

There are some cases in which the sense of injury breeds not the will to inflict injuries and climb over them as a ladder, but a hatred of all injury.

Any man may easily do harm, but not every man can do good to another.

A man is a method, a progressive arrangement; a selecting principle, gathering his like to him; wherever he goes.

Only on paper has humanity yet achieved glory, beauty, truth, knowledge, virtue, and abiding love.

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

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

All the religions of the world, while they may differ in other respects, unitedly proclaim that nothing lives in this world but Truth.

The Occupy movement did create spontaneously communities that taught people something: you can be in a supportive community of mutual aid and cooperation and develop your own health system and library and have open space for democratic discussion and participation. Communities like that are really important.

I feel a distaste for hunting, first because of a kind of Buddhist respect for the unity and sacredness of all life, and also because the pursuit of a hare or chamois strikes me as a kind of ‚escape of energy,‘ that is, the expenditure of our effort in an illusory end, one devoid of profit.

There are people in the world who aren’t necessarily Christians, but they’re just naturally nice people who do a lot for other people. Those people will almost always be prosperous people.

The community stagnates without the impulse of the individual. The impulse dies away without the sympathy of the community.

For a while… to be an evangelical meant you were a white Republican, and you were against this and against that. I don’t want to be put into that mold, because then people judge you before they even listen… I don’t want to divide the very people I am trying to reach.

The only thing that will redeem mankind is cooperation.

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

The kindness that’s been shown to me, by doctors as well as my family and my friends, it’s really saved my life.

Who does not desire such a victory by which we shall join places in our Kingdom, so far divided by nature, and for which we shall set up trophies in another conquered world?

There is in general good reason to suppose that in several respects the gods could all benefit from instruction by us human beings. We humans are – more humane.

If you’re nice to me I’ll never write anything bad about you.

I’ve been a huge fan of Chris Martin forever; it’d be awesome to work with him. He’s really kind, and he’s been really encouraging when we’ve met.

Speak ill of no man, but speak all the good you know of everybody.

When people meet me, they say that I’m really kind – contrary to a lot of my music.

Man is unable to see himself entirely unrelated to mankind, neither is he able to see mankind unrelated to life, nor life unrelated to the universe.

What is absurd and monstrous about war is that men who have no personal quarrel should be trained to murder one another in cold blood.

Encouragement to others is something everyone can give. Somebody needs what you have to give. It may not be your money; it may be your time. It may be your listening ear. It may be your arms to encourage. It may be your smile to uplift. Who knows?

Give to everyone who begs from you; and of him who takes away your goods do not ask them again. And as you wish that men would do to you, do so to them.

The government is us; we are the government, you and I.

No matter what happens in life, be good to people. Being good to people is a wonderful legacy to leave behind.

Together, we can help make sure that every family that walks into a restaurant can make an easy, healthy choice.

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

Science is a beautiful gift to humanity; we should not distort it.