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

We are all alike, on the inside.

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.

If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.

I’ve been searching for ways to heal myself, and I’ve found that kindness is the best way.

So there’s no guarantee if you like the music you will empathize with the culture and the people who made it. It doesn’t necessarily happen. I think it can, but it doesn’t necessarily happen. Which is kind of a shame.

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

He who has felt his own ruin will not imagine the case of any to be hopeless; nor will he think them too fallen to be worthy his regard.

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

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.

My mother always wanted to give back.

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.

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

I’m very sensitive. I remember, as a kid at school, if someone in the classroom was sad or angry, it could have a great impact on me.

But who prays for Satan? Who, in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most?

When the kids are laughing in the audience, I tear up, I’m so happy I did a nice thing.

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.

I don’t think that much about my relationship with my mother and what it did to me. I sometimes feel terrible regret about her, what her life must have been like. Often, when I’m enjoying something, I think of how meager her rewards were and how much courage, in a way, she needed to go on living.

A gentleman is one who never hurts anyone’s feelings unintentionally.

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

No matter what message you are about to deliver somewhere, whether it is holding out a hand of friendship, or making clear that you disapprove of something, is the fact that the person sitting across the table is a human being, so the goal is to always establish common ground.

Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not.

Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.

Gays are some of the nicest, kindest, most loving people in the world.

We don’t get to know people when they come to us; we must go to them to find out what they are like.

It is very important to generate a good attitude, a good heart, as much as possible. From this, happiness in both the short term and the long term for both yourself and others will come.

If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain.

Love other human beings as you would love yourself.

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.

What nicer thing can you do for somebody than make them breakfast?

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

I actually feel like women in my position, when we have all at our disposal to help us, shouldn’t complain when we consider all of the people who are really struggling and don’t have the means or support. Many people are single, raising children. That’s hard.

A lot of people have it a lot worse than you do.

There are slavish souls who carry their appreciation for favors done them so far that they strangle themselves with the rope of gratitude.

The other day the President said, I know you’ve had some rough times, and I want to do something that will show the nation what faith that I have in you, in your maturity and sense of responsibility. He paused, then said, would you like a puppy?

I am for people. I can’t help it.

Until he extends his circle of compassion to include all living things, man will not himself find peace.

I think those who have a terminal illness and are in great pain should have the right to choose to end their own life, and those that help them should be free from prosecution.

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

If we don’t plant the right things, we will reap the wrong things. It goes without saying. And you don’t have to be, you know, a brilliant biochemist and you don’t have to have an IQ of 150. Just common sense tells you to be kind, ninny, fool. Be kind.

I think it is a sin to look at another person as inferior to yourself because of race or because of ethnic background, and I think the greatest thing to do is to pray that God will give you love for them, and I do.

What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but scattered along life’s pathway, the good they do is inconceivable.

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.

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

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

The fact is that when you do something from your heart, you leave a heart print.

If one by one we counted people out For the least sin, it wouldn’t take us long To get so we had no one left to live with. For to be social is to be forgiving.

Love… it surrounds every being and extends slowly to embrace all that shall be.

No person who is well bred, kind and modest is ever offensively plain; all real deformity means want for manners or of heart.

Everybody likes a compliment.

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

We have communion with Christ in His thoughts, views, and purposes; for His thoughts are our thoughts according to our capacity and sanctity. Believers take the same view of matters as Jesus does; that which pleases Him pleases them, and that which grieves His grieves them also.

I’m entirely interested in people, and also other creatures and beings, but especially in people, and I tend to read them by emotional field more than anything. So I have a special interest in what they’re thinking and who they are and who’s hiding behind those eyes and how did he get there, and what’s the story, really?

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

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

The main rule to me is to honor God with your life. To life a life of integrity. Not be selfish. You know, help others. But that’s really the essence of the Christian faith.

When people need love and understanding and support the most is when they deserve it the least.

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.

The best leaders are readers of people. They have the intuitive ability to understand others by discerning how they feel and recognizing what they sense.

So when you are listening to somebody, completely, attentively, then you are listening not only to the words, but also to the feeling of what is being conveyed, to the whole of it, not part of it.

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