Human Compassion Quotes

The revolution and women's liberation go together. We do not talk of women's emancipation as an act of charity or out of a surge of human compassion. It is a basic necessity for the revolution to triumph. Women hold up the other half of the sky. ~ Thomas Sankara

Perhaps we still have a basically superstitious tendency to associate failure with dishonesty and guilt - failure being interpreted as "punishment." Even if a man starts out with good intentions, if he fails we tend to think he was somehow "at fault." If he was not guilty, he was at least "wrong." And "being wrong" is something we have not yet learned to face with equanimity and understanding. We either condemn it with god-like disdain or forgive it with god-like condescension. We do not manage to accept it with human compassion, humility and identification. Thus we never see the one truth that would help us begin to solve our ethical and political problems: that we are all more or less wrong, that we are all at fault, all limited and obstructed by our mixed motives, our self-deception, our greed, our self-righteousness and our tendency to aggressivity and hypocrisy. ~ Thomas Merton

I was in awe of the mystery of human compassion and the inability of love to make the distance between us any more bearable. ~ Keith Hollihan

To be human is, primarily, to embrace that we are human with strengths and weaknesses, and that our humanity is preordained to seek the Truth, Good and Beauty as part of our humanity. To be human is to be an agent of peace, justice, and reconciliation in our community or society. To be human is to be heroic and generous in an unobtrusive way, free from any selfish motive, with no media to show the litany of our good deeds. To be human is to have time to listen to the story of a grieving soul, to give hope to the hopeless, to give love to the unloved.(Danny Castillones Sillada, A reason to be Human: Human Pathos and Compassion) ~ Danny Castillones Sillada

Sex is animal, love is human, compassion is divine. Sex is physical, love is psychological, compassion is spiritual. ~ Osho

Our human compassion binds us the one to the other - not in pity or patronizingly, but as human beings who have learnt how to turn our common suffering into hope for the future. -Nelson Mandela ~ Michael Gallegos Borresen

The one who doesn't, at the time of bliss as well as crisis, abandon his own, is the one worthy to be addressed as a human. ~ Radhika Mundra

In democratic ages men rarely sacrifice themselves for another, but they show a general compassion for all the human race. One never sees them inflict pointless suffering, and they are glad to relieve the sorrows of others when they can do so without much trouble to themselves. They are not disinterested, but they are gentle. ~ Alexis De Tocqueville

All cruelty comes from weakness, just as all human compassion can come only from strength. ~ Peyton Quinn

It is not about sexuality that is important to most people who care, it is what we do for our community and our family, our friends and just human compassion for others that matter in the world we live in daily. ~ Lisa Stone

Human compassion is equal to human cruelty, and it is up to each of us to tip the balance. ~ Alice Walker

There are a number of qualities which are important for mental peace, but from the little experience I have, I believe that one of the most important factors is human compassion and affection: a sense of caring. ~ Dalai Lama

World peace must develop from inner peace. Peace is not just mere absence of violence. Peace is, I think, the manifestation of human compassion. ~ Dalai Lama XIV

This much is sure: as the humanemeconomy asserts its own power, it's own logic, and it's essential decency, an an older order is passing away, and the near-universal reaction to each new step will be "good riddance." By every measure, life will be better when human satisfaction and need are no longer built upon the foundation of animal cruelty, Indefensible practices will no longer need defending; unnecessary evils will no longer need excuses. In their place, in market after market, we'll see the products of human creativity inspired by human compassion, a combination that can solve any problem and overcome any wrong. ~ Wayne Pacelle

While it is true that the taking of life not yet born or in it's final stages is sometimes marked by a mistaken sense of altruism and human compassion it cannot be denied that such a culture of death, taken as a whole, betrays a completely individualistic concept of freedom, which ends up by becoming the freedom of "the strong" against the weak who have no choice but to submit. ~ Pope John Paul II

There's been a problem, a problem eating away at me from the inside out. I've become weak, I've shown human compassion, and it has weakened me. But no more. Tonight I will once again feast on fear and suffering. My appetite for agony will be awakened. I will once again taste the pain of others. I will feast on the fear of the innocent, and that is the sweetest taste of all. Tonight I hunger for a sacrifice. ~ Kane

God makes His presence known in many ways. In acts of love, in selfless acts of courage, in everyday human compassion. ~ William Kent Krueger

This is a place for ordinary human compassion of the kind that is reconciling ~ Richard Chartres

I'm always amazed at how 'We The People' come together to assist one another during Hurricane Season or any other calamity. The beauty of human compassion always staggers me and reminds me of how divine we truly are. However, It shouldn't take a disaster, natural or otherwise, to remind us of our collective humanity. ~ Sabrina Newby

Love is defined by difficult acts of human compassion & generosity. ~ Sharon Salzberg

The essence of an individual is made up of both their soul and spirit. Spirit is basically life energy, while the soul is what gives a person the ability to feel compassion, love, and all the things that make one human. ~ Deanna Chase

I have less compassion than the average human. ~ Curtis Jackson

Hey!" I exclaimed, seeing the total. "They're charging me retail. Glenn!" I
complained. "They can't do that." I shook it at him. "I shouldn't have to pay retail!"
"What did you expect? You can keep that. It's your copy."
I sat back in a huff and shoved it in my bag with my sticky scarf as he typed his slow, painful way through my report. "Where's this human compassion I keep hearing about?"
"That's it, baby doll," he said, voice smoother than usual. He was laughing at me. ~ Kim Harrison

I would like to believe that it is, and will continue to be, human compassion for other beings that will result in our giving them the protection they deserve, because of who they are, not because of what they can do for us or because some law tells us what we have to do. ~ Marc Bekoff

The human heart, no matter what age, will only open to the heart that opens in return. ~ Julie Klassen

In the area of linguistics, there are major language
groups: Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, English, Portuguese,
Greek, German, French, and so on. Most of us grow up
learning the language of our parents and siblings, which
becomes our primary or native tongue. Later, we may learn
additional languages but usually with much more effort.
These become our secondary languages. We speak and
understand best our native language. We feel most
comfortable speaking that language. The more we use a
secondary language, the more comfortable we become
conversing in it. If we speak only our primary language and
encounter someone else who speaks only his or her
primary language, which is different from ours, our
communication will be limited. We must rely on pointing,
grunting, drawing pictures, or acting out our ideas. We can
communicate, but it is awkward. Language differences are
part and parcel of human culture. If we are to communicate
effectively across cultural lines, we must learn the language
of those with whom we wish to communicate.
In the area of love, it is similar. Your emotional love
language and the language of your spouse may be as
different as Chinese from English. No matter how hard you
try to express love in English, if your spouse understands
only Chinese, you will never understand how to love each
other. My friend on the plane was speaking the language of< ~ Gary Chapman

[T]he price you've paid is not the price of becoming human. It's not even the price of having the things you just mentioned. It's the price of enacting a story that casts mankind as the enemy of the world. ~ Daniel Quinn

I have always been astonished by hate. Revenge and hate. That is such strange human elements. I have seen a lot of that in my life. I am just as surprised each time. By revenge and hate. ~ Odd Nerdrum

No one really knows human nature, men as well as women, who has not lived in the bondage of marriage, that is to say, the enforced study of a fellow creature. ~ Carol Tavris

The whole point about historians is that we are really communing with the dead. It's very restful - because you read. There's some sociopathic problem that makes me prefer it to human interaction. ~ Niall Ferguson

Murder in and of itself was not engaging; it was the drive to kill, the human factor, the fervors and furies motivating the dreadful act that rendered it compelling. Alice ~ Kate Morton

War forgets peace. Peace forgives war. War is the death of the life human. Peace is the birth of the Life Divine. Our vital passions want war. Our psychic emotions desire peace. ~ Sri Chinmoy

Since my arrival in Rome, I have had many opportunities to wonder if compassion's opposite is cruelty, or to reflect whether or not indifference would serve as a better black to its white. ~ Andrew Levkoff

The differences you perceive between Humans - between groups of Humans - are the result of isolation and inbreeding, mutation, and adaptation to different Earth environments ~ Octavia E. Butler

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, to feel alone or want to be alone is deeply unfashionable: to admit to feeling alone is to reject and betray others, as if they are not good company, and do not have entertaining, interesting lives of their own to distract us, and to actually seek to be alone is a radical act; to want to be alone is to refuse a certain kind of conversational hospitality and to turn to another door, and another kind of welcome, not necessarily defined by human vocabulary. ~ David Whyte

The person is a mystery. What I'm playing is the person so I really get to tell you and show you and communicate to you who I think the real person is and that real person is me. The most important thing is to play the human being you are creating, which is my job. ~ James Cromwell

Thanks to [language], human beings - and we alone - can truly enter and explore the feelings of others. What an extraordinary skill. ~ Naoki Higashida

Human eyes have not yet reached as far as they can go with a telescope, nor have they seen everything there is to see with a microscope. ~ Omer Toledano

As a word, ecology has been so debased by recent political usage that many people employ it to identify anything good that happens far from cities and without human interference. ~ Stephen Jay Gould

The hardest part about being back in the human world was relearning emotion. Everything a wolf does has a practical, simple reason. There is no cold shoulder, no saying one thing when you mean something else, no innuendo. Wolves fight for two reasons: family and territory. Humans are driven by ego; wolves have no room for it and will literally nip it out of you. For a wolf, the world is about understanding, knowledge, respect – attributes that many humans have cast off, along with an appreciation of the natural world. ~ Jodi Picoult

Some will protest that in a world with so much human suffering, it is something between eccentric and obscene to mourn a dog. I think not. After all, it is perfectly normal - indeed, deeply human - to be moved when nature presents us with a vision of great beauty. Should we not be moved when it produces a vision - a creature - of the purest sweetness? ~ Charles Krauthammer

Malice or desire and intention to harm is often rooted in how we think about the persons concerned: our images of them, the inferences we habitually draw about them, and so forth. Perhaps we see them only as an obstacle to our desires, or as less than "human," as worthless. Perhaps we need to take steps toward seeing them as objects of God's love, or as beings of intrinsic value, like our own children or grandchildren or others we delight in. That will, in turn, require changes in how we think about our world and our self. All of this may be helped along by getting to know them, seeing what their life is like, or serving them. ~ Dallas Willard

Somehow, the very errors and faults of one individual served to call out the higher excellencies in another, and so they re-acted upon each other, and the result of short discords was exceeding harmony and peace. ~ Elizabeth Gaskell

The center of human nature is rooted in ten thousand ordinary acts of kindness that define our days. ~ Stephen Jay Gould

A great work must be novel without being far-fetched, frequently sublime, but always natural. The author must know the human heart, and how to make it speak; he must be a poet, without letting any of his characters speak like poets; and he must be a master of his language, using it purely and harmoniously and not letting the rhyme interfere with the sense. ~ Voltaire

Kenny G is extremely talented and resourceful and a powerful force to be reckoned with ... Mr. G might not seem evil, but I fear him more than any other human being. ~ Matthew Quick

You can't judge people and touch their souls at the same time. ~ Tama Kieves

Mathematics exists solely for the honour of the human mind. ~ Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi

1) Work on one thing at a time until finished.
2) Start no more new books, add no more new material to "Black Spring."
3) Don't be nervous. Work calmly, joyously, recklessly on whatever is in hand.
4) Work according to Program and not according to mood. Stop at the appointed time!
5) When you can't create you can work.
6) Cement a little every day, rather than add new fertilizers.
7) Keep human! See people, go places, drink if you feel like it.
8) Don't be a draught-horse! Work with pleasure only.
9) Discard the Program when you feel like it - but go back to it next day. Concentrate. Narrow down. Exclude.
10) Forget the books you want to write. Think only of the book you are writing.
11) Write first and always. Painting, music, friends, cinema, all these come afterwards. ~ Henry Miller

Turtles have always been my sigil, I suppose. When I was a kid, growing up in Bayonne, NJ, I lived in a federal housing project, and we were not allowed to have a dog or cats. The only pets I could have were turtles. So, I had an entire toy castle filled with dime-store turtles. I gave them all names, and since they were living in a toy castle, I decided they were all knights and kingsand I made up stories about how they killed each other and betrayed each other and fought for the kingdom. So, Game of Thrones, actually began with turtles. I decided later to recast it with actual human beings. ~ George R R Martin

Honestly, we'd probably be great parents. But it's a human being, and unless you think you have excellent skills and have a drive or yearning in you to do that, the amount of work that that is and responsibility - I wouldn't want to screw them up! We love our animals. ~ Ellen DeGeneres

We are all broken, we human creatures, and to pretend we're not is to inhibit healing. ~ Madeleine L'Engle

It is in the admission of ignorance and the admission of uncertainty that there is a hope for the continuous motion of human beings in some direction that doesn't get confined, permanently blocked, as it has so many times before in various periods in the history of man. ~ Richard P. Feynman

It occurs to me that I could learn from this child something about the nature of humanity--and if I accept Harry's pronouncement that I am a born philosopher then this baby could be an ambitious philosophical project! What if I reared it in a cupboard without light? Or in a room full of mirrors? Or Dali paintings? Apparently babies have to learn to smile so what if I never taught him or showed him laughter? No television of course no movies maybe no society either--what if he never saw another human other than me or not even me? What would happen? Would cruelty develop in that miniature universe? Would sarcasm? Would rage? Yes I could really learn something here tho why stop at one child? Could have a collective of children of "family" & alter variables in environment that will govern life of each one to see what's natural what's inevitable what's environmental & what's conditioning. Above all I will strive to raise a being that understands itself. What if I gave child head start by encouraging self-awareness at an unnaturally young age, maybe 3? Maybe earlier? Would need to create optimum conditions for flowering of self-awareness. This child will know a lot of solitude that's for sure. ~ Steve Toltz

In Sugamo, Louie asked his escort what had happened to the Bird. He was told that it was believed that the former sergeant, hunted, exiled and in despair, had stabbed himself to death.
The words washed over Louie. In prison camp, Watanabe had forced him to live in incomprehensible degradation and violence. Bereft of his dignity, Louie had come home to a life lost in darkness, and had dashed himself against the memory of the Bird. But on an October night in Los Angeles, Louie had found, in Payton Jordan's words, "daybreak." That night, the sense of shame and powerlessness that had driven his hate the Bird had vanished. The Bird was no longer his monster. He was only a man.
In Sugamo Prison, as he was told of Watanabe's fate, all Louie saw was a lost person, a life beyond redemption. He felt something that he had never felt fro his captor before. With a shiver of amazement, he realized that it was compassion.
At that moment, something shifted swiftly inside him. It was forgiveness, beautiful and effortless and complete. For Louie Zamperini, the was was over. ~ Laura Hillenbrand

I really like to go for the essence of things - the most beautiful parts of things - of human beings or of music. If there are things in there that are getting in the way and complicating it, it's just not good for me. ~ Bill Kreutzmann

Your worst enemy is not the person in opposition to you. It is the person occupying the spot you would be fighting from and doing nothing. ~ Heather Marsh

So that the smile was not so much an attitude to be taken to life as the nature of the cruelty of life, a cruelty we cannot even choose to avoid, since it is human existence. ~ John Fowles

What an ephemeral thing human will is, to be manipulated by a couple of drops of hormones! ~ Elizabeth Fama

When I look at the human brain I'm still in awe of it. ~ Ben Carson

Fiction is history, human history, or it is nothing. ~ Joseph Conrad

Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu, Buddhist, sufi, or zen. Not any religion or cultural system. I am not from the East or the West, not out of the ocean or up from the ground, not natural or ethereal, not composed of elements at all. I do not exist, am not an entity in this world or the next, did not descend from Adam or Eve or any origin story. My place is placeless, a trace of the traceless. Neither body or soul. I belong to the beloved, have seen the two worlds as one and that one call to and know, first, last, outer, inner, only that breath breathing human being. ~ Rumi

Politics and government are certainly among the most important of practical human interests. ~ P.T. Barnum

For a long time the only time I felt beautiful-in the sense of being complete as a woman, as a human being, and even female-was when I was singing. ~ Leontyne Price

A human being was connected to the world through his or her skin and how could someone with clogged pores feel the environment or be sensitive to its vibrations? ~ Fatema Mernissi

The novel is not the author's confession; it is an investigation of human life in the trap the world has become ~ Milan Kundera

I couldn't save Kataoka.
"If I loved him, I had to grant him his last wish.
"So I told him what he wanted to hear.
"I said, 'No, you're no longer human.'"
I hadn't been able to say anything.
I couldn't speak, I couldn't move, I couldn't understand a word of what Miu was telling me.
"Kataoka smiled kindly.
"Like he was thanking me.
"Then he jumped off the roof.
"Osamu Dazai and I killed him. ~ Mizuki Nomura

Since human beings first began to write, they have recorded their wish for an idealized ending some call the "good death," as if any of us can ever be sure of it or have any reason to expect it. There are pitfalls of decision-making to be sidestepped and varieties of hope to seek, but beyond that we must forgive ourselves when we cannot achieve some preconceived image of dying right. ~ Sherwin B. Nuland

Not to know one's true identity is to be a mad, disensouled thing - a golem. And, indeed, this image, sick-eningly Orwellian, applies to the mass of human beings now living in the high-tech industrial democracies. Their authenticity lies in their ability to obey and follow mass style changes that are conveyed through the media. Immersed in junk food, trash media, and cryp-tofascist politics, they are condemned to toxic lives of low awareness. Sedated by the prescripted daily television fix, they are a living dead, lost to all but the act of consuming. ~ Terence McKenna