Compassion quotes
2.4K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
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Browse quotes that often appear alongside compassion — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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"Let judges secretly despair of justice: their verdicts will be more acute. Let generals secretly despair of triumph; killing will be defamed. Let priests secretly despair of faith: their compassion will be true."
"Successful marriage is leading innovative lives together, being open, non-programmed. It’s a free fall: how you handle each new thing as it comes along. As a drop of oil on the sea, you must float, using intellect and compassion to ride the waves."
"The world has lost a visionary leader, a courageous voice for justice, and a clear moral compass. By showing us that the path to freedom and human dignity lies in love, wisdom and compassion for one another, Nelson Mandela stands as an inspiration to us all."
"Our voice resonates with life. Because this is so, it can touch the lives of others. The caring and compassion imbued in your voice finds passage to the listener's soul, striking his or her heart and causing it to sing out; the human voice summons something profound from deep within, and can even compel a person into action."
"The message of love and compassion will travel far and wide if all who follow a spiritual path work together in harmony and mutual respect."
"I learned compassion from being discriminated against. Everything bad that's ever happened to me has taught me compassion."
"I'm glad I'm funny. I'm glad I make people happy, because that's very important. But I'm proud to be known as a kind person."
"God's dream is that you and I and all of us will realize that we are family, that we are made for togetherness, for goodness, and for compassion."
"The wounded surgeon plies the steel That questions the distempered part; Beneath the bleeding hands we feel The sharp compassion of the healer's art Resolving the enigma of the fever chart."
"The compassion that you see in the kindhearted is God's compassion. He has given it to them to protect the helpless."
"When we come to the moral principles on which the government is to be administered, we come to what is proper for all conditions of society. Liberty, truth, probity, honor, are declared to be the four cardinal principles of society. I believe that morality, compassion, generosity, are innate elements of the human constitution; that there exists a right independent of force."
"The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the other.... The whole purpose of life is to live by love."
"GNP measures neither our courage, our wisdom neither our compassion. It measures everything except what makes life worthwhile"
"My dad had more compassion than me. He was nonjudgmental. He didn't care where you stood politically. He just took you as a person on face value. He could love all stripes, and that's why all stripes claim him. He didn't judge."
"Detached reflection cannot be demanded in the presence of an uplifted knife."
"How could I be out there and not do anything?"
"Be sensitive to the plight of others. You have to know about the tragedies as well as the triumphs, the failures as well as the success."
"Fair and softly goes far."
"There are no greater treasures than the highest human qualities such as compassion, courage and hope. Not even tragic accident or disaster can destroy such treasures of the heart."
"Culture is an elevated expression of the inner voice which the different peoples of the Earth have heard in the depths of their being, a voice which conveys the vibrant compassion and wisdom of the cosmic life. For different cultures to engage in interaction is to catalyze each other's souls and foster mutual understanding."
