* Everywhere I go, I see very much the same thing. I see the same compassion for people who live half a world away. I see the same concern about events beyond these borders.
-- Bono

Since the dawn of time, humans have turned to stories to help them understand the world. When they're working at their highest purpose, stories open us up to a more compassionate view of one another.
-- Shannon Cain

"When people in a democracy are not educated in the art of living --- to strengthen their conscience, compassion, and ability to question and think critically --- they can be easily manipulated by fear and propaganda. A democracy is only as wise as its citizens, and a democracy of ignorant citizens can be as dangerous as a dictatorship."
-- Paul K. Chappell

* The individual is capable of both great compassion and great indifference. He has it within his means to nourish the former and outgrow the latter.
-- Norman Cousins

"The new education must be less concerned with sophistication than compassion. It must recognize the hazards of tribalism. It must teach man the most difficult lesson of all—to look at someone anywhere in the world and be able to see the image of himself. The old emphasis upon superficial differences that separate peoples must give way to education for citizenship in the human community. With such an education and with such self-understanding, it is possible that some nation or people may come forward with the vital inspiration that men need no less than food. Leadership on this higher level does not require mountains of gold or thundering propaganda. It is concerned with human destiny. Human destiny is the issue. People will respond."
-- Norman Cousins

* If compassion was the motivating factor behind all of our decisions, would our world not be a completely different place?
-- Sheryl Crow

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.
-- The Dalai Lama

"You are the people who are shaping a better world. One of the secrets of inner peace is the practice of compassion."
-- Dalai Lama

Compassion is not religious business, it is human business, it is not luxury, it is essential for our own peace and mental stability, it is essential for human survival.”
-- The Dalai Lama

* One's life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, indignation and compassion.
-- Simone de Beauvoir

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.
-- Albert Einstein

"...our civilization, so addicted to knowledge, has fled from wisdom. Knowledge is very, very powerful. If it is not tempered and contoured by greater visions, like justice, compassion, beauty, grace and thinking of the next generation and seven generations to come -- then indeed, it is dangerous. Unfortunately, many of our educational systems in the West are still very dangerous places."
-- Matthew Fox

Compassion is the essence of Jesus’ teaching, and indeed of the teaching of all great spiritual figures from Mohammed to Isaiah, from Lao Tzu to Chief Seattle. Yet compassion has been sentimentalized and severed from its relationship to justice-making and celebration. Creation Spirituality links the struggle for justice with the yearning for mysticism.
-- Matthew Fox

Nonviolence, therefore, can be described as an honest and diligent pursuit of truth. It could also mean the search for the meaning of life or the purpose of life, questions that have tormented humankind for centuries. The fact that we have not been able to find satisfactory answers to these questions does not mean there is no answer. It only means we have not searched with any degree of honesty. The search has to be both external and internal. We seek to ignore this crucial search because the sacrifices it demands are revolutionary. It means moving away from greed, selfishness, possessiveness, and dominance to love, compassion, understanding, and respect.
-- Arun Gandhi

* As custodians of the planet it is our responsibility to deal with all species with kindness, love and compassion.
-- Richard Gere

* What we all have in common is an appreciation of kindness and compassion; all the religions have this. We all lean towards love.
-- Richard Gere

* "If only we can overcome cruelty, to human and animal, with love and compassion we shall stand at the threshold of a new era in human moral and spiritual evolution - and realize, at last, our most unique quality: humanity." ~ Jane Goodall

* Let us develop respect for all living things. Let us try to replace violence and intolerance with understanding and compassion. And love.
~ Jane Goodall

* "Never be discouraged from being an activist because people tell you that you'll not succeed. You have already succeeded if you're out there representing truth or justice or compassion or fairness or love."
-- Doris Haddock (Granny D)

* Let us never cease to feel compassion for those in want. Let us never tire of helping victims of injustice and oppression. He who puts his faith in the restoration of human dignity cannot be wrong.
-- Poul Hartling

Only your compassion and your loving kindness are invincible, and without limit.
-- Thich Nhat Hanh

Though we all have the fear and the seeds of anger within us, we must learn not to water those seeds and instead nourish our positive qualities – those of compassion, understanding, and loving kindness.
-- Thich Nhat Hanh

* “Compassion is not weakness, and concern for the unfortunate is not socialism.”
-- Hubert Humphrey

"May I never get too busy in my own affairs that I fail to respond to the needs of others with kindness and compassion."
-- Thomas Jefferson

* “I believe in human dignity as the source of national purpose, human liberty as the source of national action, the human heart as the source of national compassion, and in the human mind as the source of our invention and our ideas”
-- John F. Kennedy

* Reconnect with the spiritual force that animates the best in you. Then let your every action flow from your strength and compassion.
-- Fran Korten

We can shape the national sentiment with our voices of compassion and reason. We can send the simple message that we must not kill innocent people in the name of justice.
-- Fran Korten

* Peace is not just the absence of war, it is the active presence of a capacity for love and compassion, and reciprocity. It is an awareness that our lives are not to be lived simply for ourselves through expressing our individuality, but we confirm the purpose of our lives through the work of expressing our shared sense of community in a purposeful and practical way; to sustain our own lives we sustain the lives of others - in family, in a community of neighborhoods called a city, and in a community of nations called the world.
-- Dennis Kucinich

* ...we must remain hopeful that for our children and our children’s children, that we are not a warring nation, but we will embrace and practice true compassion and honor the ideals of peace and freedom, and we will not give up.
-- Jessica Lange

"...Why is compassion not part of our established curriculum, an inherent part of our education? Compassion, awe, wonder, curiosity, exaltation, humility - these are the very foundation of any real civilisation, no longer the prerogatives, the preserves of any one church, but belonging to everyone, every child in every school."
-- Yehudi Menuhin

I remind myself of the power of thought and how it's my obligation as a citizen (and student) of humanity to propel compassion.
-- Alyssa Milano

* Show me a religion that doesn't care about compassion. Show me a religion that doesn't care about stewardship of the environment. Show me a religion that doesn't care about hospitality.
-- Eboo Patel

* "Until mankind can extend the circle of his compassion to include all living things, he will never, himself, know peace."
~ Albert Schweitzer

Compassion, in which all ethics must take root, can only attain its full breadth and depth if it embraces all living creatures and does not limit itself to mankind.
-- Albert Schweitzer

"The purpose of human life is to serve and show compassion and the will to help others."
-- Albert Schweitzer

* I do it because I want to exercise people's compassion and I do it because I really believe that for some reason what I do is important and meaningful.
-- Kyra Sedgwick

Imagine a world where everyone has all they need.
Where kindness and compassion are taught instead of greed. Imagine a better world...Imagine peace on earth!
-- Robert Alan Silverstein

Every act of compassion makes a difference. Together we can create a better world. -- Robert Alan Silverstein

* Be a hero for a better world - every act of compassion makes a difference. -- Robert Alan Silverstein

* We have been given the gift of life in this perplexing world to become who we ultimately are: creatures of boundless love, caring compassion, and wisdom. -- Brother Wayne Teasdale

"Every one of us is a mystic. We may or may not realize it, we may not even like it. But whether we know it or not, whether we accept it or not, mystical experience is always there, inviting us on a journey of ultimate discovery. We have been given the gift of life in this perplexing world to become who we ultimately are: creatures of boundless love, caring compassion, and wisdom. Existence is a summons to the eternal journey of the sage - the sage we all are, if only we could see." -- Brother Wayne Teasdale

* Wars begin in the minds of men, and in those minds, love and compassion would have built the defenses of peace.
~ U Thant

* We, The World is dedicated to bringing about a new vision of a world where every life matters. In this world, societies are organized to cultivate holistic health of body, mind and spirit in which individuals look upon themselves and all other life with compassion, caring, cooperation and goodwill.
-- Rick Ulfik

* Compassion is more important than intellect in calling forth the love that the work of peace needs, and intuition can often be a far more powerful searchlight than cold reason.
-- Betty Williams

* May we not succumb to thoughts of violence and revenge today, but rather to thoughts of mercy and compassion. We are to love our enemies that they might be returned to their right minds.
-- Marianne Williamson

To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places -- and there are so many -- where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.
-- Howard Zinn