Famous and Inspirational Quotes on...

Caring, Compassion, Empathy & Generosity

"Prayer and action, therefore, can never be seen as contradictory or mutually exclusive. Prayer without action in powerless pietism, and action without prayer degenerates into questionable manipulation. If prayer leads us into a deeper unity with the compassionate Christ, it will always give rise to concrete acts of service. And if concrete acts of service do indeed lead us to a deeper solidarity with the poor, the hungry, the sick, the dying, and oppressed, they will always give rise to prayer. In prayer we meet Christ, and in him all human suffering. In service we meet people, and in them the suffering Christ."
— Henri J.M. Nouwen

"So long as we are full of self, we are shocked at the faults of others. Let us think often of our own sin, and we shall be lenient to the sins of others."
— François Fénélon

"I expect to pass through the world but once. Any good therefore that I can do, or any kindness I can show to any creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer it, for I shall not pass this way again."
— Stephen Grellet, 18th/19th century French/American religious leader

"Men are only great as they are kind."
— Elbert Hubbard, 19th/20th-century American entrepreneur and philosopher (founder of Roycroft)

"What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?"
— Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 18th-century French philosopher

"No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted."
— Aesop, ancient Greek moralist

"If the world seems cold to you, kindle fires to warm it."
— Lucy Larcom

"There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it."
— Edith Wharton, 19th-century American author

Real generosity is doing something nice for someone who will never find out.
— Frank A. Clark

What do I owe to my times, to my country, to my neighbors, to my friends? Such are the questions which a virtuous man ought often to ask himself.
— Lavater

"What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us. What we have done for others and the world remains immortal."
— Albert Pine

"We should give as we would receive, cheerfully, quickly, and without hesitation; for there is no grace in a benefit that sticks to the fingers."
— Seneca, Roman statesman and author

"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong."
— Mohandas Gandhi, 20th-century Nobel Prize-winning, Indian nonviolent civil rights leader

"If one man dies, it is a tragedy; if a thousand men die, it is a statistic."
— Phillipe Berthelot

"One must care about a world one will never see."
— Bertrand Russell, 20th-century British mathematician and philosopher

"It is the characteristic of the magnanimous man to ask no favor but to be ready to do kindness to others."
— Aristotle, ancient Greek philosopher

"The best place to find a helping hand is at the end of your own arm."
— Swedish proverb

"You have not lived a perfect day, even though you have earned your money, unless you have done something for someone who cannot repay you."
— Ruth Smeltzer

"Compassion is the basis of morality."
— Arnold Schopenhauer, early 19th-century German philosopher

"Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace."
— Albert Schweitzer, early 20th-century German Nobel Peace Prize-winning mission doctor and theologian

"The Christian's life is lived in the open, not in a pious cubby-hole.  As Christ gives Himself to feed us, so we have to incarnate something of His all-loving, all-sacrificing soul.  If we do not, then we have not really received Him.  That is the plain truth."
— Evelyn Underhill