Be
a Hero for a Better World ... Every Act of Kindness Makes
a Difference!
COMPASSION
*
The end of the Cold War removed the immediate causes
of whole destruction -- but not the threat contained
in our knowledge. We must tame this knowledge with
the ideals of justice, caring, and compassion summoned
from our common human spiritual and moral heritage,
if we are to live in peace and serenity in the twenty-first
century.
--
Mahnaz Afkhami
*
Changing the structure and rules of the global economy
will require a mass movement based on messages of
compassion, justice, and equality, as well as collaborative
and democratic processes ... If we stay positive,
inclusive, and democratic, we have a truly historic
opportunity to build a global movement for social
justice.
-- Medea
Benjamin
*
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
*
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
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
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
*
As
custodians of the planet it is our responsibility to deal
with all species with kindness, love and compassion. That
these animals suffer through human cruelty is beyond understanding.
Please help to stop this madness.
-- 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
*
"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
*
"...the
gross national product does not allow for the health
of our children, the quality of their education or the
joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of
our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence
of our public debate or the integrity of our public
officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage,
neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion
nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything
in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. "
-- Robert
F. Kennedy
True
compassion is more than flinging a coin at a beggar;
it comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars
needs restructuring.
-- Martin
Luther King Jr
*
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
"The
biggest divide in this country is not between Democrats
and Republicans, it's between people who care and
people who don't care."
-- Rachel
Maddow
*
“We
need artists to help us come together and share our
voices and build community around powerful issues concerning
our roles in the world and our planet’s survival. Compassion
must be translated into action.”
-- Natasha
Mayers
"...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
*
"The
whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness
of the interdependence of all these living beings, which
are all part of one another, and all involved in one
another."
-- Thomas
Merton
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
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
The
Utopians feel that slaughtering our fellow creatures
gradually destroys the sense of compassion, which is
the finest sentiment of which our human nature is capable.
-- Thomas
More
*
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
"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
"The tradition of nonviolence, optimism, concern for
the individual, and unconditional compassion that developed
in Tibet is the culmination of a slow inner revolution,
a cool one, hard to see, that began 2,500 years ago
with the Buddha's insight about the end of suffering.
What I have learned from these people has forever changed
my life, and I believe their culture contains an inner
science particularly relevant to the difficult time
in which we live."
-- Robert
Thurman
*
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
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