Our sadness is not sad, but our cheap joys.

Biologically we're all the same. We all get sad, we all get happy, and we all die. Anyone who pretends that that's not the case is either a sociopath or utterly delusional.

People have forgotten what the human touch is, what it is to smile, for somebody to smile at them, somebody to recognize them, somebody to wish them well. The terrible thing is to be unwanted.

We wept when we were born though all around us smiled; so shall we smile when we die while all around us weep.

Tears of joy are lighter than smiles of sorrow.

We live in a society that likes to kick people when they're down. Don't be a fair-weather friend. Stick with people. They need you more in the tough times than they do in the good times.

God's goodness is not a cosmic force but a specific act of compassion. We do not know it as it is but as it happens. To mention an example, "Rabbi Meir said: When a human being suffers what does the Shechinah say? My head is too heavy for Me; My arm is too heavy for Me. And if God is so grieved over the blood of the wicked that is shed, how much more so over the blood of the righteous.

To ease another's heartache is to forget one's own.

Distant or near, in joy or in sorrow, each in the other sees his true helper to brotherly freedom.

But I'm afraid I'm bad at comforting; I can listen all right, but I can hardly ever find anything to say.

The diverse individuals in the community are no longer incentives for talking and judging and condemning, and thus excuses for self-justification. They are rather cause for rejoicing in one another and serving one another.

To bear the burden of the other person means involvement with the created reality of the other, to accept and affirm it, and, in bearing with it, to break through to the point where we take joy ink.