Quotes about Compassion

comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable

We need people, Juliet, to show us our selfishness, to extract the ugliness that reveals itself in our hearts.

Special mercy arouses more gratitude than universal mercy.

Preaching a man a sermon with a broken head and telling him to be right with God is equal to telling a man with a broken leg to get up and run a race.

The more they love each other, the more they participate in each other's griefs, and one or the other will be frequently under some sort of suffering.

Thou has heard the words of Christ. . . . Dost thou weep, when I have thee, Poor soul, what aileth thee? Dost thou weep, when I have wept so much? Be of good cheer ; thy wounds are saving, and not deadly. It is I that have made them, who mean thee no hurt : though I let out thy blood, I will not let out thy life (628).

If God had bid you give them all your estates to own them, or lay down your lives to save them, sure you would have refused, when you will not bestow a little breath to save them? Is not the soul of a husband, or wife, or child, or neighbour, worth a few words? It is worth this, or it is worth nothing. . . . If you did know their misery, you would now do more to bring them out of hell (409). (III.XIII)

Pain and suffering that are not transformed are usually projected onto others.

It is not that suffering or failure might happen, or that it will only happen to you if you are bad (which is what religious people often think), or that it will happen to the unfortunate, or to a few in other places, or that you can somehow by cleverness or righteousness avoid it. No, it will happen, and to you! Losing, failing, falling, sin, and the suffering that comes from those experiences—all of this is a necessary and even good part of the human journey.

Failure and suffering are the great equalizers and levelers among humans. Success is just the opposite. Communities and commitment can form around suffering much more than around how wonderful or superior we are.

It is hardly an exaggeration to say that "us-and-them" seeing, and the dualistic thinking that results, is the foundation of almost all discontent and violence in the world.

We do not handle suffering. Suffering handles us.