Kindness Quotes

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Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.

- Leo Buscaglia

Act with kindness, but do not expect gratitude.

- Confucius

Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.

- Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama

All intimacy is rare -- that's what makes it precious. And it involves the revelation of one's self and the loving gaze upon another's true self (no makeup, no fancy car, no defensive charm, no seduction) -- that's what makes it so damn hard. Intimacy requires honesty and kindness in almost equal measure (a little more kindness, I think), trust and trustworthiness, forgiveness and the capacity to be forgiven . . . It's more than worth it -- just don't let them tell you it's bilss.

- Amy Bloom

Loving-kindness and compassion are the basis for wise, powerful, sometimes gentle, and sometimes fierce actions that can really make a difference -- in our own lives and those of others.

- Sharon Salzberg

Even after all this time,
The sun never says to the earth,
"You owe me."
Look what happens with
A love like that.
It lights the whole sky.

- Hafiz of Persia

Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.

- Rabbi Tarfon

We are told that people stay in love because of chemistry, or because they remain intrigued with each other, because of many kindnesses, because of luck. But part of it has got to be forgiveness and gratefulness.

- Ellen Goodman

In the midst of global crises such as pollution, wars and famine, kindness may be too easily dismissed as a "soft" issue, or a luxury to be addressed after the urgent problems are solved. But kindness is the greatest need in all those areas -- kindness toward the environment, toward other nations, toward the needs of people who are suffering. Until we reflect basic kindness in everything we do, our political gestures will be fleeting and fragile.

Simple kindness may be the most vital key to the riddle of how human beings can live with each other in peace, and care properly for this planet we all share.

- Bo Lozoff

To say "we" and mean "I" is one of the most recondite insults.

- Theodor Adorno

Be courteous to all but intimate with few; and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence.

- George Washington

When you have nothing to say, say nothing.

- Charles Caleb Colton

I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life.

I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow creatures happy.

- Thomas Paine

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

It's unfortunate and I really wish I wouldn't have to say this, but I really like human beings who have suffered. They're kinder.

- Emma Thompson

If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world, and that his heart is no island cut off from other lands, but a continent that joins to them.

- Francis Bacon

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Love and kindness are never wasted. They always make a difference. They bless the one who receives them, and they bless you, the giver.

- Barbara De Angelis

There is always a way to be honest without being brutal.

- Arthur Dobrin

Good nature will always supply the absence of beauty; but beauty cannot supply the absence of good nature.

- Joseph Addison

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The only way to tell the truth is to speak with kindness. Only the words of a loving man can be heard.

- Henry David Thoreau

It is good to be helpful and kindly, but don't give yourself to be melted into candle grease for the benefit of the tallow trade.

- George Eliot

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts, and don't put up with people that are reckless with yours.

- Kurt Vonnegut

Kindness trumps greed: it asks for sharing. Kindness trumps fear: it calls forth gratefulness and love. Kindness trumps even stupidity, for with sharing and love, one learns.

- Marc Estrin

If the earth does grow inhospitable toward human presence, it is primarily because we have lost our sense of courtesy toward the earth and its inhabitants.

- Thomas Berry