#compassion

When in Reading Gaol he told me that the warders in the dock had been gentle and kind, but the visit of the chaplain in his first prison began with these words: 'Mr. Wilde, did you have morning prayers in your house?' 'I am sorry... I fear not.' 'You see where you are now! ↗

— Charles Ricketts

#empathy #oscar-wilde #religion #self-righteousness #religion

The simplest acts of kindness are by far more powerful then a thousand heads bowing in prayer. ↗

— Mahatma Gandhi

#charity #compassion #kindness #acting

What do you want with these special Jewish pains? I feel as close to the wretched victims of the rubber plantations in Putamayo and the blacks of Africa with whose bodies the Europeans play ball… I have no special corner in my heart for the ghetto: I am at home in the entire world, where there are clouds and birds and human tears. ↗

— Rosa Luxemburg

#africans #antisemitism #compassion #empathy #europeans

One evening Milarepa returned to his cave after gathering firewood, only to find it filled with demons. They were cooking his food, reading his books, sleeping in his bed. They had taken over the joint. He knew about nonduality of self and other, but he still didn’t quite know how to get these guys out of his cave. Even though he had the sense that they were just a projection of his own mind—all the unwanted parts of himself—he didn’t know how to get rid of them. So first he taught them the dharma. He sat on this seat that was higher than they were and said things to them about how we are all one. He talked about compassion and shunyata and how poison is medicine. Nothing happened. The demons were still there. Then he lost his patience and got angry and ran at them. They just laughed at him. Finally, he gave up and just sat down on the floor, saying, “I’m not going away and it looks like you’re not either, so let’s just live here together.” At that point, all of them left except one. Milarepa said, “Oh, this one is particularly vicious.” (We all know that one. Sometimes we have lots of them like that. Sometimes we feel that’s all we’ve got.) He didn’t know what to do, so he surrendered himself even further. He walked over and put himself right into the mouth of the demon and said, “Just eat me up if you want to.” Then that demon left too. ↗

— Pema Chödrön

#compassion #meditation #tonglen #food

We don't want the efficiency of the federal government and the compassion of the IRS to run our health care. ↗

— Todd Akin

#compassion #efficiency #federal #federal government #government

Compassion is not a popular virtue. Very often when I talk to religious people, and mention how important it is that compassion is the key, that it's the sine-qua-non of religion, people look kind of balked, and stubborn sometimes, as much to say, what's the point of having religion if you can't disapprove of other people? ↗

— Karen Armstrong

#disapprove #having #how #i #important

Religious people often prefer to be right rather than compassionate. Often, they don't want to give up their egotism. They want their religion to endorse their ego, their identity. ↗

— Karen Armstrong

#ego #egotism #endorse #give #identity

Compassion is the radicalism of our time. ↗

— Dalai Lama XIV

#compassion

I don't really think about doing something kind, I think there's just a way to conduct your daily life with compassion to other people. ↗

— Kat Dennings

#compassion #conduct #daily #daily life #doing

God's dream is that you and I and all of us will realize that we are family, that we are made for togetherness, for goodness, and for compassion. ↗

— Desmond Tutu

#dream #family #god #goodness #i