#compassion

Don't be afraid to make corrections," Picchu said. "Don't be afraid to lend a hand." She fell silent, seeming to think for a moment. "And don't look down. ↗

— Diane Duane

#courage #courage

Before I lost my father, I never understood the rituals surrounding funerals: the wake, the service itself, the reception afterward,the dinners prepared by well-meaning friends and delivered in plastic containers, even the popular habit of making poster boards filled with photos of the dear departed. But now I know why we do those things. It's busywork, all of it. I had so much to take care of, so many arrangements to make, so many people to inform, I didn't have a moment to be engulfed by the ocean of grief that was lapping at my heels. Instead, I waded through the shallows, performing task after task, grateful to have duties to propel me forward. ↗

— Wendy Webb

#condolence #death #grief #kindness #sympathy

Who are we to make such a decision? To allow another living being - any living being - to die, when ours is the power to prevent it? - Reed Richards (Mister Fantastic) ↗

— John Byrne

#death #life #power-of-life-and-death #sanctity-of-life #death

In a time so filled with methods and techniques designed to change people, to influence their behavior, and to make them do new things and think new thoughts, we have lost the simple but difficult gift of being present to each other. (p. 11-12) ↗

— Henri J. M. Nouwen Donald P. McNeill Douglas A. Morrison

#presence #change

Righteous is the one who was able to demonstrate compassion in face of human suffering. ↗

— Aleksander Kwasniewski

#compassion #demonstrate #face #human #human suffering

Self-pity comes so naturally to all of us. The most solid happiness can be shaken by the compassion of a fool. ↗

— Andre Maurois

#compassion #fool #happiness #most #naturally

Sweet Evelyn, I think, I should have loved you better. Possessing perfect knowledge I hover above him as he hacks me to bits. I see his rough childhood. I see his mother doing something horrid to him with a broomstick. I see the hate in his heart and the people he had yet to kill before pneumonia gets him at eighty-three. I see the dead kid's mom unable to sleep, pounding her fists against her face in grief at the moment I was burying her son's hand. I see the pain I've caused. I see the man I could have been, and the man I was, and then everything is bright and new and keen with love and I sweep through Sam's body, trying to change him, trying so hard, and feeling only hate and hate, solid as stone. ↗

— George Saunders

#compassion #empathy #forgiveness #hatred #change

Condemnation feels good and it is now a staple of religion, politics, and the media (both left and right), but it changes nothing. Compassion, on the other hand, changes everything. (p. 121) ↗

— Robin R. Meyers

#condemnation #politics #change

How could it ever be to our purpose to rob another living being of his or her purpose? ↗

— Will Tuttle

#compassion #life #diet

Biblical orthodoxy without compassion is surely the ugliest thing in the world. ↗

— Francis Schaeffer

#orthodoxy #surely #thing #ugliest #without