#ness

Up to the present man has hardly cultivated sympathy at all. He has merely sympathy with pain, and sympathy with pain is not the highest form of sympathy. All sympathy is fine, but sympathy with suffering is the least fine mode. It is tainted with egotism. It is apt to become morbid. There is in it a certain element of terror for our own safety. We become afraid that we ourselves might be as the leper or as the blind, and that no man would have care of us. It is curiously limiting, too. One should sympathise with the entirety of life, not with life's sores and maladies merely, but with life's joy and beauty and energy and health and freedom. ↗

— Oscar Wilde

#sympathy #beauty

The Word frees us from smallness of mind (1 Kings 4:29) and from threatening confinements (Psalm 18:19). ↗

— John Piper

#life #living #open-mindedness #word #freedom

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness... but only when you pay your taxes? That means your freedom is rented, leased, & not unalienable. ↗

— Steve Maraboli

#happiness #liberty #life #politics #taxes

Who I am” cannot be define by the word MAN. Who I am surpasses the definitions of humanity trying to capture that which is free and vast. ~Quetzal~ ↗

— Martin Suarez

#greatness #i-am #i-am-free #true-self #freedom

Was I ever crazy? Maybe. Or maybe life is… Crazy isn’t being broken or swallowing a dark secret. It’s you or me amplified. If you ever told a lie and enjoyed it. If you ever wished you could be a child forever. They were not perfect, but they were my friends. ↗

— Susanna Kaysen

#friendship #insanity #madness #friendship

When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives. ↗

— George R.R. Martin

#loneliness #friendship

Because introverts are typically good listeners and, at least, have the appearance of calmness, we are attractive to emotionally needy people. Introverts, gratified that other people are initiating with them, can easily get caught in these exhausting and unsatisfying relationships. ↗

— Adam S. McHugh

#introverts #neediness #relationships #friendship

It's all very well to tell us to forgive our enemies; our enemies can never hurt us very much. But oh, what about forgiving our friends? ↗

— Willa Cather

#friendship #forgiveness

I learned a long time ago with you that folks who were trying to be kind would rather do it with a macaroni-and-cheese bake than any personal involvement. You hand off a serving dish and you've done your job - no need to get personally involved, and your conscience is clean. Food is the currency of aid. ↗

— Jodi Picoult

#displays-of-kindness #food #food

Sometimes... the first step to forgiveness is realizing that the other person... is batshit crazy. ↗

— Michelle Bartlett

#forgiveness #humor #forgiveness