60+ Compassion Quotes to Make This World a Kinder Place
As written in Greater Good Magazine, compassion literally means “to suffer together.” Among emotion researchers, it is defined as the feeling that arises when you are confronted with another’s suffering and feel motivated to relieve that suffering.
It's a necessary skill, isn't it, compassion? To imagine a world where we don't understand and help relieve each other's suffering is to think of a dystopian nightmare.
So, let's align the power of words and compassion and dive into some beautiful and heart-touching compassion quotes.
In this post, you will find:
- Compassion quotes
- Self-compassion quotes
Compassion Quotes
“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.”
– Dalai Lama
“Give Compassion: Every day the average person fights epic battles never told just to survive.”
– Ken Poirot
“We must learn to regard people less in the light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer.”
– Dietrich Bonhoeffer
“The highest form of knowledge is empathy.”
– Bill Bullard
“Compassion is a passion with a heart.”
– Unknown
“Compassion is at the heart of every little thing we do. It is the dearest quality we possess. Yet all too often it can be cast aside with consequences too tragic to speak of. To lose our compassion, we lose what it is to be human.”
– Unknown
“Compassion is the greatest form of love humans have to offer.”
– Rachael Joy Scott
Grow and attract more compassion in your life with affirmations for love:
“I love this life and even if to be taken from me, I will love that you have yours. Cherish all life, for life, is worth cherishing.”
– Tom Althouse
“Love and compassion are the true religions to me. But to develop this, we do not need to believe in any religion.”
– Dalai Lama
“Until you have real compassion, you cannot recognize love.”
– Bob Thurman
“We can’t heal the world today but we can begin with a voice of compassion, a heart of love, an act of kindness.”
– Mary Davis
“There is no such thing as tough love. Love is kind, love is compassionate, love is tender.”
– Heather Wolf
“There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up.”
– John Holmes
“Sometimes it takes only one act of kindness and caring to change a person’s life.
– Jackie Chan
“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.”
– Plato
“Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for you.”
– Princess Diana
“There is no small act of kindness. Every compassionate act makes large the world.”
– Mary Anne Radmacher
“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
“Kindness begins with the understanding that we all struggle.”
– Charles Glassman
“Whether one believes in a religion or not, and whether one believes in rebirth or not, there isn’t anyone who doesn’t appreciate kindness and compassion.”
– Dalai Lama
“A kind and compassionate act is often its own reward.”
– William John Bennett
“Use your voice for kindness, your ears for compassion, your hands for charity, your mind for truth, and your heart for love.”
– Unknown
“Unexpected kindness is the most powerful, least costly, and most underrated agent of human change.”
– Bob Kerrey
“A kind gesture can reach a wound that only compassion can heal.”
– Steve Maraboli
“In compassion, when we feel with the other, we dethrone ourselves from the center of our world and we put another person there.”
– Karen Armstrong
“Empathy is really the opposite of spiritual meanness. It’s the capacity to understand that every war is both won and lost. And that someone else’s pain is as meaningful as your own.”
– Barbara Kingsolver
“Empathy is a connection; it’s a ladder out of the shame hole.”
– Brené Brown
“Compassion is the wish to see others free from suffering.”
– Dalai Lama
“Let our hearts be stretched out in compassion toward others, for everyone is walking his or her own difficult path.”
– Dieter F. Uchtdorf
“We are all different. Don’t judge, understand instead.”
– Roy T. Bennett
“More smiling, less worrying. More compassion, less judgment. More blessed, less stressed. More love, less hate.”
– Roy T. Bennett
“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.”
– Aesop
“There is a nobility in compassion, a beauty in empathy, a grace in forgiveness.”
– John Connolly
“Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.”
– Lao Tzu
“When we match compassion with purpose, we being to conquer the world.”
– Zachariah Thompson
“There never was any heart truly great and generous, that was not also tender and compassionate.”
– Bishop Robert South
“When we’re looking for compassion, we need someone who is deeply rooted, is able to bend and, most of all, embraces us for our strengths and struggles.”
– Brené Brown
“Wisdom, compassion, and courage are the three universally recognized moral qualities of men.”
– Confucius
“Compassion for others begins with kindness to ourselves.”
– Pema Chodron
“Life is an exciting business, and most exciting when it is lived for others.”
– Helen Keller
“When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed.”
– Maya Angelou
“The individual is capable of both great compassion and great indifference. He has it within his means to nourish the former and outgrow the latter.”
– Norman Cousinsnone
“Humanity’s collective mission in the cosmos lies in the practice of compassion.”
– Dalsaku Ikeda
“Compassion is about giving all the love that you’ve got.”
– Cheryl Strayed
“Look for a way to lift someone up. And if that’s all you do, that’s enough.”
– Elizabeth Lesser
“True compassion means not only feeling another’s pain but also being moved to help relieve it.”
– Daniel Goleman
“With compassion one becomes courageous. Compassion brings triumph when attacked; it brings security when maintained.”
– Tao Te Ching
“Have compassion for all beings, rich and poor alike; each has their suffering. Some suffer too much, others too little.”
– Buddha
“Compassion will cure more sins than condemnation.”
– Henry Ward Beecher
“Use your voice for kindness, your ears for compassion, your hands for charity, your mind for truth, and your heart for love.”
– Unknown
“Out of compassion, I destroy the darkness of their ignorance. From within them I light the lamp of wisdom and dispel all darkness from their lives.”
– Bhagavad Gita
Self Compassion Quotes
“Having compassion for yourself means that you honor and accept your humanness.”
– Kristen Neff
“Compassion and tolerance are not a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength.”
– Dalai Lama
“And as I’ve gotten older, I’ve had more of a tendency to look for people who live by kindness, tolerance, compassion, a gentler way of looking at things.”
– Martin Scorsese
“Taking time to relax every day, spending quality time with friends, and practicing mindfulness are some of the tried and tested ways of developing self-compassion.”
– Dr. Prem Jagyasi
“When we give ourselves compassion, we are opening our hearts in a way that can transform our lives.”
– Kristin Neff
“It is a lack of love for ourselves that inhibits our compassion toward others. If we make friends with ourselves, then there is no obstacle to opening our hearts and minds to others.”
– Unknown
“Our sorrows and wounds are healed only when we touch them with compassion.”
– Jack Kornfield
“Having compassion starts and ends with having compassion for all those unwanted parts of ourselves.”
– Pema Chodron
“Self-compassion is like a muscle. The more we practice flexing it, especially when life doesn’t go exactly according to plan (a frequent scenario for most of us), the stronger and more resilient our compassion muscle becomes.”
– Sharon Salzberg
“Drop the people who do not value you, respect you. Life has infinite horizons. Accept yourself, love yourself, and move forward.”
– Amit Ray
“For us to feel good emotionally, we have to look after ourselves.”
– Sam Owen
“My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.”
– Maya Angelou
💗 Continue Reading: 60+ Forgiveness Quotes to Move On from Resentment into Freedom