December - Compassion
Be kind, caring and helpful.
I expect to pass through the world but once. Any good therefore that I can do, or any kindness I can show to any creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer it, for I shall not pass this way again.
~
Stephen Grellet, 18th/19th century French/American religious leader
Men are only great as they are kind.
~
Elbert Hubbard, 19th/20th-century American entrepreneur and philosopher (founder of Roycroft)
What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?
~
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 18th-century French philosopher
A kind word is like a spring day.
~
Russian proverb
No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.
~
Aesop, ancient Greek moralist
Our duty is to be useful, not according to our desires but according to our powers.
~
Henry F. Amiel
If the world seems cold to you, kindle fires to warm it.
~
Lucy Larcom
There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.
~
Edith Wharton, 19th-century American author
Real generosity is doing something nice for someone who will never find out.
~
Frank A. Clark
What do I owe to my times, to my country, to my neighbors, to my friends? Such are the questions which a virtuous man ought often to ask himself.
~
Lavater
What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us. What we have done for others and the world remains immortal.
~
Albert Pine
The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.
~
Mohandas Gandhi, 20th-century, Nobel Prize-winning, Indian nonviolent civil rights leader
If one man dies, it is a tragedy; if a thousand men die, it is a statistic.
~
Phillipe Berthelot
One must care about a world one will never see.
~
Bertrand Russell, 20th-century British mathematician and philosopher
It is the characteristic of the magnanimous man to ask no favor but to be ready to do kindness to others.
~
Aristotle, ancient Greek philosopher
Unshared joy is an unlighted candle.
~
Spanish proverb
The best place to find a helping hand is at the end of your own arm.
~
Swedish proverb
You have not lived a perfect day, even though you have earned your money, unless you have done something for someone who cannot repay you.
~
Ruth Smeltzer
Compassion is the basis of morality.
~
Arnold Schopenhauer, early 19th-century German philosopher
Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace.
~
Albert Schweitzer, early 20th-century German Nobel Peace Prize-winning mission doctor and theologian
