Kindness Quotations

From the Australian Kindness Movement

Resources

Kindness Quotations

http://www.kindness.com.au/world-kindness-day.html

The following are kind and inspiring quotations gathered since the early 1990's. We would like you to resist the temptation to skim though them. Rather, read them carefully and absorb their meaning. Do you find some of them have a message for you, do some of them reflect your beliefs and hopes, do some of them strike a chord within you? Take time to savour the experience.

Hard copy the section, mark any ones you feel have some significance, and type out one or two of your marked ones each week and sticky tape them to the bathroom mirror or somewhere else at home, and/or put them at your work station or on the notice board at work. This will act as a subtle reminder to you (and others who read them) to bring a little more kindness and understanding to a world that is becoming cold and impersonal.

The quotations are now grouped under headings, which will make it a little easier for you to find what you are looking for.

If you have a favourite quotation, please send it to quotations@kindness.com.au.

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The headings are: Action, Aloneness, Appreciation, Attachment, Attitude/Mind, Beauty, Belief, Belonging, Change, Children, Complacency, Connecting/Relating, Dreams, Ethics, Faith, Failure, Fear, Forgiveness, Friendship, The Future, Giving, Gratitude, Guilt, Happiness, Healing, Heart, Honesty, Hope, Hopelessness, Hugs, Humanity, Humorous, Imagination, Injustice, Judgement, Justice, Kindness/Caring/ Helping, Laughter, Life, Love, Meaning, Meditation, Mistakes, Optimism, Peace, Sacrifice, Self Worth, Spirituality, Stress, Success, Truth, Understanding, Values, Vision, Wealth, Wisdom, Worry, and Worth.

Action

It's not enough to have good thoughts for the world. You must get out there! It is also really important that each person realise their own worth. If you don't think you're good enough, how can you turn around and help save the world?

Ted Danson

What we think about and talk about expands into action.
Wayne Dyer, 'Everyday Wisdom'

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. If you push hard on the world, the world pushes back on you. If you touch the world gently, the world will touch you gently in return.
Paul Hewitt, 'Conceptual Physics'

Aloneness

I saw lots of things when I was gone. Some I can remember, some I can't. The one thing that stood out for me was when I saw my spirit guide. You may call it a guardian angel, a guide, or just help, but I came back from the other side knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that we're never, ever alone.
A man describing a near death experience, as told in
'Finding Your Way Home' by Melody Beattie

You're capable of such beautiful dreams, and such horrible nightmares. You feel so lost, so cut off, so alone. Only you're not. In all our searching, the only thing we've found that makes the emptiness bearable, is each other.
Anon

Appreciation

All human beings hunger for appreciation.
David Dunn, 'Try Giving Yourself Away'

Next to physical survival, the greatest need of a human being is psychological survival - to be understood, to be affirmed, to be validated, to be appreciated.
Steven Covey, 'The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People'

We are too hasty to criticise, too slow to acknowledge good.
AKM

When you can't have what you want, it's time to start wanting what you have.
Kathleen Sutton

Attachment

Attachment to being right creates suffering. When you have a choice to be right, or to be kind, choose kind, and watch your suffering disappear.
Wayne Dyer

Attitude/Mind

If you cannot see the bright side, polish the dull side.
Anon

Nothing is good or bad, but thinking makes it so.
William Shakespear

To drop the need to understand the world and simply to be in the world, in life, in music - this may be the new direction of humanity.
Joanne Crandell, 'Self-Transformation through Music'

Some people walk in the rain. Others just get wet.
Roger Miller

The mind is in it's own place, and in itself
Can make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n
John Milton

In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few.
Shunryu Suzuki, 'Zen Mind. Beginner's Mind'

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
Eleanor Roosevelt

There's nothing so dangerous for manipulators as people who think for themselves.
Meg Greenfield, Newsweek

Beauty

People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.
Elizabeth Kübler-Ross

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Belief

For those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who don't believe, no proof is possible.
John & Lyn St Clair, 'Eyes of the Beholder'

There is nothing
I can tell you
That you do not already know.
There is no question
That you can ask me
That you
Yourself
Cannot answer.
You
Have just forgotten
David Littlewood, 'Start to Live'

Belonging

When we become isolated, we are prone to being damaged; our minds lose their flexibility and natural kindness. We become vulnerable to fear and negativity. A sense of belonging, however, suggests warmth, understanding and embrace. The ancient and eternal values of human life - truth, unity, goodness, justice, beauty and love - are all statements of true belonging.
John O'Donohue, 'Eternal Echoes'

Change

If we work for social change - and it is good to do such things - let us always do it with an awakened heart big enough for all. There is no enemy; there is only ignorance. There is no one to hate, only many to love.
John Kehoe, 'A Vision of Power and Glory.'

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
Margaret Mead

Humanity faces a quantum leap forward. It faces the deepest social upheaval and creative restructuring of all time. Without clearly recognising it, we are engaged in building a remarkable new civilisation from the ground up.
Alvin & Heidi Toffler, 'Creating a New Civilisation'

Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that history is shaped.
Robert F Kennedy

It is in being the caterpillar that you become the butterfly.
John Harricharan, 'Morning Has Been All Night Coming'

Children

Few parents teach their children how phoney the ads on TV are, how many lies and exaggerations they contain. How could they? These parents were also raised on television ballyhoo.
Louise Hay, 'Life!'

Switch off the television and get outside. Get bored, for God's sake. Stop being entertained.
Film director Peter Weir's advice to over-stimulated children

Unfortunately, in our society, children do not receive enough touch because of increasing concern about the occurrence of inappropriate touch. And although these concerns are important, our research gives every indication that touch is more than beneficial - we should consider touch as essential as diet and exercise are to the growth and well-being of children.
Tiffany Field, PhD, Touch Research Institute of Miami School of Medicine

The young people . . . share the spirit of adventure, the joy of living, the exuberance and delight of youth.
Governor General Sir William Dean

Children are our most precious resource. They will create a future based on what they learn now, yet they often have little choice about what is taught to them.
Sandi Smith

Children smile 400 times a day on average, adults 15 times. Children laugh 150 times a day, adults 6 times per day. Children play between 4 to 6 hours a day, adults only 20 minutes a day. What's happened?
Robert Holden, 'Living Wonderfully'

Children need parents who will let them grow up to be themselves, but parents often have personal agendas they try to impose on their children.
Harold Kushner, 'How Good do we Have to Be?'

Modern toys don't leave much margin for imagination. Computer chips do the thinking. Cartoon characters come prescripted. Every doll trails a comet tail of must-have accessories.
Geraldine Brooks, 'The Quarter Acre Universe'

We are used to thinking in terms of what we can teach our children. Maybe we need to ask ourselves what we may learn from them.
Piero Ferrucci, 'The Gifts of Parenting'

No one has yet fully realised the wealth of sympathy, kindness and generosity hidden in the soul of a child. The effort of every true education should be to unlock that treasure.
Emma Goldman

Complacency

Ordinary citizens are so accepting of what is going on, grumbling when their material interests were affected, but seemingly accepting the spiritual poverty so characteristic of today.
Charles Handy, 'The Hungry Spirit'

Communicating / Connecting

Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.
Stephen Covey, 'The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People'

Mankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.
Chief Seattle

The thing we need most is each other.
Hugh Mackay, 'Why Don't People Listen?'

People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel.
Jim Downing

We are each of us angels with only one wing; and we can only fly by embracing each other.
Luciano de Crescuso

Control

Some people might call it 'losing control', but that's not an appropriate description. It is our effort to 'stay in control' that causes us to become our false self.
Anon

Dreams

It is almost impossible to watch a sunset and not dream.
Ben Williams

Ethics

Managerial ethics aren't dead but they have been anaesthetised, or more accurately, taken out of the vocabulary and language of management ideology.
Amanda Sinclair

Failure

There is a real difference between failing and being a failure. The loser isn't the one who comes in last - it's the one who never entered the race.
Harry Cordellos, blind marathon runner

Faith

All we need to begin with is a dream that we can do better than before. All we need to have is faith, and that dream will come true. All we need to do is act, and the time for action is now.
Carl Sandburg

Fear

If you knew who walks beside you at all times on this path that you have chosen, you would never experience fear again.
A Course in Miracles

Forgiveness

We are the ones who suffer when we hold on to past grievances.
Louise Hay, 'Life!'

Friendship

A friend is a gift you give to yourself. Robert Louis Stevenson

The only reward for virtue is virtue; the only way to have a friend is to be one.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart.
Eleanor Roosevelt

The Future

The future is in the hands of those who can give tomorrow's generations valid reasons to live and hope.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, 'The Phenomenon of Man'

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
Eleanor Rosevelt

We have no right to dictate, through irresponsible action or narrow-mindedness, the future of our children and our children's children. There has been enough destruction, enough death, enough waste. We are moving in the right direction. I believe that very sincerely, and may God bless our efforts.
Portion of an address given by King Hussein of Jordan at the Middle East Peace Accord

The most exciting breakthroughs of the 21st century will occur not because of technology but because of an expanding concept of what it means to be human.
John Naisbitt & Patricia Aburdene, 'Megatrends 2000'

The whole course of human history may depend on a change of heart in one solitary and even humble individual - for it is the solitary mind and soul of the individual that the battle between good and evil is waged, and ultimately won or lost.
M Scott Peck, 'People of the Lie'

We are entering the most challenging decade of our history. To meet this challenge, the onus is upon each one of us to help shift human consciousness beyond the limitations of personal ego.
Gillian Ross, 'The Search for the Pearl'

The new century will see unimaginable levels of wastefulness and extravagance, but it will also be an age in which the individual human being acquires a true and universally recognised value.
Peter Robinson

Giving

To give and receive are one on truth. I will receive what I am giving now. To everyone I offer quietness. To everyone I offer peace of mind. To everyone I offer gentleness.
A Course in Miracles

Giving means extending one's love with no conditions, no expectations and no boundaries. . . Peace of minds occurs, therefore, when we put all our attention into giving and have no desire to get anything from, or to change, another person. . . The giving motivation leads to a sense of inner peace and joy that is unrelated to time.
Gerald Jampolsky, 'Love is Letting Go of Fear.'

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.
Norman MacEwan

You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.
Kahlil Gibran

Give what you can. To someone it may be better than you dare to think.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Giving connects two people, the giver and the receiver, and this connection gives birth to a new sense of belonging.
Deepak Chopra

The act of giving expands one's entire life experience because nothing is more fulfilling than one's capacity to give.
Phylicia Rashad

The secret of living is giving.
Kate Samperi, 'Silver Linings'

Gratitude

Gratitude helps you to grow and expand; gratitude brings joy and laughter into your lives and into the lives of all those around you.
Eileen Caddy, 'The Dawn of Change'

Guilt

There are some things we should feel guilty about, but the guilt feelings should attach to the deed, not to the doer.
Harold Kushner, 'How Good do we Have to be?'

Happiness

Remember that happiness doesn't depend upon who you are, or what you have, it depends solely on what you think. Dale Carnegie
Some pursue happiness, others create it.
Author unknown

He who praises another enriches himself far more than he does the one praised. To praise is an investment in happiness.
George Adams

Through our willingness to help others we can learn to be happy rather than depressed.
Gerald Jampolsky

When your happiness comes primarily from the happiness of others, you know you have moved from a 'me' experience to a 'we' experience. And the whole problem-solving and opportunity-seizing process changes.
Stephen Covey, 'The 7 habits of Highly Effective Families'

Happiness is not having what you want, but wanting what you have.
H J Chachitel

People wait for the big moment, the great event, and forget that happiness comes from building steadily on the small daily things of life. People wait for that special moment to express love and forget that love springs from thoughtfulness practised every day. People wait, but waiting is future and NOW is always the time.
Mehr Baba

To be kind to all, to like many and love a few, to be needed and wanted by those we love, is certaibly thre nearest we can come to happiness.
Mary Rinehart

The best way to cheer yourself up is to cheer somebody else up.
Mark Twain

Many people think that only if they were in some other place, or had some other job, they would be happy. Well, that is doubtful. So get as much happiness out of what you are doing as you can, and don't put off being happy until some future date.
Dale Carnegie

Scatter joy.
Emerson

The way to be happy is to make others so.
Robert Ingersoll

The possibilities you see in others, are possible for you as well.
The beauty you see around you, is your beauty.
Whatever you care about, is your responsibility.
What you see in others, shows you yourself.
See the best in others, and you will be your best.
Give to others, and you give to yourself.
Appreciate beauty, and you will be beautiful.
Admire creativity, and you will be creative.
Love, and you will be loved.
Seek to understand, and you will be understood.
Listen, and your voice will be heard.
Teach, and you will learn.
Show your best face to the mirror, and you'll be happy with the face looking back at you.
From the Women's Spiritual Network Web site

The means to gain happiness is to throw out from oneself like a spider in all directions an adhesive web of love, and to catch in it all that comes.
Leo Tolstoy

Happiness is not the absence of problems; but the ability to deal with them. Anon

The happiness of life is made up of little charities - a kiss or smile, a kind look, a heartfelt compliment.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Follow your bliss
Joseph Campbell

The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less.
Dan Millman, 'The Way of the Peaceful Warrior'

Remember that happiness is a form of travel, and not a destination.
Roy Goodman

Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.
Abraham Lincoln

Every word, every look, every action, and every smile can bring happiness to others.
Thich Nhat Hanh

Happiness is a by-product of an effort to make someone else happy.
Gretta Palmer

A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes. Hugh Downs

Healing

There is no true healing unless there is a change in outlook, peace of mind, and inner happiness.
Dr Edward Bach [of the Bach Flower Remedies]

Learn to heal the planet, and the planet will heal you.
Anon

Heart

If you use your heart instead of your head to navigate through the byways of life, you will rarely lose your way.
AKM

Honesty

Honesty is when there is harmony in what you think, say and do.
Gerald Jampolsky, 'Love is the Answer'

Hope

Each time a person stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he or she sends forth a tiny ripple of hope. Crossing each other from a million different centres of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.
Robert F Kennedy

Anything that offers hope has the potential to heal.
Bernie Siegal, 'Loving, Living & Healing'

There can be hope only for a society which acts as one big family, not as many separate ones. Anwar Sadat

Hopelessness

Hopelessness kills. Numerous studies in humans show that we can die as a result of dire beliefs and a sense of overwhelming futility.
Dr Larry Dossey, 'Prayer is Good Medicine'

Hugs

We need 4 hugs a day for survival. We need 8 hugs a day for maintenance. We need 12 hugs a day for growth.
Virginia Satir

Humanity

The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them. That's the essence of humanity.
George Bernard Shaw

We are only fragile threads, but what a tapestry we make.
Jerry Ellis, 'Walking the Trail'

Humorous

Always do what's right. It will gratify half of mankind and astound the other.
Mark Twain

To err is dysfunctional, to forgive co-dependent.
Susan Baxter

Never ask a barber if you need a haircut.
H Jackson Brown

If you can't stand solitude, maybe you bore others, too.
Bob Gorden

The two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity. Anon

The value of a dog is it's constant reminder of how much fun it is to be idiotic.
Charlotte Johnstone

Keep an open mind, but don't let your brain fall out.
Dr Joan Borysenko

If you don't know where you're going, any route will take you there.
Harry Adler, 'The Ultimate How To Book'

Get your priorities right. No one ever said on their deathbed, "Gee, if only I'd spent more time at the office!"
H Jackson Brown

A man who has his initials on his pyjamas must be uncertain of himself. Surely you should know who you are at bed time.
Robert Morley

The definition of school holidays: When parents realise that teachers are grossly underpaid.
Herm Albright, 'Quote Magazine'

Imagination

The world is but a canvas to our imaginations.
Thoreau

Injustice

There is not a crime, there is not an injustice which does not live in secrecy. Get these things out into the open, describe them, ridicule them in the press, and sooner or later public opinion will sweep them away.
Joseph Pulitzer

Judgement

Help me see this brother through the eyes of truth and not of judgement.
Kenneth Wapnick, 'Absence from Felicity'

Justice

The greatest good for the greatest number.
Anon

Kindness/Caring/Helping

Kind words are the music of the world. They have a power which seems to be beyond natural causes, as though they were some angel's song which had lost it's way and come down to earth.
Frederick W Faber

Show charity and goodwill to others and it will return to enhance your own life in many wonderful ways.
Brian Adams, 'How to Succeed.'

Kindness - love made visible by deeds. Anon

Always be a little kinder than necessary.
James M Barrie

Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust and hostility to evaporate.
Albert Schweitzer

The older you get the more you realise that kindness is synonymous with happiness.
Lionel Barrymore

The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intentions.
H Jackson Brown

Dedicate some of your life to others. Your dedication will not be a sacrifice. It will be an exhilarating experience.
Thomas Dooley

I feel the capacity to care is the thing which gives life its deepest significance.
Pablo Casals

A kindness done is never lost. It may take a while, but like a suitcase on a luggage carousel, it will return again.
Anon

My religion is very simple - my religion is kindness
The Dalai Lama

When I look back at my experience of being confronted with death and ask myself what, in that hour, were the memories I treasured, I have little difficulty in answering. I cared not at all for my personal success. What I did care about were the thoughts that I had made a few happier, that I had done a few kindnesses, that I had won some love.
Arthur Benson

It is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.
Albert Schweitzer

There is hunger for ordinary bread, and there is hunger for love, for kindness, for thoughtfulness; and this is the great poverty that makes people suffer so much.
Mother Teresa

Life is short and we have not too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are travelling the dark way with us. Oh, be swift to love! Make haste to be kind.
Henry Amiel

The best portion of a good man's life,
His little, nameless, unremembered acts
Of kindness and love.
William Wordsworth

You'll never change the world by telling people what they should or shouldn't do. Teach by example - be living proof of the joys of kindness. People's admiration will be such, that they'll fall over themselves to emulate you.
AKM

A miracle is never lost. It may touch many people you have never met, and produce undreamed of changes in situations of which you are not even aware.
A Course in Miracles

You make people happy and you bring happiness to yourself when you do unexpected acts of kindness without fanfare and without thought of reward.
Marcus Bach

No joy can equal the joy of serving others.
Sai Baba

No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.
Aesop

To be able to practise five things everywhere under heaven constitutes perfect virtue - gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness, and kindness.
Confucius

Do not ask me to be kind; just ask me to act as though I were.
Jules Renard

When we make the choice to care, we set into motion a snowball effect that touches many people, most of whom we will never know about . . . never underestimate the importance of a kind act.
Alan Cohen, 'I Had It All the Time.'

Opportunities for kindness are flowing past us continuously, during the hours we spend at home, in the office or store or shop or laboratory where we work, as we walk along the street, as we drive hither and yon, as we travel by train or plane or bus - in short, wherever we are and whatever we are doing.
David Dunn, 'Try Giving Yourself Away'

Treat everyone as if they have a sign around their neck saying, "Help me to feel good about myself."
Author unknown

I shall pass through this world but once. If, therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do, let me do it now.
Étienne De Grellet

The luxury of doing good surpasses every other personal enjoyment.
John Gay

If the world seems cold to you, kindle fires to warm it.
Lucy Larcom

Our goal is to make heaven a 'down to earth' experience.
AKM

The various features and aspects of human life, such as longevity, good health, success, happiness, and so forth, which we consider desirable, are all dependent on kindness and a good heart.
The Dalai Lama, 'The World of Tibetan Buddhism.'

It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do a little. Do what you can.
Sydney Smith

Always, Sir, set a high value on spontaneous kindness.
Samuel Johnson

If you start to give of yourself, be it ever so simple a fashion, the world will observe your spirit and show you many needs that you can supply. There are a hundred ways of giving away little margins of time you will never miss, which could be riches to someone.
David Dunn, 'Try Giving Yourself Away'

It is the human things that make life good, the unexpected kindness, the friendly note, the bracing word, the neighbour's extra loaf of bread she leaves at our back door.
Raymond J Baughan

Wherever there is a human being there is an opportunity for kindness.
Seneca

Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair but manifestations of strengths and resolutions.
Kahlil Gibran

The ability to give kindness and receive appreciation in return is the one thing that proves that man has climbed up out of the jungle and gotten hold of something higher than just the satisfaction of survival.
Joseph Harsch

So many times each day we support each other informally without ever becoming 'helper' or 'helped.' Perhaps we're finding an article of clothing for a partner, cutting bread for one of the children, collecting the mail for the person at the next desk, holding the coat for someone at a restaurant.
Ram Das & Paul Gorman, 'How Can I Help?'

Be aware that the difference between heaven and earth is not so much altitude but attitude.
Ken Keys Jnr, 'The Power of Unconditional Love.'

Little words of kindness, little words of love,
Make this earth an Eden, like the heaven above.
Julia Carney, 'Little Things'

The great acts of love are done by those who are habitually performing small acts of kindness.
Author Unknown

Remember that everyone is influenced by kindness.
H Jackson Brown

Life is mostly froth and bubble,
Two things stand like stone,
Kindness in another's trouble,
Courage in your own.
Adam Lindsay Gordon, 'Ye Wearie Wayfarer'

The enjoyment that comes from our acts of kindness give us a glimpse of the world that might be, hopefully our future world. Good natured, friendly, human.
David Dunn, 'Try Giving Yourself Away'

It's not enough merely to exist. It's not enough just to say, "I'm earning enough to support my family. I do my work well. I'm a good father, husband, churchgoer." That's all very well. But you must do something more. Seek always to do some good, somewhere. Every man has to seek his own way to realise his true worth. You must give some time to your fellow man. Even if it's a little thing, to do something for those who need help, something for which you get no pay but the privilege of doing it. For remember, you don't live in a world all your own. Your brothers are here too.
Albert Schweitzer

Be kind to each other. It is better to commit faults with gentleness than to work miracles with unkindness.
Mother Teresa, 'No Greater Love'

So many gods, so many creeds,
So many paths that wind and wind,
While just the art of being kind,
Is all this sad world needs.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox, 'The World's Need'

A kind word is like a spring day
Russian proverb

Our lives are also fed by kind words and gracious behaviour. We are nourished by expressions like 'excuse me', and other such simple courtesies. Our spirits are richly fed on compliments just as our bodies are on whole wheat bread.
Ed Hays

Strive to acknowledge something good in everyone you meet - their skills, their qualities, the positive impact they have on the world around them. Let this be your gift to them.
AKM

What wisdom can we find that is greater than kindness?
Jean Jacques Rousseau

Life begets life. Energy creates energy. It is by spending oneself that one becomes rich.
Sarah Bernhardt

Helping others can truly be one of our most self-servicing acts.
Allan Luks, 'The Healing Power of Doing Good'

Everybody appreciates a compliment.
Abraham Lincoln

A gift consists not in what is done or given, but in the intention of the giver or doer.
Seneca

Doing good is as important as doing well.
Liz Hunt

When you hear a kind word spoken about a friend, tell him so.
H Jackson Brown

The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty and Truth. The trite subjects of human possessions, outward success, luxury - have always seemed to me contemptible.
Alfred Einstein

As human beings, we are only able to survive in dependence upon the co-operation, help and kindness of other fellow humans.
The Dalai Lama

Be kind. Everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.
Plato

Don't exclude yourself from precious moments, warm encounters, beautiful attitudes, majestic discoveries, flowing intimacies, sensory development - for these are the jewels placed in the crown of your destiny.
Walter Rinder

Make every day a kindness day.
Anon

The most important thing in an argument, next to being right, is to leave an escape hatch for your opponent, so that he can gracefully swing over to your side without too much apparent loss of face.
Sydney Harris

Kindness is essentially self-communicative. Those who do not have it, catch it from those who do have it, and it goes on gathering power and spreading itself, until eventually it transforms everyone whom it touches.
Meher Baba

Our acts of kindness warm the coldness of people's lives.
Linda Schache

No matter how much we enjoy following the lives of the rich and famous, we know the world is affected more deeply by quiet, even invisible acts of integrity, kindness, and generosity, than by fame and fortune.
Carl Pearson, 'The Hero Within'

Laughter

A day without laughter is a day wasted.
Charles Chaplin

Life

Life does not have to be perfect to be wonderful.
Annette Funicello

Better to try all things and to find all empty, than to try nothing and leave your life a blank.
Charlotte Bronte

Cherish yesterday . .
dream tomorrow . .
live today
Richard Bach, 'Jonathan Livingston Seagull'

We are all born into families and cultures we didn't choose, given names we didn't pick, instructed in behaviour and values we might not have freely chosen, and too often we end up expected to live lives designed by others.
Sheldon Kopp, "All God's Children are Lost"

Don't let yesterday use up too much of today.
Will Rogers

The mist of familiarity obscures from us the wonder of our being.
Shelly

What we do is important, but what we are is more important.
Kurtz & Kelchan, 'The Spirituality of Imperfection'

Why be content with nothing, when there is nothing you couldn't be?
Line from the song, 'The Olive Tree.'

There is more to life than increasing its speed.
Gandhi

Life is not anything, it is only the opportunity for something.
Christian Hebbel

There is an alternative, and the alternative for us is to be high on life. Be high on what you can contribute, and be happy with what you have.
Glenn Sergeant

All I really need to know I learned in kindergarten. Share everything; play fair; don't hit people; put things back where you found them; take a nap every afternoon; don't take things that aren't yours; and when you go out into the world watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together. These keys to life apply to politics, business, even international relations, and we heard them all before we were five years old.
Robert Fulgham

Living in a chronic state of unawareness can cause us to miss much of what is most beautiful and meaningful in our lives.
Jon Kabat-Zinn, 'Full Catastrophe Living'

The secret of living is giving.
Kate Samperi, 'Silver Linings'

Love

There are never enough "I love yous."
Lenny Bruce

Try finding love, rather than finding fault.
Gerald Jampolsky, 'Change Your Mind, Change Your Life.'

Events are always in flux. One day they love you; the next day you're their target. One day a situation is running smoothly; the next day chaos reigns. One day you feel like you're an OK person; the next day you feel like you're an utter failure. These changes in life are always going to happen; they're part of the human experience. What can change, however, is how we perceive those experiences. And that shift in our perception is the meaning of miracles.
Marianne Williamson, 'A Return to Love'

Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all of the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.
A Course in Miracles

We have not been given a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
Unknown

Fear grows out of the things we think; it lives within our minds. Compassion grows out of the things we are, and lives in our hearts.
Barbara Garrison

Things are beautiful if you love them.
Anon

We cannot fill up our emptiness with objects, possessions or people. We have to go deeper into that emptiness, then we will find beneath nothingness the flame of love to warm us.
John O'Donohue, 'Anam Cara'

A loving heart is always young.
French proverb

Love is a way of living, and not something that you give.
Deepak Chopra

Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.
Confucius

To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides.
Dr David Viscott, 'How to Live With Another Person'

May you always be inspired to stand tall in the sunlight, to seek out he bright face of beauty, to see the world through the eyes of tenderness, to love with openheartedness, to speak the quiet word of comfort, to look up to the mountain and not be afraid to climb. May you always be aware of the needs of others, believe in the wonder of life, the miracle of creation, the joy of love, the beauty of the universe, the dignity of the human being.
Hadin Marshall

A careless word may kindle strife;
A cruel word may wreck a life.
A bitter word may hate instil;
A brutal word may smite and kill.
A gracious word may smooth the way;
A joyous word may light the day.
A timely word may lessen stress;
A loving word may heal and bless
Anon

There are many things to love in this world, and if you ever have trouble finding one, there's always yourself.
Anon

We can look at any experience in two ways: through the eyes of lack, or the eyes of plenty. Fear sees limits, while love sees possibilities. Each attitude will be justified by the belief system you cherish. Change your allegiance from fear to love, and love will sustain you wherever you walk.
Alan Cohen

If we cannot do great things, we can do small things with great love.
Mother Teresa

How sad for millions of human beings who would give anything to have what one person's beloved cat or dag gets in the loving and touching department - even for one day. How ironic that many animals in our society receive what we, as human beings, need so much.
Phyllis Davis, 'The Power of Touch'

Meaning

You don't have to search so hard for meaning and destiny. If you focus on keeping yourself clear and in balance and you live from your heart, destiny and your highest-good path will unfold naturally at your feet.
Melody Beattie, 'Finding Your Way Home'

Meditation

Meditation is not a way of making your mind quiet. It is a way of entering into the quiet that is already there - buried under the 50,000 thoughts the average person thinks every day.
Deepak Chopra, 'Perfect health'

Mistakes

The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.
John Powell

Mistake and error is the discipline through which we advance.
William Ellery Channing, 'The Present Age'

Optimism

In uncertain times it is optimism that we need. Unless they are challenged vigorously, the pessimists who rejoice in the predictions of apocalypse may prove themselves right. Their prophecies may prove self-fulfilling because of the despair they have engendered.
Michael Allaby, 'Facing the Future: The Case for Science'

Peace

Making our goal anything other than peace is emotionally self-destructive.
Marianne Williamson, 'A Return to Love'

To be at peace in any endeavour, we must release our need to control the outcome.
Diane Dreher, 'The Tao of Inner Peace'

Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to puruse it.
Thomas Jeffersen

Once we throw away the frustrating myth of "more," we can relax into the satisfying experience of enjoying "enough."
Jacqueline Blix & David Heitmiller, 'Getting a Life'

If there is righteousness in the heart
There will be beauty in the character.
If there is beauty in the character
There will be harmony in the home.
When there is harmony in the home
There will be order in the nation.
When there is order in the nation
There will be peace in the world.
Anon

Without inner peace, it is impossible to have world peace.
Dalai Lama

If in our daily life we can smile, if we can be peaceful and happy, not only we, but everyone will profit from it. This is the most basic kind of peace work.
Thich Nhat Hanh

Sacrifice

True sacrifice should be an enriching experience, far removed from attempts to feed emptiness or assuage feelings of neediness.
Angela Rossmanith, 'The Sacrifice Trap'

Self Worth

It is our duty as women and men to proceed as though the limits of our abilities do not exist.
Teilhard de Chardin

Always be a first rate version of yourself, rather than a second rate version of somebody else
Judy Garland

Spirituality

The spiritual journey consists of simply ceasing to be an enemy of ourselves.
Annette Noontil, 'The Body is the Barometer of the Soul'

Our noblest purpose in life is to remember our spiritual nature in the face of suggestions that we are a material society.
Alan Cohen, 'I Had It All the Time'

Stress

Stress is not so much what you do, but how you react to what you do.
Dean Ornish, MD

Success

Success means we go to sleep at night knowing that our talents and abilities were used in a way that served others.
Marian Williamson, 'A Return to Love'

To do more for the world than the world does for you, that is success!
Henry Ford

Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.
Albert Einstein

Truth

In the mountains of truth, you never climb in vain. Either you reach a higher point today or you exercise your strength in order to be able to climb tomorrow.
Friedrich William Nietzsche

What angers us in another person is more often than not an unhealed aspect of ourselves. If we had already resolved that particular issue, we would not be irritated by its reflection back to us.
Simon Peter Fuller, 'Rising out of Chaos'

Understanding

Don't believe what your eyes are telling you. All they show is limitation. Look with your understanding, find out what you already know, and you'll see the way to fly.
Richard Bach, 'Jonathan Livingstone Seagull'

We live in a perfect Universe, and whether we like it or not, everything happens for a reason.
Simon Peter Fuller, 'Rising out of Chaos'

No snowflake ever falls in the wrong place
Zen saying

If we understood the power of our thoughts, we would guard them more closely. If we understood the awesome power of our words, we would prefer silence to almost anything negative. In our thoughts and words we create our own weaknesses and our own strengths. Our limitations and joys begin in our hearts. We can always replace negative with positive.
Betty Eadie, 'Embraced by the Light'

Nothing can hurt you unless you give it the power to do so.
A Course in Miracles

I always prefer to believe the best of everybody; it saves so much trouble.
Rudyard Kipling

Values

Think nothing profitable to you which compels you to break a promise, to lose your self respect, to hate any person, to curse, to act the hypocrite.
Marcus Aurelius

The purpose of life is to matter -
to count
to stand for something
to have it make some
difference that
we lived at all.
Leo Rosten

Wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, business without morality, science without humanity, worship without sacrifice, politics without principle.
Mahatma Gandhi's list of the seven deadly sins

Vision

Look at everything as though you were seeing it either for the first or last time. Then your time on earth will be filled with glory.
Betty Smith, 'A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.'

Vision is the art of seeing things invisible.
Jonathan Swift

The voyage of discovery lies not in finding new landscapes, but in having new eyes.
Marcel Proust

Wealth

Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.
Unknown

A rich life is one of trying to leave the world a little better than you found it.
Cornel West

Wisdom

The highest wisdom is loving kindness.
The Talmud

Keep searching for your answers.
Anon

Worry

The worst thing you can possibly do is worry about what you should have done.
Lichtenberg

Worth

The true perfection of man lies not in what man has, but in what man is.
Oscar Wilde

_______________________________________________________

Unsorted/Uncategorised (work in progress):

Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.
Mark Twain

Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for a kindness.
Seneca

A kind word is like a Spring day.
Russian Proverb

A laugh, to be joyous, must flow from a joyous heart, for without kindness, there can be no true joy.
Thomas Carlyle

You can't live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you.
John Wooden

A little thought and a little kindness are often worth more than a great deal of money.
John Ruskin

A mistake made by many people with great convictions is that they will let nothing stand in the way of their views, not even kindness.
Bryant H. McGill

A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds. A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love.
Saint Basil

A warm smile is the universal language of kindness.
William Arthur Ward

A word of kindness is seldom spoken in vain, while witty sayings are as easily lost as the pearls slipping from a broken string.
George Dennison Prentice

An enemy to whom you show kindness becomes your friend, excepting lust, the indulgence of which increases its enmity.
Saadi

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

As much as we need a prosperous economy, we also need a prosperity of kindness and decency.
Caroline Kennedy

Ask yourself: Have you been kind today? Make kindness your daily modus operandi and change your world.
Annie Lennox

Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again.
Og Mandino

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

Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.
Albert Schweitzer

Deliberately seek opportunities for kindness, sympathy, and patience.
Evelyn Underhill

Everyone responds to kindness.
Richard Gere

For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.
Audrey Hepburn

Getting money is not all a man's business: to cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life.
Samuel Johnson

Gratitude is the inward feeling of kindness received. Thankfulness is the natural impulse to express that feeling. Thanksgiving is the following of that impulse.
Henry Van Dyke

Guard well within yourself that treasure, kindness. Know how to give without hesitation, how to lose without regret, how to acquire without meanness.
George Sand

He that has done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another, than he whom you yourself have obliged.
Benjamin Franklin

He who aspires to paradise should learn to deal with people with kindness.
Abu Bakr

Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.
Franklin D. Roosevelt

I admire the fact that the central core of Buddhist teaching involves mindfulness and loving kindness and compassion.
Ron Reagan

I believe that man will not merely endure; he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among the creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of kindness and compassion.
William Falconer

I don't think Christmas is necessarily about things. It's about being good to one another, it's about the Christian ethic, it's about kindness.
Carrie Fisher

I feel no need for any other faith than my faith in the kindness of human beings. I am so absorbed in the wonder of earth and the life upon it that I cannot think of heaven and angels.
Pearl S. Buck

I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.
Tennessee Williams

I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet, strange, I am ungrateful to those teachers.
Khalil Gibran

If you have donated, these children may never know your name, but they will never forget your kindness.
Roma Downey

Illness is the doctor to whom we pay most heed; to kindness, to knowledge, we make promise only; pain we obey.
Marcel Proust

Industry, economy, honesty, and kindness form a quartet of virtues that will never be improved upon.
James Oliver

It has always seemed strange to me... the things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling, are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest, are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second.
John Steinbeck

It is futile to judge a kind deed by its motives. Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind.
Eric Hoffer

It is impossible to treat a child too well. Children are spoiled by being ignored too much or by harshness, not by kindness.
Sloan Wilson

It is kindness to immediately refuse what you intend to deny.
Publilius Syrus

It's also selfish because it makes you feel good when you help others. I've been helped by acts of kindness from strangers. That's why we're here, after all, to help others.
Carol Burnett

Kindly words do not enter so deeply into men as a reputation for kindness.
Mencius

Kindness and faithfulness keep a king safe, through kindness his throne is made secure.
King Solomon

Kindness eases everything almost as much as money does.
Mason Cooley

Kindness has converted more sinners than zeal, eloquence, or learning.
Frederick William Faber

Kindness in ourselves is the honey that blunts the sting of unkindness in another.
Grantland Rice

Kindness in women, not their beauteous looks, shall win my love.
Washington Irving

Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.
Lao Tzu

Kindness is always fashionable.
Amelia E. Barr

Kindness is ever the begetter of kindness.
Sophocles

Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not.
Samuel Johnson

Kindness is loving people more than they deserve.
Joseph Joubert

Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom.
Theodore Isaac Rubin

Kindness is the sunshine in which virtue grows.
Robert Green Ingersoll

Kindness is wisdom.
Philip James Bailey

Kindness makes a fellow feel good whether it's being done to him or by him.
Frank Howard Clark

Kindness, I've discovered, is everything in life.
Isaac Bashevis Singer

Life is made up, not of great sacrifices or duties, but of little things, in which smiles and kindness, and small obligations given habitually, are what preserve the heart and secure comfort.
Humphry Davy

Love and kindness are never wasted. They always make a difference. They bless the one who receives them, and they bless you, the giver.
Barbara de Angelis

My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.
Dalai Lama

No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.
Aesop

No one has yet realized the wealth of sympathy, the kindness and generosity hidden in the soul of a child. The effort of every true education should be to unlock that treasure.
Emma Goldman

Now it is evident that a little insight into the customs of every people is necessary to insure a kindly communication; this, joined with patience and kindness, will seldom fail with the natives of the interior.
Charles Sturt

One who knows how to show and to accept kindness will be a friend better than any possession.
Sophocles

Remember there's no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.
Scott Adams

Somewhere near you, somebody right now is trying to help the indigent and poor - providing food, shelter, clothing or simple kindness.
Tony Snow

That best portion of a man's life, his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love.
William Wordsworth

The catch phrase for the day is 'Do an act of kindness. Help one person smile.'
Harvey Ball

The end result of kindness is that it draws people to you.
Anita Roddick

The everyday kindness of the back roads more than makes up for the acts of greed in the headlines.
Charles Kuralt

The first thing a kindness deserves is acceptance, the second, transmission.
George MacDonald

The kindness and affection from the public have carried me through some of the most difficult periods, and always your love and affection have eased the journey.
Princess Diana

The level of our success is limited only by our imagination and no act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted.
Aesop

The words of kindness are more healing to a drooping heart than balm or honey.
Sarah Fielding

There are realities we all share, regardless of our nationality, language, or individual tastes. As we need food, so do we need emotional nourishment: love, kindness, appreciation, and support from others.
J. Donald Walters

There is no need for temples, no need for complicated philosophies. My brain and my heart are my temples; my philosophy is kindness.
Dalai Lama

There is overwhelming evidence that the higher the level of self-esteem, the more likely one will be to treat others with respect, kindness, and generosity.
Nathaniel Branden

There's no dearth of kindness In the world of ours; Only in our blindness We gather thorns for flowers.
Gerald Massey

There's no use doing a kindness if you do it a day too late.
Charles Kingsley

This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.
Dalai Lama

To practice five things under all circumstances constitutes perfect virtue; these five are gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness, and kindness.
Confucius

Treat everyone with respect and kindness. Period. No exceptions.
Kiana Tom

True popularity comes from acts of kindness rather than acts of stupidity.
Bo Bennett

Truth is a deep kindness that teaches us to be content in our everyday life and share with the people the same happiness.
Khalil Gibran

We cannot seek or attain health, wealth, learning, justice or kindness in general. Action is always specific, concrete, individualized, unique.
Benjamin Jowett

Well, I think when we can turn to the person sitting next to us and really see them with kindness and see ourselves reflected back - when there's some dignity and compassion traveling back and forth.
Sharon Stone

What we all have in common is an appreciation of kindness and compassion; all the religions have this. We all lean towards love.
Richard Gere

What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?
Jean-Jacques Rousseau

When you are young you take the kindness people show you as your right.
W. Somerset Maugham

When you carry out acts of kindness you get a wonderful feeling inside. It is as though something inside your body responds and says, yes, this is how I ought to feel.
Harold Kushner

Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for a kindness.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

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

Whoever understands how to do a kindness when he fares well would be a friend better than any possession.
Sophocles

You can accomplish by kindness what you cannot by force.
Publilius Syrus

You can tell by the kindness of a dog how a human should be.
Don Van Vliet

You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.
Ralph Waldo Emerson