“True democracy focuses on the public interest; it defends the common good and protects its citizens - especially the weak and the vulnerable. We maintain that no democracy can survive without the powerful notions of compassion and public service. The level of wealth inequality in this country has gotten so far out of hand, the quantity of compassion so diminished, that the very future of democracy is at stake." ― & Cornel West”
Source: The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto
“First, we just acknowledge that it is there inside us. If we don’t listen to our own suffering, we won’t understand it, and we won’t have compassion for ourselves. Compassion is the element that helps heal us. Only when we have compassion for ourselves, can we truly listen to another person.”
Source: Fidelity: How to Create a Loving Relationship That Lasts
“Pain is the first proper step to real compassion; it can be a foundation for understanding all those who struggle with their existence. Experiencing real pain ourselves, our moral superiority comes to an end; we stop urging others to get with the program, to get their act together or to sharpen up, and start to look for the particular form of debilitation, visible or invisible that every person struggles to overcome. In pain, we suddenly find our understanding and compassion engaged as to why others may find it hard to fully participate.”
Source: Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words
“Better storytelling can overcome our deepest barriers.”
Source: What We Think About When We Try Not To Think About Global Warming: Toward a New Psychology of Climate Action
“Anger is the deepest form of compassion, for another, for the world, for the self, for a life, for the body, for a family and for all our ideals, all vulnerable and all, possibly about to be hurt. Stripped of physical imprisonment and violent reaction, anger is the purest form of care, the internal living flame of anger always illuminates what we belong to, what we wish to protect and what we are willing to hazard ourselves for.”
Source: Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words
“No one serves their friends by grinding themselves into dust on the altar of compassion.”
Source: In an Absent Dream
“It’s okay that you have flaws. How could our lives be as clean and white as a blank sheet of paper? Life naturally takes its toll on our bodies, our minds, and our relationships. rather than choosing a life in which you do nothing for fear of making a mistake, choose a life that improves through failure and pain. And shout out loud to your struggling self, I love you so much”
Source: Love for Imperfect Things: How to Accept Yourself in a World Striving for Perfection
“The first women we know are our mothers, and yet we sometimes treat them, especially when they are angry, with the least compassion. That becomes a model for how we treat other women.”
Source: Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women's Anger
“Respect and compassion are two important qualities that we learn as we grow up. It is necessary that we learn them because this is what others want from us, and this is what we ultimately want from others.”
“Love seeketh not Itself to please
Nor for itself hath any care,
But for another gives its ease
And builds a Heaven in Hell's despair.'
So sung a little Clod of Clay
Trodden with the cattle's feet,
But a Pebble of the brook
Warbled out these metres meet:
'Love seeketh only Self to please,
To bind another to Its delight,
Joys in another's loss of ease,
And builds a Hell in Heaven's despite.”
Source: Songs of Innocence and Experience