Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair, but manifestations of strength and resolution.
– Kahlil Gibran
author of The Prophet
Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.
– Albert Schweitzer
philosopher, physician and musician
(1875-1965)
Cruelty hardens and degrades
Kindness reforms and ennobles
– Robert Green Ingersoll
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
To love someone means to see him as God intended him.
– Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy. For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man's hunger.
– Kahlil Gibran
Great love and great achievements involve great risk.
– the Dalai Lama
God made Truth with many doors to welcome every believer who knocks on them.
– Kahlil Gibran
The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved — loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.
– Victor Hugo
Out of chaos the future emerges in harmony and beauty.
– Emma Goldman
Of life's two chief prizes, beauty and truth, I found the first in a loving heart and the second in a laborer's hand.
– Kahlil Gibran
Beauty in the heart that longs for it is more sublime than in the eyes of him who sees it.
– Kahlil Gibran
The key point is kindness. With kindness one will have inner peace. Through inner peace, world peace can one day be a reality.
– the Dalai Lama
The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched — they must be felt with the heart.
– Helen Keller
Love between two people is such a precious thing. It is not a possession. I no longer need to possess to complete myself. True love becomes my freedom
– Angela L. Wozniak
. . . Love is a great beautifier.
– Louisa May Alcott
Only love can penetrate all your karmas and resistances and set your heart on fire with the awareness of its true nature.
– Gurumayi Chidvilasananda
The important thing is not to think much, but to love much; and so, do that which best stirs you to love.
– Saint Teresa of Avila
You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
writer and philosopher
(1803-1882)
Kindness is the golden chain by which society is bound together.
– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
poet, dramatist, novelist, and philosopher
(1749-1832)
It is the heart, and not the brain,
That to the highest doth attain,
And he who followeth Love's behest
Far excelleth all the rest!
– Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Whoso loves believes the impossible.
– Elizabeth Barrett Browning
I feel that my mission is, wherever I am, to express my feeling about the importance of kindness, compassion, and the true sense of brotherhood. I practice these things. It gives me more happiness, more success. If I practiced anger or jealousy or bitterness, no doubt my smile would disappear.
– The Dalai Lama
It matters not
Who you love
Where you love
Why you love
When you love
Or how you love
It matters only that you love.
– John Lennon
When I am working on a problem I never think about beauty. I only think about how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.
– Buckminster Fuller
(1895-1983)
Love is beauty and beauty is truth, and that is why in the beauty of a flower we can see the truth of the universe.
– Gautama Buddha
Keep your faith in beautiful things; in the sun when it is hidden, in the Spring when it is gone.
– Roy R. Gibson
In this world, hate never yet dispelled hate. Only loving-kindness dispels hate. This is the Dharma, ancient and inexhaustible.
– From The Dhammapada, one of the earliest Buddhist texts
reporting the actual teachings of the historical Buddha, Shakyamuni
True love is no game of the faint-hearted and the weak; it is born of strength and understanding.
– Meher Baba
May all beings be filled with joy and peace.
May all beings everywhere, the strong and the weak,
The great and the small, the mean and the powerful,
The short and the long, the subtle and the gross:
May all beings everywhere, seen and unseen,
Dwelling far off or nearby, being or waiting to become:
May all be filled with lasting joy.
Let no one deceive another,
Let no one anywhere despise another,
Let no one out of anger or resentment
Wish suffering on anyone at all.
Just as a mother with her own life
Protects her child, her only child, from harm,
So within yourself
Let grow a boundless love for all creatures.
Let your love flow outward through the universe,
To its height, its depth, its broad extent,
A limitless love, without hatred or enmity.
Then as you stand or walk, sit or lie down,
As long as you are awake,
Strive for this with a one-pointed mind;
Your life will bring heaven to earth.
– Sutta Nipata
There is no disguise that can for long conceal love where it exists or simulate it where it does not.
– Francois de La Rochefoucauld
When love beckons to you follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you yield to him,
Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.
And when he speaks to you believe in him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden.
For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you.
Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches
that quiver in the sun,
So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.
Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.
He threshes you to make you naked.
He sifts you to free you from your husks.
He grinds you to whiteness.
He kneads you until you are pliant;
And then he assigns you to his sacred fire,
that you may become sacred bread for God's sacred feast.
All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart,
and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life's heart.
But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure,
Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor,
Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter,
And weep, but not all of your tears.
Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love.
When you love you should not say, "God is in my heart," but rather, I am in the heart of God."
And think not you can direct the course of love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart
and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart
and a song of praise upon your lips.
– Kahlil Gibran
from The Prophet
You suppose you are the trouble
but you are the cure
You suppose that you are the lock on the door
but you are the key that opens it
It ís too bad that you want to be someone else
You don't see your own face, your own beauty
Yet, no face is more beautiful than yours.
– Rumi
There can be no Security without Peace
There can be no Peace without Freedom
There can be no Freedom without Justice
There can be no Justice without Love.
– Graffiti from a wall in Thailand
Work as if you will live forever
Love as if you will die today
– Lucius Annaeus Seneca
A husband and wife who love each other, can tell each other a thousand things without saying a word.
– Chinese Proverb
A man can live happily with any woman, as long as he doesn't love her.
– Oscar Wilde
Love is like a fire. But you can't tell if it will warm you or burn your house down.
– Joan Crawford
American actress
Love makes everything that is heavy, light.
– Thomas Kempis
In a perfect union the man and woman are like a strung bow. Who is to say whether the string bends the bow, or the bow tightens the string?
– Cyril Connolly
critic and editor
(1903-1974)
Teaching is a way to love others.
Learning is a way to love yourself.
– unknown
The greatest thing you can ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.
– Eben Ahbez
Love is like a spring that never stops flowing.
When you arrive at this spring, do not rush to drink from it.
Stop and rest a while, recover from the long road you have traveled
and then catch the water into your hands
like in a cup and bring it to your lips, slowly,
do not be afraid that the water will ever dry up.
The spring of love is inexhaustible.
So drink the water of love without haste and with grateful recognition.
Each of the persons who love you is a spring from which you draw,
so be careful and do not make this spring cloudy.
– Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov
Do you love me because I'm beautiful, or am I beautiful because you love me?
– Oscar Hammerstein II
lyricist
(1895-1960)
It is not how much you do, but how much love you put into the doing that matters.
– Mother Teresa
(1910-1997)
You don't get harmony when everybody sings the same note.
– Doug Floyd
author, journalist
Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit.
– Peter Ustinov
actor, writer and director
(1921)
It is in deep solitude that I find the gentleness with which I can truly love my brothers. The more solitary I am the more affection I have for them. Solitude and silence teach me to love my brothers for what they are, not for what they say.
– Thomas Merton
writer
(1915-1968)
Hell, Madame, is to love no longer.
– Georges Bernanos
The Diary of a Country Priest
Young love is a flame; very pretty, often very hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. The love of the older and disciplined heart is as coals, deep burning, unquenchable.
– Henry Ward Beecher
The best part of beauty is that which no picture can express.
– Francis Bacon
Of all virtues and dignities of the mind, goodness is the greatest, being the character of the Deity; and without it, man is a busy, mischievous, wretched thing.
– Francis Bacon
Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius.
– Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
(1756-1791)
Let there be space in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.
Love one another, but make not a bond of love.
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
– Kahlil Gibran
The Prophet
The choice between love and fear is made every moment in our hearts and minds. That is where the peace process begins. Without peace within, peace in the world is an empty wish. Like love, peace is extended. It cannot be brought from the world to the heart. It must be brought from each heart to another, and thus to all mankind.
– Paul Ferrini
Truth, when not sought after, rarely comes to light.
– Oliver Wendell Holmes
Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art.
– Eleanor Roosevelt
diplomat and writer
(1884-1962)
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.
– St. Basil
Love is the river of life in the world.
– Henry Ward Beecher
Love is the first ingredient in the relief of suffering.
– Padre Pio
Cappuchin priest, mystic, confessor, stigmatic
For 50 years he suffered the five wounds of the crucifixion
(1887-1968)
Perfect love is rare indeed – for to be a lover will require that you continually have the subtlety of the very wise, the flexibility of the child, the sensitivity of the artist, the understanding of the philosopher, the acceptance of the saint, the tolerance of the scholar and the fortitude of the certain.
– Leo Buscaglia
author, speaker, professor
(1924-1998)
Flowing Thoughtfulness
When one person is thoughtful to another, the thoughtfulness gets carried on and on.
It is like a river of kindness, once blocked by rocks,
That is suddenly opened by a single person's kind thought or act.
The river runs freely again, and continues to flow,
Moving more rocks and reaching the hearts of others.
When one person is thoughtful to another the thoughtfulness gets carried on and on.
The more we get together and help each other,
The more friendship there can be throughout many different places.
The friendship can begin like a small stream in a single neighborhood.
And then expand throughout a river of districts, states, countries, and even continents.
When one person is thoughtful to another, the thoughtfulness gets carried on and on.
Soon, we could have a whole ocean of friendships, and that's how the world was created
And how it should always be.
– Mattie J.T. Stepanek
(1990-2004)
The course of true love never did run smooth.
– William Shakespeare,
playwright and poet
(1564-1616)
It is wrong to think that love comes from long companionship and persevering courtship.
Love is the offspring of spiritual affinity and unless that affinity is created in a moment,
it will not be created for years or even generations.
– Kahlil Gibran
Do not believe in a thing because you have read about it in a book. Do not believe in a thing because another man has said it was true. Do not believe in words because they are hallowed by tradition. Find out the truth for yourself… That is realization.
– Lord Gautama Buddha
Only in the state of love will the beautiful, fragrant flower of freedom and supreme bliss unfold its petals and bloom.
– Ammachi
Her Holiness Sri Mata Amritanandamayi
You may call God love, you may call God goodness. But the best name for God is compassion.
– Meister Eckhart
theologian
(1260-1327)
One can pay back the loan of gold, but one dies forever in debt to those who are kind.
– Malayan Proverb
The subject tonight is Love
And for tomorrow night as well.
As a matter of fact,
I know no better topic
For us to discuss
Until we all die!
– Hafiz
Sufi mystic and poet
You will find, as you look back upon your life,
That the moments when you really lived
Are the moments when you have done things
in the spirit of love….
– Henry Drummond
Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius.
Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius.
– Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
(1756-1791)
Love is an attempt to change a piece of dream into reality.
– Theodor Reik
Those who love deeply never grow old; they may die of old age, but they die young.
– A.W. Pinero
I will not play at tug o' war.
I'd rather play at hug o' war,
Where everyone hugs instead of tugs.
– Shel Silverstein
writer
(1930-1999)
Love has reasons which reason cannot understand.
– Blaise Pacal
Of all the creations of the earth and heaven love is the most precious.
– Sappho
580 BCE
All a sane man can ever think about is giving love.
– Hafiz
Sufi Mystic and Poet
If you've got love in your heart, whatever you do from that moment out is likely to be right.
If you've got that one true note ringing inside you, then whatever you do is going to be OK.
It's love, always love.
– Ken Kesey
American writer
Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink
Nor slumber nor a roof against the rain;
Nor yet a floating spar to men that sink
And rise and sink and rise and sink again;
Love can not fill the thickened lung with breath,
Nor clean the blood, nor set the fractured bone;
Yet many a man is making friends with death
Even as I speak, for lack of love alone.
– Edna St. Vincent Millay
It is only in the mysterious equation of love that any logic or reason can be found.
– John Forbes Nash, Jr.
Winner of 1994 Nobel Prize for Economics
This is the most profound spiritual truth I know: that even when we're most sure that love can't conquer all, it seems to anyway.
– Anne Lamott
Love is but the discovery of ourselves in others, and the delight in the recognition.
– Alexander Smith
Time is too slow for those who wait,
too swift for those who fear,
too long for those who grieve,
too short for those who rejoice,
but for those who love,
time is eternity.
– Henry Van Dyke
Love has its own time, its own season, and its own reasons for coming and going.
You cannot bribe it or coerce it or reason it into staying.
You can only embrace it when it arrives and give it away when it comes to you.
– Kent Nerburn
Take away love and our earth is a tomb.
– Robert Browning
(1812-1889)
To love someone deeply gives you strength.
Being loved by someone deeply gives you courage.
– Lao Tzu
True love doesn't have a happy ending: True love doesn't HAVE an ending.
– unknown
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
Love is the only thing you get more of by giving it away.
– Tom Wilson
The moment you have in your heart this extraordinary thing called love and feel the depth, the delight, the ecstasy of it, you will discover that for you the world is transformed.
– J. Krishnamurti
There is no difficulty that enough love will not conquer.
No disease that enough love will not heal.
No door that enough love will not open.
No wall that enough love will not throw down.
No sin that enough love will not redeem.
It makes no difference how deeply seated may be the trouble,
how hopeless the outlook, how muddled the tangle,
how great the mistake, a sufficient realization of love
will dissolve it all…
If only you could love enough you would be
the happiest and most powerful being in the world.
– Emmet Fox
Love is an irresistable desire to be irresistably desired.
– Robert Frost
Let no one who loves be unhappy.
Even love unreturned has its rainbow.
– James Matthew Barrie
Know love, know happiness.
No love, no happiness.
– unknown
The day will come when, after harnessing space, the winds, the tides, and gravitation, we shall harness for God the energies of love. And on that day, for the second time in the history of the world, we shall have discovered fire.
– Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Driven by the force of love, the fragments of the world seek each other that the world may come into being.
– Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Love alone is capable of uniting living beings in such a way as to complete and fulfill them, for it alone takes them and joins them by what is deepest in themselves.
– Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
The quarrels of lovers are like summer storms. Everything is more beautiful when they have passed.
– Suzanne Necker
author
(1739-1794)
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
novelist, Nobel laureate
(1902-1968)
Life without love is like a tree without blossoms or fruit.
– Kahlil Gibran
I suddenly realized that what I was feeling was the love of the Earth, the love of Creation. Every day we, as a species, do so much to destroy Creation's ability to give us life. But that Creation continues to do everything in its power to give us life anyway. And that's true love.
– Julia Butterfly Hill
Legacy of Luna
Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.
– Albert Einstein
physicist, Nobel laureate
(1879-1955)
Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.
– HH Tenzin Gyatso
the 14th Dalai Lama
To give pleasure to a single heart by a single kind act is better than a thousand head-bowings in prayer.
– Saadi
poet
(c. 1200 AD)
The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all of our lives.
– Albert Einstein
Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment and the other by acts of love. Power based on love is a thousand times more effective and permanent than the one derived from fear of punishment.
– Mahatma Gandhi
(1869-1948)
Everyone wishes to have truth on his side, but not everyone wishes to be on the side of truth.
– Richard Whately
philosopher, reformer, theologian and economist
(1787-1863)
For every beauty there is an eye somewhere to see it.
For every truth there is an ear somewhere to hear it.
For every love there is a heart somewhere to receive it.
– unknown
We've got this gift of love,
but love is like a precious plant.
You can't just accept it and leave it
in the cupboard or just think
it's going to get on by itself.
You've got to keep watering it.
You've got to really look after it and nurture it.
– John Lennon
If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything.
– Mark Twain
(1835-1910)
What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?
– Jean-Jacques Rousseau
The truth is so precious that it travels surrounded by a bodyguard of lies.
– Winston Churchill
That which you create in beauty and goodness and truth lives on for all time to come. Don't spend your life accumulating material objects that will only turn to dust and ashes.
– Denis Waitley
Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not.
– Samuel Johnson,
lexicographer (1709-1784)
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