Stories of Kindness from Around the World

Archive of Kindness Quotations


--by JZ, posted Jun 8, 2008
Here are some quotations archived from the weekly newsletters on this site:

"I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something I can do." --Edward Hale

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

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

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

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

Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind. --Eric Hoffer

You may have tangible wealth untold; Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold. Richer than I you can never be -- I had a mother who read to me. --Strickland Gillilan

Humankind 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 true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit. ~~Nelson Henderson

An act of goodness is of itself an act of happiness. No reward coming after the event can compare with the sweet reward that went with it. ~~Maurice Maeterlinck

How far that little candle throws his beams!  So shines a good deed in a weary world. ~~Shakespeare

When I was young, I used to admire intelligent people; as I grow older, I admire kind people. --Abraham Heschel

The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer. --Thoreau

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

Make it a rule.  Never to lie down at night without being able to say,

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

It is one of the most beautiful compensations of se who bring sunshine into the lives of others, cannot keep it from themselves.  --James M. Barrie

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

I expect to pass through life but once. If, therefore, there be any kindness I can show, Or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, Let me do it now, as I shall not pass this way again. --Steven Grellet

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. --Margaret Mead

We can do no great things; only small things with great love. --Mother Teresa

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

The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate. --Oprah Winfrey

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others. --Cicero

When eating bamboo sprouts, remember the man who planted them. --Chinese Proverb

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

"Be the change that you wish to see in the world."<br>

"Kindness is the currency of life. It gives the greatest return on your investment. My Dad passed last year and every one who knew this man said he was the kindest person they ever met. What a tribute!" --Dona

"Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded.  It's a relationship between equals. Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others. Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity." --Pema Chodron

"To be truly radical is to make hope possible, rather than despair convincing." --Raymond Williams

"True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost." --Arthur Ashe



"I've never known any human being, high or humble, who ever regretted, when nearing life's end, having done kindly deeds. But I have known more than one millionaire who became haunted by the realization that they had led selfish lives." --B. C. Forbes

"The hands that help are holier than the lips that pray." --Robert G. Ingersoll

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

"I have never met a person whose greatest need was anything other than real, unconditional love.  You can find it in a simple act of kindness toward somone who needs help.  There is no mistaking love.  You feel it in your heart.  It is the common fiber of life, the flame that heals our soul, energizes our spirit and supplies passion to our lives." --Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

"Three things in human life are important. The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind." --Henry James

"A fellow who does things that count, doesn't usually stop to count them." --Author Unknown

"I have never met a person whose greatest need was anything other than real, unconditional love.  You can find it in a simple act of kindness toward somone who needs help.  There is no mistaking love.  You feel it in your heart.  It is the common fiber of life, the flame that heals our soul, energizes our spirit and supplies passion to our lives." --Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

"For as long as space endures; And for as long as living beings remain, Until then may I too abide; To dispel the misery of the world." --Shantideva

"Every man must decide whether he will walk in the creative light of altruism or the darkness of destructive selfishness. This is the judgment. Life's persistent and most urgent question is -- What are you doing for others?" --Martin Luther King Jr.

"Generosity is a function of the heart, not the wallet." --Wayne Dyer

"He who gathered much had no excess and he who gathered little had no lack." --Bible

"The moment you have in your heart this extraordinary thing called love and feel the depth, the delight, the ecstacy of it, you will discover that for you the world is transformed." --J. Krishnamurti

"Once you develop the practice of smiling, you may not need a reminder. You will smile as soon as you hear a bird singing or see the sunlight streaming through the window." --Thich Nhat Hanh

"In the midst of global crises such as pollution, wars and famine, kindness may too easily be dismissed as a 'soft issue', or a luxury to be addressed after the urgent problems are solved. But kindness is the greatest need in all those areas . kindness toward the environment, toward other nations, toward the needs of people who are suffering. Until we reflect basic kindness in everything we do, our political gestures will be fleeting and fragile. Simple kindness may be the most vital key to the riddle of how human beings can live with each other in peace, and care properly for this planet we all share." --Bo Lozoff

"There is no way that we can understand it all. So the heart's response to that mystery is faith - a trust in the fundamental orderliness of the universe." --Ajahn Amaro

"Do your little bit of good where you are; it's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world." --Desmond Tutu

"Complete possession is proved only by giving.  All you are unable to give possesses you." --Andre Gide

"The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit." --Nelson Henderson

"We are questions for one another. And service is exploring and awakening through them." --Anonymous

"You can never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete." --Buckminister Fuller

"Smile at each other, smile at your wife, smile at your husband, smile at each other -- it doesn't matter who it is -- and that will help you grow up in greater love for each other." --Mother Teresa

"Go out into the world today and love the people you meet.

"There is something magical that happens to the human spirit, a sense of calm that comes over you, when you cease needing all the attention directed towards yourself and instead allow others to have the glory." --Richard Carlson

"One song can spark a moment, one flower can wake the dream, one tree can start a forest, one bird can herald spring, one smile begins a friendship.  All it takes is one.  It's upto you!" --Author Unknown

"In the transformation of the self is the transformation of the world." --J. Krishnamurti

"I often hear people say, 'I have to find myself.' What they really mean is 'I have to make myself.' Life is an endlessly creative experience, and we are making ourselves every moment by every decision we make." --Kent Nerburn

"Through people that I did know or through things that I did touch, I am connected with everything that ever was and everything that ever will be. Everything hangs together with everything." --David Steindl-Rast

"The river is everywhere at the same time, at the source and at the mouth, at the waterfall, at the ferry, at the current, in the ocean and in the mountains, everywhere and that the present only exists for it, not the shadow of the past nor the shadow of the future." --Herman Hesse

"As we deepen in understanding, the arbitrary divisions between inner and outer disappear. The essence of life, the beauty and grandeur of life, is its wholeness." --Vimala Thakar

"The most exciting breakthrough of the 21st century will occur not because of technology, but because of an ever expanding concept of what it means to be human." --John Naisbitt

"He who wishes to secure the good of others has already secured his own." --Confucius

"Many people today agree that we need to reduce violence in our society. If we are truly serious about this, we must deal with the roots of violence, particularly those that exist within each of us. We need to embrace 'inner disarmament,' reducing our own emotions of suspicion, hatred and hostility toward our brothers and sisters." --Dalai Lama

"To bless all without distinction is the ultimate form of giving, because those you bless will never know from whence came the sudden ray that burst through the clouds of their skies, and you will rarely be a witness to the sunlight in their lives." --Pierre Pradervand

"Be thankful for every flower you meet, every tree you meet, every being you meet, every person you meet in your life. The more and more you appreciate you will see how beautiful life is you are living in. You will transform. Your world will transform." --Sri Vast

"We need limitations and temptations to open our inner selves, dispel our ignorance, tear off disguises, throw down old idols, and destroy false standards. Only by such rude awakenings can we be led to dwell in a place where we are less cramped, less hindered by the ever-insistent External. Only then do we discover a new capacity and appreciation of goodness and beauty and truth." --Helen Keller

"You can't lose what you serve. That's the secret. What you serve, you can't lose. What you don't serve and what you try to hold onto, you can't hold onto. It's always slipping out of your fingers."  --Adyashanti

"Big messages come in small packages. All it may take to restore someone's trust in life may be returning a lost earring or a dropped glove." --Rachel Naomi Remen

"What you appreciate, appreciates. --Lynne Twist

"All love is expansion, all selfishness is contraction.  Love is therefore the only law of life.  He who loves lives, he who is selfish is dying.  Therefore love for love's sake, because it is law of life, just as you breathe to live." --Swami Vivekananda

"Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love." --Rilke

"I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something I can do." --Edward Hale

"We make a living by what we get, a life by what we give." --Churchill
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Readers Comments

John wrote: The world loves the person who is being KIND
lovebug wrote: More than a kindness moment to produce this fine list of quotations, it takes a heart dedicated to Love and peace.

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