Simple Acts of Kindness | 52 Famous Compassion Quotes (2024)

One of the best ways this world can become a better place is if we all develop the habit of seeing ourselves as one and showing love to one another. That said, here are some memorable quotes on compassion authored or said by some of the most famous personalities of this world.
We hope these beautiful compassion quotes and messages will inspire acts of kindness in you and those whom you share them with so that we can all live in a better world.

• Any religion without love and compassion is false. Stephen King
• When you’re too religious, you tend to point your finger to judge instead of extending your hand to help. Steve Maraboli
• If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete. Buddha
• True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. Martin Luther King Jr.
• Men build too many walls and not enough bridges. Joseph Fort Newton
• We only have what we give. Isabel Allende
• I have no idea what’s awaiting me, or what will happen when this all ends. For the moment I know this: there are sick people and they need curing. Albert Camus
• If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. Dalai Lama
• While we do our good works let us not forget that the real solution lies in a world in which charity will have become unnecessary. Chinua Achebe
• You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you. John Bunyan
• The simplest acts of kindness are by far more powerful than a thousand heads bowing in prayer. Mahatma Gandhi

• I don’t want to live in the kind of world where we don’t look out for each other. Not just the people that are close to us, but anybody who needs a helping hand. I can’t change the way anybody else thinks, or what they choose to do, but I can do my bit. Charles de Lint
• If a person seems wicked, do not cast him away. Awaken him with your words, elevate him with your deeds, repay his injury with your kindness. Do not cast him away; cast away his wickedness. Lao Tzu
• Compassion is a verb. Thich Nhat Hanh
• Compassion is the chief law of human existence. Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. John F. Kennedy
• Compassion is not weakness. Hubert H. Humphrey
• The only way out of the labyrinth of suffering is to forgive. John Green

• No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted. Aesop
• Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive. Dalai Lama
• When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed. Maya Angelou
• Whatever life presents us, our response can be an expression of our compassion. Sharon Salzberg
• We must learn to regard people less in the light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer. Dietrich Bonhoeffer
• One love, one heart, one destiny. Bob Marley
• Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle. Plato

• Our lack of forgiveness makes us hate, and our lack of compassion makes us hard-hearted. Pride in our hearts makes us resentful and keeps our memory in a constant whirlwind of passion and self-pity. Mother Angelica
• 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
• True compassion means not only feeling another’s pain but also being moved to help relieve it. Daniel Goleman
• Compassion for others begins with kindness to ourselves. Pema Chodron
• We need more kindness, more compassion, more joy, more laughter. I definitely want to contribute to that. Ellen DeGeneres
• Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty. Albert Einstein
• God wants us to know that life is a series of beginnings, not endings. Just as graduations are not terminations, but commencements. Creation is an ongoing process, and when we create a perfect world where love and compassion are shared by all, suffering will cease. Bernie Siegel
• God’s dream is that you and I and all of us will realize that we are family, that we are made for togetherness, for goodness, and for compassion. Desmond Tutu
• Where there is no human connection, there is no compassion. Without compassion, then community, commitment, loving-kindness, human understanding, and peace all shrivel. Individuals become isolated, the isolated turn cruel, and the tragic hovers in the forms of domestic and civil violence. Art and literature are antidotes to that. Susan Vreeland
• Prejudice is sinful. All blood flows red. And the most harmful and foolish kind of prejudice is prejudice against yourself. Every woman is your sister, and every woman needs her sisters. So try to give other women the courtesy of your compassion, respect, and forgiveness. Love yourself despite – and because of – your flaws. Jewell Parker Rhodes
• Technology is unlocking the innate compassion we have for our fellow human beings. Bill Gates
• Compassion is the basis of morality. Arthur Schopenhauer
• If you have men who will exclude any of God’s creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men. Francis of Assisi
• All major religious traditions carry basically the same message, that is love, compassion and forgiveness the important thing is they should be part of our daily lives. Dalai Lama
• Pets have more love and compassion in them than most humans. Robert Wagner
• Our human compassion binds us the one to the other – not in pity or patronizingly, but as human beings who have learnt how to turn our common suffering into hope for the future. Nelson Mandela
• I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures. Lao Tzu

• If we’re destroying our trees and destroying our environment and hurting animals and hurting one another and all that stuff, there’s got to be a very powerful energy to fight that. I think we need more love in the world. We need more kindness, more compassion, more joy, more laughter. I definitely want to contribute to that. Ellen DeGeneres
• Wisdom, compassion, and courage are the three universally recognized moral qualities of men. Confucius
• Mama was my greatest teacher, a teacher of compassion, love and fearlessness. If love is sweet as a flower, then my mother is that sweet flower of love. Stevie Wonder
• My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style. Maya Angelou
• Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive. Dalai Lama
• The purpose of human life is to serve, and to show compassion and the will to help others. Albert Schweitzer
• Here are the values that I stand for: honesty, equality, kindness, compassion, treating people the way you want to be treated and helping those in need. To me, those are traditional values. Ellen DeGeneres
• Compassion is the keen awareness of the interdependence of all things. Thomas Merton
• Grief can be the garden of compassion. If you keep your heart open through everything, your pain can become your greatest ally in your life’s search for love and wisdom. Rumi
• There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up. John Holmes

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