Kindness Quotations

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Shall we make a new rule of life from tonight: always to try to be a little kinder than is necessary?
- J. M. Barrie in The Little White Bird (1902)

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.
- Leo Buscaglia, quoted in Words from the Wise : Over 6,000 of the Smartest Things Ever Said (2007) by Rosemarie Jarski

Care about the beings you care about in gorgeous and surprising ways. Color outside the lines. Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty. This is your last chance.
- Anne Herbert in "Handy tips on how to behave at the death of the world" in Whole Earth Review (Spring 1995)

And if you ask what is the temper which is most fitted to be victorious over sin on earth, I answer that in it the warp of a sunny gentleness must be woven across the woof of a strong character. That will make the best tissue to stand the wear and tear of the world's trials. Our Lord was divinely gentle, but He was also strong with a wondrous strength and firmness.
- W. H. Littleton, reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 255.

Seek to mingle gentleness in all your rebukes; bear with the infirmities of others; make allowance for constitutional frailties; never say harsh things, if kind things will do as well.
- J. R. MacDuff, reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 256.

I expect to pass through this life but once. If therefore there be any kindnesses I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow beings, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.
- Anna B. Hegeman, reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 362.

Life is made up, not of great sacrifices or duties, but of little things, in which smiles and kindnesses and small obligations, given habitually, are what win and preserve the heart, and secure comfort.
- Sir Humphry Davy, reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 363.

Kindness has converted more sinners than either zeal, eloquence, or learning.
- Frederick William Faber, reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 363.

This world is not for the poor, nor the next for the unkind.
- Tiruvalluvar in the Thirukkural 247

The best and simplest cosmetic for women is constant gentleness and sympathy for the noblest interests of her fellow-creatures. This preserves and gives to her features an indelibly gay, fresh, and agreeable expression. If women would but realize that harshness makes them ugly, it would prove the best means of conversion.
- Berthold Auerbach

Gentleness in the gait is what simplicity is in the dress. Violent gestures or quick movements inspire involuntary disrespect.
- Honoré de Balzac

Gentleness, which belongs to virtue, is to be carefully distinguished from the mean spirit of cowards and the fawning assent of sycophants.
- Hugh Blair

True gentleness is founded on a sense of what we owe to Him who made us, and to the common nature which we all share. It arises from reflection on our own failings and wants, and from just views of the condition and the duty of man. It is native feeling heightened and improved by principle.
- Hugh Blair

Recompense injury with justice, and recompense kindness with kindness.
- Confucius

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

Sticks and stones can build homes, but words can build up people.
- James DeMaio

I wonder why it is we are not all kinder to each other...How much the world needs it! How easily it is done!
- Henry Drummond

We do not believe, or we forget, that "the Holy Ghost came down, not in shape of a vulture, but in the form of a dove."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

Kindness is the golden chain by which society is bound together.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

When you are kind to someone in trouble, you hope they'll remember and be kind to someone else. And it'll become like a wildfire.
- Whoopi Goldberg

I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do, or any kindness or abilities that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer it or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.
- Stephen Grellet

A kind heart is a fountain of gladness, making everything in its vicinity freshen into smiles.
- Washington Irving

Always set high value on spontaneous kindness. He whose inclination prompts him to cultivate your friendship of his own accord will love you more than one whom you have been at pains to attach to you.
- Samuel Johnson

A part of kindness consists in loving people more than they deserve.
- Joseph Joubert

To give pleasure to a single heart by a single kind act is better than a thousand head-bowings in prayer.
- Saadi

Kindness is more than deeds. It is an attitude, an expression, a look, a touch. It is anything that lifts another person.
- C. Neil Strait

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

Kind words can be short and easy to speak but their echoes are truly endless.
- Mother Teresa

So many gods, so many creeds,
So many paths that wind and wind,
While just the art of being kind
Is all the sad world needs.
- Ella Wheeler Wilcox

A matter dealt with gently is sure to prosper, but a matter dealt with violently causes vexation.
- Anonymous

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