helpfulness - helpfulness 2

Let us be kinder to one another.

Aldous Huxley’s last words
   

You have it easily in your power to increase the sum total of this world's
happiness now. How?  By giving a few words of sincere appreciation to someone
who is lonely or discouraged.  Perhaps you will forget tomorrow the kind words you
say today, but the recipient may cherish them over a lifetime.

Dale Carnegie

      
Neither genius, fame, nor love shows the greatness of the soul.
Only kindness can do that.

Jean Baptiste Henri Lacordaire

  

Too often, people make the mistake of believing that if they only had more money or more sex or a different partner or a better-looking body, they
would feel the sense of "wholeness" they have always craved.  Virtually without exception, this is not the case.  What is actually lacking is the dimension of giving and kindness as a means of nourishing the soul.  To
add this dimension to your life is to nourish your soul.

Harold Kushner

   

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

Mother Teresa


If you stop to be kind, you must swerve often from your path.

Mary Webb
   

Shall we try to make a new rule of life from tonight:
Always try to be a little kinder than is necessary?

James M. Barrie

   
   
   

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

Joseph Joubert

To cultivate kindness is a valuable
part of the business of life.

Samuel Johnson
    

Kindness has converted more people than zeal, science, or eloquence.

Mother Teresa

   

All the kindness which a person puts out into the world
works on the heart and thoughts of humankind.

Albert Schweitzer

   

When you receive a kindness, remember it;
when you do a kindness, forget it.

Greek proverb

    
    

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

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

Henry Drummond
    

Kind words are the music of the world.  They have a power which seems to be beyond natural causes, as if they were
some angel’s song which had lost its way and come on earth.  It seems as if they could almost do what in reality God alone
can do—soften the hard and angry hearts of people.  No one was ever corrected by a sarcasm—crushed, perhaps, if the sarcasm was clever enough, but drawn nearer to God, never.

Frederick William Faber

   

Until you have learned to be tolerant with those who do not always agree with you;
until you have cultivated the habit of saying some kind word of those whom you do not admire;
until you have formed the habit of looking for the good instead of the bad there is in others,
you will be neither successful nor happy.

Napoleon Hill

   

While great brilliance and intellect are to be admired, they cannot dry
one tear or mend a broken spirit.  Only kindness can accomplish this.

John M. Drescher
    

Kindness in words creates confidence.  Kindness in thinking
creates profoundness.  Kindness in giving creates love.

Lao-tzu
   

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Have you had a kindness shown?
Pass it on;
'Twas not given for thee alone,
Pass it on;
Let it travel down the years,
Let it wipe another's tears,
Till in Heaven the deed appears--
Pass it on.

Henry Burton
   

Kind words produce their own beautiful image in one's soul.
Everyone knows the pleasure of receiving a kind look,
a warm greeting, a hand held out in time of need.
And such gestures can be made at so little expense,
yet they bring such dividends to the investor.

The War Cry
   
If you have not often felt the joy of doing a kind act,
you have neglected much, and most of all yourself.

A. Neilen
    

Guard within yourself that treasure, kindness.  Know how
to give without hesitation, how to lose without regret, how
to acquire without meanness; know how to replace in your heart,
by the happiness of those you love, the happiness
that may be wanting to yourself.

George Sand
    

How beautiful a day can be when kindness touches it!

George Elliston

Without kindness there
can be no true joy.

Thomas Carlyle
   

helpfulness - helpfulness 2
In scattering seeds of kindness, do it by hand and not by machine.

George Ade
   

Kindness may be achieved by all, rich and poor, learned and illiterate. 
Brilliance of mind and capacity for deep thinking have rendered
great service to humanity, but by themselves they are impotent
to dry a tear or mend a broken heart.

unknown
   

Our lives are also fed by kind words and gracious behavior.  We are
nourished by expressions like “excuse me,” and other such simple
courtesies.  Our spirits are also richly fed on compliments and praise,
nourished by consideration as well as whole wheat bread.  Rudeness,
the absence of the sacrament of consideration, is but another mark
that our time-is-money society is lacking in spirituality,
if not also in its enjoyment of life.

Ed Hays
   

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

Albert Schweitzer

   

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

   
    

Do we spread loving kindness?  There are many who say that
this is our ultimate goal on this planet--to spread loving kindness
to our fellow human beings.  And when we are able to accomplish
this goal, we find that our lives are transformed in the process.
We're no longer so strongly focused on things and negative
thoughts and feelings, but we've become truly happy,
content human beings who love life and living.

tom walsh

   
Right from the moment of our birth, we are under the care
and kindness of our parents.  And then later on in our life,
when we are oppressed by sickness and become old, we are
again dependent on the kindness of others.  And since at
the beginning and end of our lives, we are so dependent
on others' kindness, how can it be in the middle
that we neglect kindness towards others?

the Dalai Lama

    
   

Perform a kind action, and you find a kind feeling growing in yourself,
even if it was not there before.  As you increase the number of your
kind and charitable interests, you find that the more you do for them,
the more you love them.  Serve others, not because they are your friends,
not because they are interesting, not because they are grateful. . . .
Serve them because they are the children of your Father, and therefore
are all your brethren, and you will soon find that the
fervent heart keeps time with the charitable hands.

W.B.O. Peabody

    
They whose minds are filled with kindness
will never enter a world dark with woe.

Tiruvalluvar

    
     
Be kind:  Everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.

John Watson

Those who act kindly in this world will have kindness.

from the Qur'an

My religion is very simple--my religion is kindness.

the Dalai Lama

It is difficult to give away kindness.
It keeps coming back to you.

Cort Flint
    

Kindness is more important than wisdom,
and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom.

Theodore Isaac Rubin
   

Kindheartedness is what we treasure most in family, friends,
classmates, colleagues, adversaries, and strangers.  A kind heart,
a loving heart, a soft heart would rather do anything than hurt
another's feelings. . . . A person who is kind is gentle, considerate,
and inclined to benevolent actions.  A kindhearted person is also nice.

Michael Goddart

    

When I interact with individuals around me in thoughtful, caring ways, my actions
become an influence for good. I know that kindness shared multiplies and
has a ripple effect as it radiates from one heart to another.

unattributed

    
What if we--just you and me--made a commitment to mindfully
integrate kindness into each and every day of our lives?  We
would start a kindness revolution.  Let's do it.  Let's become
the proverbial pebbles in the pond and send out ripples of
kindness into the world each day.  Those whose hearts are touched
by our kindness will, hopefully, be encouraged to pass it on,
and a revolution of much-needed kindness will have begun.

Sue Patton Thoele

   

    

A single act of kindness may have a long trajectory and touch those we will
never meet or see.  Something that we casually offer may move through a web
of connection far beyond ourselves to have effects that we may have never imagined.
And so each of us may have left far more behind us than we may ever know.

Rachel Naomi Remen

    
    
The world can be harsh and negative, but if we remain generous and patient,
kindness inevitably reveals itself.  Something deep in the human soul seems
to depend on the presence of kindness; something instinctive in us expects it,
and once we sense it we are able to trust and open ourselves.

John O'Donohue

   
    

Kindness is not without its rocks ahead.  People are apt to put it down
to an easy temper and seldom recognize it as the secret striving
of a generous nature; whilst, on the other hand, the ill-natured
get credit for all the evil they refrain from.

Honore De Balzac

   

Life is mostly froth and bubble,
Two things stand like stone,
Kindness in another's trouble,
Courage in your own.

Adam Lindsay Gordon
   




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Kindness is an inner desire that makes us want to do good things
even if we do not get anything in return.  It is the joy of our life to
do them.  When we do good things from this inner desire, there is
kindness in everything we think, say, want and do.

Emmanuel Swedenborg

A life of kindness is the primary meaning of divine worship.
   
We restore the holiness of the world through our loving-kindness and
compassion.  Everyone participates.  It is a collective task.  Every act
of loving-kindness, no matter how great or small, repairs the world.
All those ever born have shared this collective work since
the beginning of time.

Rachel Naomi Remen
   

Kindness is the beginning and the end of the law.

Hebrew proverb
   
   

Kindness is the root of righteousness.  Kindness is the enemy
of cruelty, harshness, rudeness.  It softens the heart.
It opens the door to heaven.

Sivananda

helpfulness - helpfulness 2
Kindness works simply and perseveringly.  Hence it is the furthest
reaching and the most effective of all forces.

Albert Schweitzer
    

Utter only the words of which we won't be ashamed afterwards,
which we won't regret saying.  It is easy to discourage, it is far too
easy, all too easy to criticize, to complain, to rebuke.  Let us try
instead to be more quick to see even a small amount of good in a
person and concentrate on that.  Let us be more quick to praise
than to find fault.  Let us be more quick to thank others than to
complain--"thank you" and "please" are small words,
but they are oh, so powerful.

Desmond Tutu
Believe
   

Kindness is a spiritual choice.

Bernie Siegel
   
Many years ago, early in our relationship, my wife, Devers, said something
that impressed me profoundly.  "You are very kind, generous, and caring--
when you stop long enough in what you are doing for it to occur to you.
What you have never learned is the discipline of kindness.  This means
kindness that is not a matter of mood or convenience.  It means kindness
as a basic way of functioning.  It is in you as a potential, but it doesn't happen
without consciousness and discipline."  "The discipline of kindness"--I have
learned to love that phrase.  When I mention it in lectures, everyone seems
instantly to know what it means--just as, I suspect, you do now.

Nathaniel Branden
Self-Esteem Every Day
   

Kindness is one of the gentle expressions of love.  We grow in grace
when we become aware that one of God's gifts to us can be that we
may share our loving kindness with all of creation.  People all over the
world are seeking peace of mind, solutions to everyday problems,
better relationships with other people, and a more meaningful way of
life.  Surely we are aware of the room for improvement within
ourselves and in our life.  A healthy serving of loving kindness--
both giving and receiving--could make a difference!

John Marks Templeton
Worldwide Laws of Life