People

People with clenched fists can not shake hands.

~ Indira Gandhi

So many gods

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

~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox

When you give a lesson

When you give a lesson in meanness to a critter or a person, don't be surprised if they learn their lesson.

~Will Rogers

Thou art

“Thou art all ice.
Thy kindness freezes.”

~William Shakespeare

Unkind criticism

"Unkind criticism is never part of a meaningful critique of you. Its purpose is not to teach or to help, its purpose is to punish."

-- Barbara Sher

Grace is

Grace is getting something that you don’t deserve; and mercy is not getting something that you do deserve.

~Francis Bacon

The fair request

The fair request ought to be followed by the deed, in silence.

- Dante Alighieri

He who sees a need

He who sees a need and waits to be asked for help is as unkind as if he had refused it.

- Dante Alighieri

Be an angel

Be an angel to someone else whenever you can, as a way of thanking God for the help your angel has given you.

~Eileen Elias Freeman

There is no such thing

"There is no such thing as a simple act of compassion
or an inconsequential act of service.
Everything we do for another person has infinite consequences."

~ Caroline Myss

The point is

The point is not to pay back kindness but to pass it on.

~Julia Alvarez

We're here

We’re here to learn to love more fully, to be God or angels in disguise for one another, to show our love, to show our compassion, to be active in creation. That is the reason and the meaning behind our lives. Each of us has a choice about how to love the world in our unique way.

~Bernie Siegel

Oh, the comfort

Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person; having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but to pour them all out, just as they are, chaff and grain together, knowing that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then, with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away.

~George Eliot

This is my simple religion

This is my simple religion. 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

When people start to meditate

When people start to meditate or to work with any kind of spiritual discipline, they often think that somehow they're going to improve, which is a sort of subtle aggression against who they really are.

It's a bit like saying, “If I jog, I'll be a much better person.” “If I could only get a nicer house, I'd be a better person.” If I could meditate and calm down, I'd be a better person.”…

... I am so sorry to do this to you, but this post has been moved to my new website, Meditation, and can be found in its entirety here: When people start to meditate

Every once in a while

Every once in a while, a woman will wake up with no ambition save for a wish to creep around quietly in her socks. And it must be a rule of the universe that this is a day when she will be required to go out into the world and act, interact, and be acted upon, in spite of - perhaps even because of - her extreme vulnerability. May I add then, this delicacy will be likely be expressed in a violence of temper over some inconsequential hurt, with feelings so raw as to be immediately exposed by virtue of the fact they are so terribly tender. Be kind then, to this raging woman, be she you or some other miserable creature - she is wide open and utterly naked, a state no man could imagine or endure.

~Grace Gibson, From the Diary of a Lady Beloved

My religion

My Religion is simple.
My religion is kindness,

~The Dalai Lama

Beginning today

Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again.

~Og Mandino