Tao Te Ching
Dreamstime
Kindness
if authentic, kindness is one of the most wonderful virtues. If deceptive though, it easily dissolves into flattery, deception, and Idiot Compassion. After all the soul-searching, philosophical speculations, lectures and writing of Aldous Huxley’s life, he concluded, “It’s embarrassing to tell you this, but it seems to come down mostly to just learning to be kinder.” Many will denigrate this sentiment with quips like, “Nice guys finish last” and advocate an Ayn Rand type of me-first selfishness. Rand’s life vividly uncovers the consequences of this approach. And seeing the actions of her modern-day acolytes like Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, and Paul Ryan further demonstrate the moral bankruptcy of abandoning kindness in favor of a greedy, narcissistic materialism. A biological, intrinsic emotion; our choice of following, rejecting, or ignoring the appeal of kindness may be the most potent influence determining the meaningfulness, happiness, and peace of our individual, political, and planetary lives.
Quotes (76)
“The wise see themselves in all others and all others in themselves; and so, they refrain from harming others so that they do not harm themselves.”
“Your own soul is nourished when you are kind; it is destroyed when you are cruel.”
“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.”
“If you propose to speak always ask yourself, is it true, is it necessary, is it kind.”
“Surely it is the maxim of loving-kindness: Do not unto other that you would not have them do unto you.”
“Every gift which is given, even though is be small, is in reality great, if it is given with affection.”
“One who knows how to show and to accept kindness will be a friend better than any possession.”
“The unfortunate need people who will be kind to them; the prosperous need people to be kind to.”
“Perfect kindness does not concern itself with kindness... Kindness that has fixed objects loses its integrity.”
“You must always remember that all men are your brothers, down to the vilest and most debased; they are your family and your friends, your fellow-citizens as well. You must be kind therefore, endlessly kind”
“When the country is at peace, no one thinks about kindness and the people are free from desire. When the Tao prevails, kindness and justice vanish like the stars fading when the sun appears.”
“Those who honor the Way and Virtue… are angered by nothing. They use kindness among neighbors and virtue among strangers. They conquer their enemies without fighting and command through humility.”
“One person buys a sheepskin to keep warm in winter, and another buys wood to light a fire. What is the difference between the two? The first wants to keep warm, but the second wants to warm others, too.”
“He that is kind is free, though he is a slave; he that is evil is a slave, though he be a king.”
“Just as one turns to the warmth of the sun, whoever shows great kindness must be rewarded.”
“Confucius relied on kindness and justice, ritual and music to order the kingdom. Lao-tzu’s only concern was to open people’s minds”
“Be as gentle as caressing an infant and atop the mountain, thunder will shake the earth.”
“If I have become great it is because I have won men’s hearts by kindness and gentleness.”
“It is necessary to accept hard and inconvenient advice, to punish bad people with merciless law, to protect the numerous subjects with kindness, to strive after a good name that is honored everywhere.”
“Remember that when you leave this earth, you can take with you nothing that you have received – only what you have given.”
“Through kindness you become loveable, through compassion a benefit to others, through joy distinguished, and through equanimity untroubled.”
“Kindness and good nature unite men more effectually and with greater strength than any agreements”
“whichever one is remorseful and compassionate will win. For the Way of Heaven is to love life and to help those who are compassionate to overcome their enemies.”
“Teaching rich men to enjoy life means asking them to give money away, which is difficult, to say the least. But it doesn’t have to be a huge amount. Not constantly grasping for more is good start and small amounts are greatly appreciated by the poor. Small and frequent gestures benefit both giver and recipient helping to banish envy and enmity.”
“The wise support others with warmth, a warmth that requires genuine practice, true application barring insult and attack, bearing all difficulty, hardship, sickness, and calamity, just as the earth supports the mountains.”
“Kindness is the golden chain by which society is bound.”
“As we grow in wisdom, we pardon more freely… To understand everything makes one very tolerant… Who understands much, forgives much.”
“That best portion of a man's life—
His little, nameless, unremembered acts
Of kindness and of love.
”
“The drying up of a single tear has more
Of honest fame, than shedding seas of gore.”
“Some day you will find out that there is far more happiness in another's happiness than in your own.”
“You cannot do kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.”
“Guard well within yourself that treasure, kindness. Know how to give without hesitation, how to lose without regret, how to acquire without meanness.”
“Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?”
“Who shall be fairest? - who shall be rarest? Who shall be first in the songs that we sing? She who is kindest when fortune is blindest, Bearing through winter the blooms of the spring.”
“let us all squeeze ourselves into each other; let us squeeze ourselves universally into the very milk and sperm of kindness.”
“If I can stop one heart from breaking, if I can ease one life the aching, I shall not live in vain.”
“I wish I could make him understand that a loving good heart is riches enough, and that without it intellect is poverty.”
“their only religion was that of self-respect and consideration for other people.”
“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.”
“love alone acts as the civilizing factor in the sense that it brings a change from egoism to altruism.”
“I sometimes think we expect too much of Christmas Day. We try to crowd into it the long arrears of kindliness and humanity of the whole year. As for me, I like to take my Christmas a little at a time, all through the year.”
“Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.”
“Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.”
“Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.”
“I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind.”
“Self-preservation remains the basic law of life. Within that limit, the philosopher may seek to practice his trade, which is to understand and forgive.”
“The Hindus criticize the Mohammedans for having spread their religion by the use of the sword. They also ridicule Christianity on the score of the Inquisition. But really speaking, who is better and more worthy of our respect?… if the Mohammedan has been cruel, the Hindu has been mean; and meanness is worse than cruelty.”
“It’s embarrassing to tell you this, but it seems to come down mostly to just learning to be kinder.”
“It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life... It understood you just so far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey.”
“I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff—I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye”
“Kindness and compassion toward all living things is the mark of a civilized society.”
“It's not what you look like, or what planet you were born on. It's how kind you are. The quality of kindness, to me, distinguishes us from rocks and sticks and metal, and will forever, whatever shape we take, wherever we go, whatever we become.”
“We must use our lives to make the world a better place to live, not just to acquire things. That is what we are put on the earth for.”
“Only if we understand, will we care. Only if we care, will we help. Only if we help shall all be saved.”
“It is the time where we partner with Creation in the creation of ourselves, in the restoration of the biosphere, the regenesis of society and in the assuming of a new type of culture; the culture of Kindness.”
“Instead of having our own anxiety, we produce a further state of anxiety in others... Everybody is constantly making everybody else feel bad. We have been participating in this tremendous project, this constant mishap, this terribly bad mistake, for a long time—and we are still doing it.”
“He had one of the finest attributes a human being can have—kindness without motives.”
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