100 Inspirational Quotes on Compassion to Warm Your Heart and Inspire Kindness

"There is nothing heavier than compassion. Not even one’s own pain weighs so heavy as the pain one feels for someone, for someone, pain intensified by the imagination and prolonged by a hundred echos"

- Milan Kundera

"If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion."

- Dalai Lama

"Compassion is not a virtue—it is a commitment. It’s not something we have or don’t have—it’s something we choose to practice."

- Brené Brown

"Compassion isn’t some kind of self-improvement project or ideal that we’re trying to live up to. Having compassion starts and ends with having compassion for all those unwanted parts of ourselves, all those imperfections that we don’t even want to look at."

- Pema Chödrön

"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

"Compassion is sometimes the fatal capacity for feeling what it is like to live inside somebody else’s skin. It is the knowledge that there can never really be any peace and joy for me until there is peached and joy finally for you too."

- Frederick Buechner

"Teach this triple truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity."

- Buddha

"Compassion naturally creates a positive atmosphere, and as a result you feel peaceful and content."

- Dalai Lama

"Only the development of compassion and understanding for others can bring us the tranquility and happiness we all seek."

- Dalai Lama

"Let us full our hearts with our own compassion towards ourselves and towards all living beings."

- Thich Nhat Hanh

"Open your heart to compassion. Understand the sufferings of others and be ever ready to help them. The whole world is one family. All are children of God. The whole world is your abode, share what you have with others. A compassionate heart is the abode of God."

- Swami Sivananda

"Compassion means an all-encompassing passion. When it is exclusive, we call it passion. When it becomes all-inclusive, it becomes compassion."

- Sadhguru

"Mindfulness is about love and loving life. When you cultivate this love, it gives you clarity and compassion for life, and your actions happen in accordance with that."

- Jon Kabat-Zinn

"Wealth is the progressive realization of worthy goals, the ability to love and have compassion, meaningful and caring relationships."

- Deepak Chopra

"Love and compassion are the true religions to me. But to develop this, we do not need to believe in any religion."

- Dalai Lama

"Tolerance and compassion are qualities of fearless people."

- Paulo Coelho

"Compassion is the radicalism of our time."

- Dalai Lama

"Out of all the emotions that you can nurture within you, compassion is the least entangling, and at the same time, the most liberating emotion that you can have."

- Sadhguru

"Love Entangles, Compassion Liberates."

- Sadhguru

"If you had not suffered as you have, there would be no depth to you as a human being, no humility, no compassion."

- Eckhart Tolle

"Compassion is the ultimate expression of your highest self."

- Russell Simmons

"Wisdom, compassion, and courage are the three universally recognised moral qualities of men."

- Confucius

"Seva is serving others and helping others with compassion, serving not for personal gratification but to uplift others."

- Swami Niranjananda

"The topic of compassion is not at all religious business; it is important to know it is human business, it is a question of human survival."

- Dalai Lama

"Spirituality is allowing compassion and love to flourish. When belongness begins, corruption ends"

- Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

"With courage you will dare to take risks, have the strength to be compassionate, and the wisdom to be humble. Courage is the foundation of integrity."

- Keshavan Nair

"As we grow in our consciousness, there will be more compassion and more love, and then the barriers between people, between religions, between nations will begin to fall. Yes, we have to beat down the separateness."

- Ram Dass

"A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."

- Albert Einstein

"Undisturbed calmness of mind is attained by cultivating friendliness toward the happy, compassion for the unhappy, delight in the virtuous, and indifference toward the wicked."

- Patanjali

"Compassion comes with connectivity and connectivity can happen when you are free from within."

- Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

"Compassion is not condescending kindness. It is a passionate engagement with everything around you."

- Sadhguru

"Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive."

- Dalai Lama

"In separateness lies the world’s greatest misery; in compassion lies the world’s true strength."

- Buddha

"Compassion is the basis of morality."

- Arthur Schopenhauer

"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

"If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete."

- Buddha

"The whole purpose of religion is to facilitate love and compassion, patience, tolerance, humility, and forgiveness."

- Dalai Lama

"Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It's a relationship between equals. Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others. Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity."

- Pema Chödrön

"If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other."

- Mother Teresa

"If it is not tempered by compassion, and empathy, reason can lead men and women into a moral void."

- Karen Armstrong

"The only way out of the labyrinth of suffering is to forgive."

- John Green

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle."

- Plato

"We are all different. Don’t judge, understand instead."

- Roy T. Bennett

"More smiling, less worrying. More compassion, less judgment. More blessed, less stressed. More love, less hate."

- Roy T. Bennett

"Dare to Be When a new day begins, dare to smile gratefully. When there is darkness, dare to be the first to shine a light. When there is injustice, dare to be the first to condemn it. When something seems difficult, dare to do it anyway. When life seems to beat you down, dare to fight back. When there seems to be no hope, dare to find some. When you’re feeling tired, dare to keep going. When times are tough, dare to be tougher. When love hurts you, dare to love again. When someone is hurting, dare to help them heal. When another is lost, dare to help them find the way. When a friend falls, dare to be the first to extend a hand. When you cross paths with another, dare to make them smile. When you feel great, dare to help someone else feel great too. When the day has ended, dare to feel as you’ve done your best. Dare to be the best you can – At all times, Dare to be!"

- Steve Maraboli

"All I ever wanted was to reach out and touch another human being not just with my hands but with my heart."

- Tahereh Mafi

"For me, I am driven by two main philosophies: know more today about the world than I knew yesterday and lessen the suffering of others. You'd be surprised how far that gets you."

- Neil deGrasse Tyson

"for there is nothing heavier than compassion. Not even one's own pain weighs so heavy as the pain one feels with someone, for someone, a pain intensified by the imagination and prolonged by a hundred echoes."

- Milan Kundera

"How would your life be different if…You stopped making negative judgmental assumptions about people you encounter? Let today be the day…You look for the good in everyone you meet and respect their journey."

- Steve Maraboli

"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

"Compassion is all-inclusive. Compassion knows no boundaries. Compassion comes with awareness, and awareness breaks all narrow territories."

- Amit Ray

"Compassion is an unstable emotion. It needs to be translated into action, or it withers."

- Susan Sontag

"Love and compassion are the mother and father of a smile. We need to create more smiles in our world today. Smiles, after all, pave the way to a happy world."

- Steve Maraboli

"I find the best way to love someone is not to change them, but instead, help them reveal the greatest version of themselves."

- Steve Maraboli

"Compassion is the greatest form of love humans have to offer."

- Rachael Joy Scott

"There never was any heart truly great and generous, that was not also tender and compassionate."

- Bishop Robert South

"True compassion means not only feeling another’s pain but also being moved to help relieve it."

- Daniel Goleman

"Our sorrows and wounds are healed only when we touch them with compassion."

- Buddha

"Have compassion for all beings, rich and poor alike; each has their suffering. Some suffer too much, others too little."

- Buddha

"Compassion is the wish to see others free from suffering."

- Dalai Lama

"There is a nobility in compassion, a beauty in empathy, a grace in forgiveness."

- John Connolly

"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

"Give Compassion: Every day the average person fights epic battles never told just to survive."

- Ken Poirot

"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

"The highest form of knowledge is empathy."

- Bill Bullard

"Compassion is about giving all the love that you’ve got."

- Cheryl Strayed

"Look for a way to lift someone up. And if that’s all you do, that’s enough."

- Elizabeth Lesser

"With compassion one becomes courageous. Compassion brings triumph when attacked; it brings security when maintained."

- Tao Te Ching

"Compassion will cure more sins than condemnation."

- Henry Ward Beecher

"Out of compassion, I destroy the darkness of their ignorance. From within them I light the lamp of wisdom and dispel all darkness from their lives."

- Bhagavad Gita

"Compassion and tolerance are not a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength."

- Dalai Lama

"And as I’ve gotten older, I’ve had more of a tendency to look for people who live by kindness, tolerance, compassion, a gentler way of looking at things."

- Martin Scorsese

"and compassion are the true religions to me. But to develop this, we do not need to believe in any religion."

- Dalai Lama

"Until you have real compassion, you cannot recognize love."

- Bob Thurman

"We can’t heal the world today but we can begin with a voice of compassion, a heart of love, an act of kindness."

- Mary Davis

"There is no such thing as tough love. Love is kind, love is compassionate, love is tender."

- Heather Wolf

"Sometimes it takes only one act of kindness and caring to change a person’s life."

- Jackie Chan

"Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for you."

- Princess Diana

"There is no small act of kindness. Every compassionate act makes large the world."

- Mary Anne Radmacher

"Kindness begins with the understanding that we all struggle."

- Charles Glassman

"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

"A kind and compassionate act is often its own reward."

- William John Bennett

"Unexpected kindness is the most powerful, least costly, and most underrated agent of human change."

- Bob Kerrey

"A kind gesture can reach a wound that only compassion can heal."

- Steve Maraboli

"In compassion, when we feel with the other, we dethrone ourselves from the center of our world and we put another person there."

- Karen Armstrong

"Empathy is really the opposite of spiritual meanness. It’s the capacity to understand that every war is both won and lost. And that someone else’s pain is as meaningful as your own."

- Barbara Kingsolver

"Empathy is a connection; it’s a ladder out of the shame hole."

- Brené Brown

"Let our hearts be stretched out in compassion toward others, for everyone is walking his or her own difficult path."

- Dieter F. Uchtdorf

"No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted."

- Aesop

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

- Lao Tzu

"When we match compassion with purpose, we being to conquer the world."

- Zachariah Thompson

"When we’re looking for compassion, we need someone who is deeply rooted, is able to bend and, most of all, embraces us for our strengths and struggles."

- Brené Brown

"Wisdom, compassion, and courage are the three universally recognized moral qualities of men."

- Confucius

"Compassion for others begins with kindness to ourselves."

- Pema Chodron

"Life is an exciting business, and most exciting when it is lived for others."

- Helen Keller

"The individual is capable of both great compassion and great indifference. He has it within his means to nourish the former and outgrow the latter."

- Norman Cousins

"Humanity’s collective mission in the cosmos lies in the practice of compassion."

- Dalsaku Ikeda

"Taking time to relax every day, spending quality time with friends, and practicing mindfulness are some of the tried and tested ways of developing self-compassion."

- Dr. Prem Jagyasi

"When we give ourselves compassion, we are opening our hearts in a way that can transform our lives."

- Kristin Neff

"Having compassion for yourself means that you honor and accept your humanness."

- Kristin Neff

"Drop the people who do not value you, respect you. Life has infinite horizons. Accept yourself, love yourself, and move forward."

- Amit Ray

"There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up."

- John Holmes

"Courage. Kindness. Friendship. Character. These are the qualities that define us as human beings, and propel us, on occasion, to greatness."

- R.J. Palacio

"It is an absolute human certainty that no one can know his own beauty or perceive a sense of his own worth until it has been reflected back to him in the mirror of another loving, caring human being."

- John Joseph Powell

"No one has ever become poor by giving."

- Anne Frank

"Self-compassion is like a muscle. The more we practice flexing it, especially when life doesn’t go exactly according to plan (a frequent scenario for most of us), the stronger and more resilient our compassion muscle becomes."

- Sharon Salzberg

"We have to make mistakes; it's how we learn compassion for others."

- Curtis Sittenfeld

"For us to feel good emotionally, we have to look after ourselves."

- Sam Owen

"Having compassion starts and ends with having compassion for all those unwanted parts of ourselves."

- Pema Chodron

"The light of compassion opens the petals of the heart. When the petals of the heart unfold fragrance spreads across the valley."

- Amit Ray

"Deserves it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends."

- J.R.R. Tolkien

"One love, one heart, one destiny."

- Bob Marley

"When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed."

"Use your voice for kindness, your ears for compassion, your hands for charity, your mind for truth, and your heart for love."

"It is a lack of love for ourselves that inhibits our compassion toward others. If we make friends with ourselves, then there is no obstacle to opening our hearts and minds to others."

"Compassion is at the heart of every little thing we do. It is the dearest quality we possess. Yet all too often it can be cast aside with consequences too tragic to speak of. To lose our compassion, we lose what it is to be human."

"Compassion is a passion with a heart."