"Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other's eyes for an instant?" Henry David Thoreau ( July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862) was an American essayist, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, and historian.
"Following the initial shock, however, came something altogether unexpected; their yawning indifference." 3rd person in Somewhere Safe with Somebody Good by Jan Karon
"Grace in our hearts pours out in our words and deeds." Colossians 3:16-17
Here was the work of a man "who had not seen human life and suffering merely on the outside, but had felt in the very depths of his soul the surging and earthquake of those mysteries of passion and suffering which underlie our whole existence in this world." Harriet Elisabeth Beecher Stowe (June 14, 1811 – July 1, 1896) was an American abolitionist and author. She came from the Beecher family, a famous religious family, and is best known for her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852). It depicts the harsh life for African Americans under slavery. It reached millions as a novel and play, and became influential in the United States and Great Britain. She said this when she was viewing The Raft of the Medusa by Theodore Géricault
"I never meet a ragged boy in the street without feeling that I may owe him a salute, for I know not what possibilities may be buttoned up under his coat." President James Abram Garfield (November 19, 1831 – September 19, 1881) was the 20th President of the United States, serving from March 4, 1881, until his assassination later that year. President James A. Garfield (Note that I feel confident in stating that should President James A. Garfield who was a wonderful supporter of the rights of all citizens especially those recently freed from slavery rise from the grave today he would include "ragged girls" in this quote. db)
"I read about a mom who was surprised to see her daughter muddy from the waist down when she walked in the door ater school. Her daughter explained that a friend had slipped and fallen into a mud puddle. While another classmate ran to get help, the little girl felt sorry for her friend sitting by herself and holding her hurt leg. So, the daughter went over and sat in the mud puddle with her friend until a teacher arrived." Lisa Sama in Our Daily Bread date unknown.
"If to be feelingly alive to the sufferings of my fellow creatures is to be a fanatic, I am one of the most incurable fanatics ever permitted to be at large.William Wilberforce was explaining the passion and compassion that led him to help abolish the slave trade. - William Wilberforce (24 August 1759 – 29 July 1833) was a British politician, philanthropist, and a leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade.
"If you fall, you'll crack your skulls, and then we'll have to leave the both of you behind." An adult escort on the orphan train to one of the orphans who was carrying a 14 month-old baby; Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline
"If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion." Dalai Lama - The Dalai Lama is a monk of the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" school of Tibetan Buddhism
"I've learned . . . that sometimes all a person needs is a hand to hold and a heart to understand." Andy Rooney, (January 14, 1919 – November 4, 2011) was an American radio and television writer
"Know another's burden and then you won't be able to speak except in pity." Unknown
"Mere waiting and looking on is not Christian behavior. The Christian is called to sympathy and action, not in the first place by his own sufferings, but by the sufferings of his brethren, for whose sake Christ suffered." Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 4 February 1906 – 9 April 1945) was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian, dissident, and key founding member of the Confessing Church.
"Of course a man should fight for victims, but if he ceases caring for anything outside that, what's the use of his fighting?" Jean Tarrou in Albert Camus's The Plagueti-Nazi dissident, and key founding member of the Confessing Church. This quote is from Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas
"Oh! Almighty and Everlasting God, Creator of Heaven, Earth and the Universe. Help me to be, to think, to act what is right because it is right; make me truthful, honest and honorable in all things; make me intellectually honest for the sake of right and honor and without thought of reward to me. Give me the ability to be charitable, forgiving and patient with my followmen - help me to understand their motives and their shortcomings - even as Thou understands mine. Amen, Amen, Amen." Harry Truman, (May 8, 1884 – December 26, 1972) was the 33rd President of the United States (1945–53) - He memorized this prayer.
"People will forget what you say; people will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel. Maya Angelou (1928–2014), US novelist and poet; born Marguerite Ann Johnson. (Shared by Oops)
"Resolve to be tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant with the weak and the wrong. Sometime in life you will have been all of these." Bob Goddard (Who was Bob Goddard?) - The copyright notice at the bottom of the newspaper page listed “Walter Scott” which was a pen name of the long-time gossip columnist Lloyd Shearer. Quote Investigator believes Shearer assembled the resolutions and should be credited with crafting the full expression. QI also notes that some sub-phrases have been employed by other writers in the past.
“Some people read the Bible and fall asleep. For me, it was a jolt. The worst thing as a Christian is to go through life asleep.” Padre Leo of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico - Author, Sonia Nazario, in Enrique's Journey writes, "Padre Leo tells church members that they, too, were once migrants. Saint Joseph was a migrant. The Bible was written by migrants. Running off a migrant, he says, is like turning against yourself. A person must be more than spiritual, he tells them. They must act."
"Thank you. Thank you for your service. Thank you for your sacrifice." Visitors comments in the Bethesda Naval Hospital visiting wounded as written about in The Heart and the Fist by Eric Grditens
"That we fall is inevitable, but it is equally inevitable that we are drawn to pick each other up." Mark Nepo in You Don't Have to Do It Alone.
"To ease another's heartache is to forget one's own."Abraham Lincoln, (1809–65), 16th president of the US 1861–65. A Republican, his election to the presidency on an anti-slavery platform helped to precipitate the Civil War, which was fought during his administration. He was assassinated shortly after the war ended and before he could fulfill his campaign promise to reconcile the North and the South.
"To help his staff of young architects understand the needs of those for whom they design housing, David Dillard sends them on 'sleepovers.' They put on pajamas and spend 24 hours in a senior living center in the same conditions as people in their 80s and 90s. They wear earplugs to simulate hearing loss, tape their fingers together to limit manual dexterity, and exchange eyeglasses to replicate vision problems. Dillard says, 'The biggest benefit is [that] when I send 27-year-olds out, they come back with a heart 10 times as big. They meet people and understand their plights.'"Rodney Brooks, USA Today
"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt within the heart." Helen Keller, (1880–1968), US writer, social reformer, and academic; full name Helen Adams Keller. Blind and deaf from an early age, she learned how to read, type, and speak with the help of her tutor, Anne Sullivan(1866–1936).
". . . they've taught me that without courage, compassion falters, and that without compassion, courage has no direction." Eric Greitens, author of The Heart and the Fist
"When we put ourselves in the other person's place, we're less likely to want to put him in his place." Farmer's Digest
"When you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it." Pooh's Little Instruction Book, inspired by A.A. Milne, 8 January 1882 – 31 January 1956) was an English author, best known for his books about the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh and for various poems
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