"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)

"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.

“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

"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.

"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 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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