Quotes About Kindness

64 quotes

Oscar Wilde put kindness ahead of good intentions: the smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention. Lao Tzu described its odd arithmetic, in which the more the wise man gives to others, the more he has for his own. Franklin D. Roosevelt took a more measured view, promising that if you treat people right they will treat you right, ninety percent of the time.

Aristotle noticed the pride that can hide inside kindness. His ideal man takes joy in doing favours for others but feels ashamed to have others do favours for him, since conferring a kindness is a mark of superiority. Dostoyevsky expressed the plain pleasure of it: how good life is when one does something good and just. Einstein named goodness first among the ideals that filled him with joy, ahead of beauty and truth. Barack Obama called even the simplest act of kindness a way to honor those lost on 9/11. Stephen King found kindness even in the dark, writing of a little while in which the darkness was kind.
English playwright and poet

I must be cruel only to be kind; Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.

— Hamlet

American author and humorist

For he did not seem to know any way to do a person a kindness but by killing him.

— The Mysterious Stranger

English novelist and social critic

... Any Christian spirit working kindly in its little sphere, whatever it may be, will find its mortal life too short for its vast means of usefulness!

— A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Writings

French novelist, poet, dramatist and politician

This is the shade of difference: the door of the physician should never be shut, the door of the priest should always be open.

— Les Misérables

German writer, artist, natural scientist and politician

But there are times," said Charlotte, "when it is necessary and an act of friendship to write nothing rather than not to write.

— Elective Affinities

American deafblind author, political activist, lecturer, scholar

It is wonderful how much time good people spend fighting the devil. If they would only expend the same amount of energy loving their fellow men, the devil would die in his own tracks of ennui.

— The Story of My Life

Indian philosopher and the founder of Buddhism

Conquer the angry one by not getting angry; conquer the wicked by goodness; conquer the stingy by generosity, and the liar by speaking the truth.

— The Dhammapada

14th Dalai Lama, the spiritual and temporal leader of Tibetans

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.

— The Dalai Lama: A Policy of Kindness: An Anthology of Writings By and About the Dalai Lama

Albanian-Indian Catholic nun and missionary

I would rather make mistakes in kindness and compassion than work miracles in unkindness and hardness.

— A Gift for God: Prayers and Meditations

5th-century BCE Greek philosopher

I am convinced that I never wrong anyone intentionally...

— Apology, Crito and Phaedo of Socrates.

French philosopher, author, and journalist

He was one of those rare people, rare in our town as elsewhere, who have the courage of their good feelings. What little he told of his personal life vouched for acts of kindness and a capacity for affection that no one in our times dares own to.

— The Plague

Russian author

But she was not even grateful to him for it; nothing good on Pierre's part seemed to her to be an effort, it seemed so natural for him to be kind to everyone that there was no merit in his kindness.

— War and Peace

English writer and philologist

Some believe it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. It is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love. Why Bilbo Baggins? Perhaps because I am afraid, and he gives me courage.

— The Hobbit

Irish poet, playwright, and aesthete

The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention.

German-born theoretical physicist

The ideals which have always shone before me and filled me with joy are goodness, beauty, and truth.

French novelist, critic and essayist

Illness is the doctor to whom we pay most heed; to kindness, to knowledge, we make promise only; pain we obey.

King of Macedonia and conqueror of Achaemenid Persia

Whatever possession we gain by our sword cannot be sure or lasting, but the love gained by kindness and moderation is certain and durable.

16th Roman Emperor from 161 to 180 and Stoic philosopher

Your days are numbered. Use them to throw open the windows of your soul to the sun. If you do not, the sun will soon set, and you with it.

— The Emperor's Handbook

44th President of the United States

Like any value, empathy must be acted upon.

— The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream