Quotes of the Day

Please help inspire us to accelerate the global compassion movement by adding your own favorite quotes to the bottom of the page. We will publish a new quote on the home page each day.

Thanks to Lisa Dennison of St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Seattle for submitting the following quotes: 

“If you judge people, you have no time to love them.” – Mother Teresa

"Until One is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance which no one could have dreamed would have come his or her way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now." - Goethe

“Be prepared at all times for the gifts of God and be ready always for new ones. For God is a thousand times more ready to give than we are to receive.” – Meister Eckhart

“I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” – Anais Nin

“Hope has two beautiful daughters-their names are Anger and Courage. Anger at the way things are and Courage to see that they do not remain as they are.” – Augustine

“Nothing in the world is as soft and yielding as water. Yet for dissolving the hard and inflexible, nothing can surpass it. The soft overcomes the hard; the gentle overcomes the rigid.” – Tao Te Ching

“I slept and dreamt that life was joy
 I awoke and saw that life was service
 I acted and beheld that service was joy.” – Rabindranath Tagore

“Tell me whom you love, and I will tell you who you are.” – Houssaye

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the people to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn of the vast and endless sea.” – Antoine de Saint Exupery

“While scholars are comparing and contrasting theories, debating intellectual questions, and dividing humankind into categories, the world is changed by persons with faith, spirit, emotion, compassion, intuition, and irrational thinking.” – Grey Owl

“Come, Whoever you are! Wanderer, worshipper, lover of leaving, Come. Ours is not a caravan of despair. It doesn’t matter if you’ve broken your vow a thousand times, Still come. And yet again, come!” – Rumi

“All things…call on us with small or loud voices. They want us to listen, they want us to understand their intrinsic claims, their justice of being…. But we can give it to them only through the love that listens.” – Paul Tillich

“My call for a spiritual revolution is thus not a call for a religious revolution. Nor is it a reference to a way of life that is somehow other-worldly, still less to something magical or mysterious. Rather, it is a call for a radical re-orientation away from our habitual preoccupation with self towards concern for the wider community of beings with whom we are connected, and for conduct which recognizes others interests alongside our own.” – His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Thanks to Andrew Himes of Seattle for the following quote: 

“History says, Don’t hope on this side of the grave. But then, once in a lifetime the longed for tidal wave of justice can rise up, and hope and history rhyme.” - Seamus Heaney 

Other Sources: 

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." – Margaret Mead

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world" - Nelson Mandela