Here are some wonderful words to help inspire and encourage you to treat all people with respect, empathy, compassion, and kindness (RECK), and to work to help make this century one defined by compassion. These are general quotes on a variety of topics. For quotes on specific values or topics, please check out some of our other quotes pages. We’re adding new quotes all the time, so keep checking back!
“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
“Parents are like shuttles on a loom. They join the threads of the past with threads of the future and leave their own bright patterns as they go.” -Fred Rogers
“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were: any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.” -John Donne
“The trouble is that not enough people have come together with the firm determination to live the things which they say they believe.” -Eleanor Roosevelt
“Blessed are those who give without remembering and take without forgetting.” -Elizabeth Bibesco
“I aspire to be a giver. A giver of love, a giver of good vibes, and a giver of strength.” -Unknown
“To live greatly, we must develop the capacity to face trouble with courage, disappointment with cheerfulness, and triumph with humility.” -Thomas S. Monson
“You can’t shake hands with a clenched fist.” -Indira Gandhi, first female Indian Prime Minister
“It’s not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.” -Audre Lorde, Writer, Activist & Poet
“It’s not our job to toughen our children up to face a cruel and heartless world. It’s our job to raise children who will make the world a little less cruel and heartless.” -L.R. Knost, Author
“The highest patriotism is not a blind acceptance of official policy, but a love of one’s country deep enough to call her to a higher plain.” -George McGovern
“I’ve learned that fear limits you and your vision. It serves as blinders to what may be just a few steps down the road for you. The journey is valuable, but believing in your talents, your abilities, and your self-worth can empower you to walk down an even brighter path. Transforming fear into freedom – how great is that?” -Soledad O’Brien
“I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.” -James Baldwin
“I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re doing something.” -Neil Gaiman
“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” -Eleanor Roosevelt
“Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become your character.
And watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.
What we think, we become.
My father always said that.” -Meryl Streep speaking as Margaret Thatcher in “The Iron Lady”
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“Peace is not the absence of conflict, but the presence of creative alternatives for responding to conflict — alternatives to passive or aggressive responses, alternatives to violence.” -Dorothy Thompson, US Journalist & Radio Broadcaster
“Kindness is a universal language regardless of age, nationality, or religion.” -Alex Ferguson
“Peace is not the absence of conflict, but the presence of creative alternatives for responding to conflict — alternatives to passive or aggressive responses, alternatives to violence.” -Dorothy Thompson, US Journalist & Radio Broadcaster
Century of Compassion 