“I didn’t give up, I walked awayI had enough of accepting actions that were less than I deserved.So…I made a concious choiceTo honour myself,Before complementing another & If that’s what; has made you undeniably mad, Than I know, the history of our connection is hidden in the truth of your heart and regardless of your outcome, I have made the right choice for me.”

“Compassion does not need any special preparation, place or time. You can start it anywhere and anytime. Try it at home, work, school —or anywhere! The more you cultivate compassion the more will be your fulfillment, resilience, patience, grit, endurance and equanimity.”

“Only be productive if you are in the right mental, physical and emotional space to do so. If you are sick, quit trying to make things happen.”

“The tree was so old, and stood there so alone, that his childish heart had been filled with compassion; if no one else on the farm gave it a thought, he would at least do his best to, even though he suspected that his child’s words and child’s deeds didn’t make much difference. It had stood there before he was born, and would be standing there after he was dead, but perhaps, even so, it was pleased that he stroked its bark every time he passed, and sometimes, when he was sure he wasn’t observed, even pressed his cheek against it.”

“Nothing living should ever be treated with contempt. Whatever it is that lives, a man, a tree, or a bird, should be touched gently, because the time is short. Civilization is another word for respect for life…”

“Let the poor be your god, and your service to them, be your religion.”

“The so-called holy warriors are driven by a cause, no matter how disgustingly barbarian that cause be. If only we the conscientious humans were as driven as them, by our urge for real peace and real harmony, then we could, for real, not in theory, live in a world of pure compassion and hatelessness.”

“War can condition a person to be resilient, tolerant, dependable, strong, and capable of so much more than one who had experienced nothing of it; it can bring out the very best in us, but also the very worst. Where is it, I ask, the proper conduit through which a soldier should be raised from whence they would become an upstanding citizen of the world, instead of a single country?”

“When in Reading Gaol he told me that the warders in the dock had been gentle and kind, but the visit of the chaplain in his first prison began with these words:’Mr. Wilde, did you have morning prayers in your house?”I am sorry… I fear not.”You see where you are now!”

“You can see the same immorality or amorality in the Christian view of guilt and punishment. There are only two texts, both of them extreme and mutually contradictory. The Old Testament injunction is the one to exact an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth (it occurs in a passage of perfectly demented detail about the exact rules governing mutual ox-goring; you should look it up in its context (Exodus 21). The second is from the Gospels and says that only those without sin should cast the first stone. The first is a moral basis for capital punishment and other barbarities; the second is so relativistic and “nonjudgmental” that it would not allow the prosecution of Charles Manson. Our few notions of justice have had to evolve despite these absurd codes of ultra vindictiveness and ultracompassion.”

“Our lives are in constant flux, which generates many predicaments. But when these are faced with a calm and clear mind supported by spiritual practice, they can all be successfully resolved. When our minds are clouded by hatred, selfishness, jealousy, and anger, we lose not only control but also our judgment. At those wild moments, anything can happen, including war. Although the practice of compassion and wisdom is useful to us all, it is especially valuable for those responsible for running national affairs, in whose hands lie the power and opportunity to create a framework for world peace.”

“If everyone only gave a fraction of the compassion their hearts are capable of giving… how much suffering could we alleviate in this world?”

“BE KIND TO PEOPLE ALWAYS, YOU NEVER KNOW WHERE AND WHO’S HAND YOU WILL FALL TOMORROW.”

“The suffering of anyone else is the suffering of ourselves. And to understand that as an idea is one thing, but to develop the ability to feel it and believe it is another – and it is dangerous, and it is risky, because that is a lot of suffering to take in. It is a lot of pain to feel. Most of us, including myself, are probably not capable of feeling one tiny fraction of 1% of the world’s suffering. But we must try to go there.”

“The needs of the world are too big for us to be living such small lives.”