Barack Obama Quotes

Positive social emotions like compassion and empathy are generally good for us, and we want to encourage them. But do we know how to most reliably raise children to care about the suffering of other people? I'm not sure we do.

A child, from the time he can think, should think about all he sees, should suffer for all who cannot live with honesty, should work so that all men can be honest, and should be honest himself.

I am a humanist because I think humanity can, with constant moral guidance, create reasonably decent societies.

Wisdom and compassion should become the dominating influences that guide our thoughts , our words, and our actions.

The real index of civilization is when people are kinder than they need to be.

Man by violating his own feelings becomes cruel. And how deeply seated in the human heart is the injunction not to take life.

No child is taught to kill, but he has to be taught to love, respect, honor and value, not only his own life, but the lives of his classmates, parents and teachers. He has to experience love and acceptance. He has to know his life has purpose and meaning. No amount of money can do that.

People with no morals often considered themselves more free, but mostly they lacked the ability to feel or love.

Since belief determines behavior, doesn't it make sense that we should be teaching ethical, moral values in every home and in every school in America?

For children to take morality seriously they must be in the presence of adults who take morality seriously. And with their own eyes they must see adults take morality seriously.

If you want young people to take right and wrong seriously, you must put them in the presence of people who take right and wrong seriously.

Basic moral values must therefore first be internalized in the hearts and minds of its people before we can hope to enforce legislation reflecting these values

There's a voice inside children that knows right from wrong. I call it listening to your inner Jiminy Cricket. I tell my daughter, 'If you're thinking this is not the best idea, it probably isn't.'

Politics should not be the least heart-filled thing we do, it should be the most heart-filled thing we do.

You don't teach morals and ethics and empathy and kindness in the schools. You teach that at home, and children learn by example.

In a wider sense, I'm terrified about my kids coming down to breakfast and saying, 'Trump said this and they've voted him president?' How do you explain to your children how to behave as a man in this world?

My heart tells me what's right.

The problem isn't how to make the world more technological. It's about how to make the world more humane again.

Weighing too much on someone's talent and not someone's personality. I think it matters whether someone has a good heart.

The problem, of course, was that people did not seem to understand the difference between right and wrong. They needed to be reminded about this, because if you left it to them to work out for themselves, they would never bother. They would just find out what was best for them, and then they would call that the right thing. That's how most people thought.

It is never too early to try and plant [good principles] in a child, and never too late to cultivate them in the most neglected person.

Children teach us to be courageous and to stand up against injustice.

Acting responsibly is not a matter of strengthening our reason but of deepening our feelings for the welfare of others.

How you treat the helpless is the real test of morality. Lots of people are flunking that test big time.

It's very important to try to inculcate into children moral rules, such as "do as you would be done by."