George Saunders Quotes

What separates humans from other animals is our empathy. With the possible exception of bonobos, we are the most empathetic animal on the planet.

A man, to be greatly good, must imagine intensely and comprehensively; he must put himself in the place of another and of many others; the pains and pleasures of his species must become his own.

I realized a while back that I have an innate ability to be compassionate, and I saw that the strength of compassion is something that healers have and healers use.'

Compassion is the wish to see others free from suffering.

I would like my life to be a statement of love and compassion--and where it isn't, that's where my work lies.

We have so far to go to realize our human potential for compassion, altruism, and love.

I think we all have empathy. We may not have enough courage to display it.

I have learned more about love, selflessness and human understanding from the people I have met in this great adventure in the world of AIDS than I ever did in the cutthroat, competitive world in which I spent my life.

Developing our capacity for compassion makes it possible for us to help others in a more skillful and effective way. And compassion helps us as well.

I feel the capacity to care is the thing which gives life its deepest significance.

A love for humanity came over me, and watered and fertilised the fields of my inner world which had been lying fallow, and this love of humanity vented itself in a vast compassion.

The more I think about it, the more I realize there is nothing more artistic than to love others.

Cancer is a growth hormone for empathy, and empathy makes us useful to each other in ways we were not, could not have been, before.

Getting money is not all a man's business: to cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life.

The great gift of human beings is that we have the power of empathy.

Compassion doesn't, of course, mean feeling sorry for people, or pity, which is how the word has become emasculated in a way.

What we really need is compassion of the mind - compassion for others that is directed intelligently and produces truly compassionate results.

Compassion is the key to living outside the confines of your lower self.

Compassion brings us to a stop, and for a moment we rise above ourselves.

There is no verb for compassion, but you have an adverb for compassion. That's interesting to me. You act compassionately. But then, how to act compassionately if you don't have compassion? That is where you fake. You fake it and make it. This is the mantra of the United States of America.

Empathy is born out of the old biblical injunction 'Love the neighbor as thyself.'

Yet, taught by time, my heart has learned to glow for other's good, and melt at other's woe.

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.

What are gold and jewels and precious utensils? Mere dross and dirt. The human face and the human heart, reciprocations of kindness and love, and all the nameless sympathies of our nature - these are the only objects worth being attached to.

Some public officials are blessed - you can't acquire this, but you are blessed with the gift of empathy, being able to empathize with those who are suffering.