Yevgeny Yevtushenko Quotes

It's great to be great, but its greater to be human.

The challenge today is to convince people of the value of truth, honesty, compassion and a concern for others.

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

I feel compassion is so important to develop in ourselves. It's one of the most important elements of being a human being.

The man who foolishly does me wrong, I will return to him the protection of my most ungrudging love; and the more evil comes from him, the more good shall go from me.

If compassion was the motivating factor behind all of our decisions, would our world not be a completely different place?

There's only one rule that I know of, babies—God damn it, you've got to be kind.

Compassion is aptly summed up in the Golden Rule, which asks us to look into our own hearts, discover what gives us pain, and then refuse, under any circumstance whatsoever, to inflict that pain on anybody else. Compassion can be defined, therefore, as an attitude of principled, consistent altruism.

Being in humaneness is good. If we select other goodness and thus are far apart from humaneness, how can we be the wise?

As long as we are among humans, let us be humane.

I always say, 'People first, then money, then things.'

Shall we make a new rule of life from tonight: always to try to be a little kinder than is necessary?

Frankly, I'm not religious, but I believe in the cause of humanity - doing good work.

I think goodness is about how person behaves to person, and also person to world, to nature.

The great instrument of moral good is the imagination.

Any beast can cry over the misfortunes of its own child. It takes a mensch to weep for others' children.

Sometimes it's more important to be human, than to have good taste.

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.

Human morality is unthinkable without empathy.

It's interesting that one of the definitions of the word 'human' is 'sympathetic.' More and more people are beginning to show that they understand why that is important.

If everyone were a good person, it'd obviously be a better world.

There is no religion without love, and people may talk as much as they like about their religion, but if it does not teach them to be good and kind to man and beast, it is all a sham.

I want to be a good human being.

There are many reasons for kindness, and religion is just one of them.