Richard Foster Quotes

Buddha taught kindness towards lower beings; and since then there has not been a sect in India that has not taught charity to all beings, even to animals. This kindness, this mercy, this charity - greater than any doctrine - are what Buddhism left to us.

If people were superior to animals, they'd take good care of them," said Pooh.

Human it is to have compassion on the unhappy.

Care and pity are two different things.

Let us touch the dying, the poor, the lonely and the unwanted according to the graces we have received and let us not be ashamed or slow to do the humble work.

Compassion and mercy are important, period. It doesn't matter who's at our receiving end, but we need to be flexing those muscles. It's not mutually exclusive: If you have compassion for children starving in Africa, it doesn't mean you can't have compassion for adults in Africa or animals that are being tortured and abused.

The happiest people I know as a nation are the Burmese; their brightness and cheeriness are proverbial. Kindness to animals is one of their greatest 'weaknesses'; no Burmese will kill an animal, even if it is to put it out of pain.

I believe that animals are on the planet so that we can know love and compassion.

We are often more merciful to our animals than we are to each other.

We should take good care of the domestic animals we have brought into existence until they die. We should stop bringing more domestic animals into existence.

The medical argument for animal testing doesn't stand up. Even if it did, I don't think we should kill other species. We think we're so much better; I'm not sure we are. I tell people, We've beaten into submission every animal on the face of the Earth, so we are the clear winners of whatever battle is going on between the species. Couldn't we be generous? I really do think it's time to get nice. No need to keep beating up on them. I think we've got to show that we're kind.

Who would care to question the ground of forgiveness or compassion.

When a man has pity on all living creatures then only is he noble.

It takes nothing away from a human to be kind to an animal.

A good man will take care of his horses and dogs, not only while they are young, but when old and past service.

The obligations of law and equity reach only to mankind; but kindness and beneficence should be extended to the creatures of every species, and these will flow from the breast of a true man, as streams that issue from the living fountain.

On the whole, my impression is that mercy bears richer fruits than any other attribute.

Animal protection is education to the humanity.

As soon as healing takes place, go out and heal somebody else.

In the eyes of mercy, no one should have hateful thoughts. Feel pity for the man who is even more at fault. The area and size of mercy is limitless.

Some people feed you with love.

Compassion, along with love, is the face of altruism.

The milk of human kindness should be brought fresh to the table every morning.

It would be judicious to act with magnanimity towards a prostrate foe.

My life has changed because somebody fed my family on Thanksgiving when I was eleven years old. It wasn't the food that changed me, it was the fact that a stranger cared. That's what changed my life. That made me the person I am today and have been for the last 37 years. All that came out of that, that simple act of getting a result.