Paul Bloom Quotes

Some people think that without that spark of empathy we would do nothing, but that's just flat-out wrong. You could feel compassion for somebody without the spark of empathy.

You should be nice to people because it's better to be nice to people than mean to people, not because you think there's something in it for you.

If I were surrounded by angels who were purely rational and had no inclinations at all, I couldn't do anything for them. I couldn't make them happy; I couldn't make them sad, I would be entirely useless as a moral agent.

The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: 'If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?' But... the good Samaritan reversed the question: 'If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?'

The stirrings of morality emerge early in childhood. Toddlers spontaneously offer toys and help to others and try to comfort people they see in distress.

If you real desire is to be good, there is no need to wait for the money before you do it; you can do it now, this very moment, and just where you are.

May we do good everywhere as we have opportunity, and results will not be wanting!

Kindness is an everyday byproduct of all the great virtues.

Do good to others, be good to yourselves.

People feel good serving others.

A good motivation is what is needed: compassion without dogmatism, without complicated philosophy; just understanding that others are human brothers and sisters and respecting their human rights and dignities. That we humans can help each other is one of our unique human capacities.

I think of compassion as the fundamental religious experience and, unless that is there, you have nothing.

Psychologists tested the story of the Good Samaritan. What they learned gives us reason to pause. The greatest determinant of who stopped to help the stranger in need was not compassion, morality, or religious creed. It was those who had the time. Makes me wonder if I have time to do good.

What would Jesus, or any human being who isn't an asshole, do?

There is another element that is a part of human happiness — and that is that unless we think of others and do something for them we miss the greatest sources of happiness.

How can I act in an impersonal manner? When a man dies in the street for want of food, how can I ignore him? When I find a starving or naked man in the street, I cannot walk past him. I think no human being can do that.

It is only possible through the fact that sympathy for the general life and suffering of mankind is very weakly developed in the individual.

I think moral outrage is born not of anger but of love. It comes from the highest in us, not from a low-level sense of anger or cynicism.

The great truth that is too often forgotten is that it is in the nature of people to do good to one another.

I don't think I should accept other people's suffering because I suffered. Just the opposite, because I suffered I don't want others to suffer.

I think I love most people best when they are in adversity; for pity is one of my prevailing passions.

Rejecting joy to stand in solidarity with the suffering doesn't rescue the suffering.

I think kindness is a sort of gateway virtue - having that simple aspiration can get you into deep water very quickly - in a good way.

Many people are unhappy and are not experiencing life to its fullest because they’ve closed their hearts to compassion, they are motivated by only what they want and what they think they need. They rarely do anything for anybody else unless they have an ulterior goal in mind. They are self-involved and self-centered.

I think really that's just the basic Christian lesson that sometimes takes us years and years to understand - have equal concern for another human being as you have for yourself or perhaps even more concern for another human being than you have for yourself.