William Saroyan Quotes

Only when the sense of the pain of others begins does man begin.

Character is revealed in the power to discern the suffering of other people when we ourselves are suffering; in the ability to detect the hunger of others when we are hungry; and in the power to reach out and extend compassion for the spiritual agony of others when we are in the midst of our own spiritual distress.

When one is innocent of pain, of the havoc it can wreak, one is never cruel. Cruelty is born of pain, of a need to hurt in turn.

To exult over the miseries of an unhappy creature is inhuman.

When you are suffering, you become more understanding about yourself, but also about other people's sufferings too. That's the first step to understand somebody is to understand their sufferings. So then love follows.

I have empathy; I am humane. I understand human misery.

I used to believe that hurting would make you more alive to the hurting of others. I used to believe in feeling bad because somebody else did. Now I'm not so sure of either.

Do not avoid contact with suffering or close your eyes before suffering. Do not lose awareness of the existence of suffering in the life of the world. Find ways to be with those who are suffering by all means, including personal contact and visits, images, sounds. By such means, awaken yourself and others to the reality of suffering in the world.

Compassion begins with attention.

Compassion is the ability to see how it all is.

I am not going to change who I am. I am human and I know how to love, and be kind, and be compassionate to those who are weaker than me. Just because I have power doesn't mean I have to use it!

Never to blend our pleasure or our pride With sorrow of the meanest thing that feels.

Compassion is the chief law of human existence.

I'm not cruel, sir, I won't shoot you in the guts, but I will make you realize how much you took your toes for granted.

The Tin Woodman knew very well he had no heart, and therefore he took great care never to be cruel or unkind to anything.

Nature is cruel but we don't have to be

You men have none of you any hearts.' 'If we have not hearts, we have eyes; and they give us torment enough.

Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human.

Look into your own heart, discover what it is that gives you pain and then refuse, under any circumstance whatsoever, to inflict that pain on anybody else.

Sympathy does not think. It acts. It acts to remove. The ceaseless sufferings. Of the world

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

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

I wouldn't want to see any animal in pain, no matter what.

In order to be cruel we have to close our hearts to the suffering of the other.

There is always something infinitely mean about other people's tragedies.