Flannery O'Connor Quotes

Compassion is the wish to see others free from suffering.

Good people do not let others suffer needlessly.

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

I start every day by wanting more for others than I do for myself. I think that is how God works, and that is how I think we have to work.

Compassion is the ultimate expression of your highest self

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.

We all have the potential to show others love and affection, but as we progress in our materialistic world, these values tend to remain dormant. We can develop them on the basis of common sense, common experience and scientific findings. The response to the recent tragedy in the Philippines is an example of how such values are awakened; people helped simply because others are suffering and in need of support.

We love most those who we serve most.

True kindness presupposes the faculty of imagining as one's own the suffering and joys of others.

Compassion is a quality which impels one to perform sacrifices.

I only wanted to help my people.

I do this because it pleases me, and there is nothing I would not do so as human effort goes, to advance any movement designed to reach and rescue perishing humanity. I have a heart for others and that is why I am in this work. When I see suffering about me, I myself suffer, and so when I put forth my efforts to relieve others, I am simply working for myself. I do not consider that I have made any sacrifice whatever; no man does unless he violates his conscience

My beautiful, selfless sister Manuela Testolini-Benet continues to inspire me to be a better woman. Always thinking of others, always doing God's work.

I believe compassion to be one of the few things we can practice that will bring immediate and long-term happiness to our lives.

We must want for others, not ourselves alone.

The really important kind of freedom involves...being able truly to care about other people...

Altruism is a barbarism. Love is the word.

Compassion is the antitoxin of the soul.

It is my observations, though, that happiness limits the amount of suffering one is willing to inflict upon others

I would like to explain the meaning of compassion, which is often misunderstood. Genuine compassion is based not on our own projections and expectations, but rather on the rights of the other: irrespective of whether another person is a close friend

Altruism itself depends on a recognition of the reality of other persons, and on the equivalent capacity to regard oneself as merely one individual among many.

One can always be kind to people about whom one cares nothing.

All people are endowed with the faculty of compassion, and for this reason can develop the humanitarian spirit.

As long as there are people suffering, how can I not be happy?

I call him religious who understands the suffering of others.