Kindness

My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.

(The Dalai Lama)

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The best portion of a good man’s life is his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness.

(William Wordsworth)

Kindness is the quality of being warmhearted and considerate and humane and sympathetic. It is the act of forgivingness, the tendency to be kind and

forgiving. People who are kind are liked by everybody. Kindness is of two types: one shown towards fellow human beings where to make an effort to

understand their problem and then give their resources to solve them and the other is the kindness which you show towards animals.

Kindness is tenderness. Kindness is love, but perhaps greater than love...kindness is good will. Kindness says, "I want you to be happy."

(Randolph Ray)

When you carry out acts of kindness you get a wonderful feeling inside. It is as though something inside your body responds and says, yes,

this is how I ought to feel. (Rabbi Harold Kushner)

You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.

(Ralph Waldo Emerson)

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Kindness blooms from the hearts of mature souls…Kindness is the catalytic factor that awakens dormant souls and activates the higher heart vibrations.

Vibrating in higher frequencies can open doors of your soul you never imagined existed.

(Leo Zagami)

Kindness is more than deeds. It is an attitude, an expression, a look, a touch. It is anything that lifts another person.

(C. Neil Strait)

Kindness is an inner desire that makes us want to do good things even if we do not get anything in return. It is the joy of our life to do them. When we

do good things from this inner desire, there is kindness in everything we think, say, want, and do.

(Emanuel Swedenborg)

The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been kindness, beauty, and truth. The trite subjects of human efforts, possessions, outward success, luxury

have always seemed to me contemptible. (Albert Einstein)

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If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain. If I can ease one life the aching, or cool one pain,

or help one fainting robin unto his nest again, I shall not live in vain.

(Emily Dickinson)

A random act of kindness is a selfless act performed by a person wishing to either assist or cheer up an individual. There will generally be no reason

other than to make the person smile, or be happy.

Kindness is the root of righteousness. Kindness is the enemy of cruelty, harshness, rudeness. It softens the heart. It opens the door to heaven.

(Swami Sivananda)

It is a bit embarrassing to have been concerned with the human problem all one's life and find at the end that one has no more to offer by way of

advice than try to be a little kinder. (Aldoux Huxley)

Remember there's no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.

(Scott Adams)

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Kind hearts are the gardens, kind thoughts are the roots, kind words are the flowers, kind deeds are the fruits. Take care of your garden and keep out

the weeds, fill it with sunshine, kind words and kind deeds. (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)

Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.

(Lao Tzu)

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of

which have the potential to turn a life around. (Leo Buscaglia)

If there is any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not deter or neglect it,

as I shall not pass this way again. (William Penn)

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A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds. A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness

gathers love. (Saint Basil)

The various features and aspects of human life, such as longevity, good health, success, happiness, and so forth, which we consider desirable, are all

dependent on kindness and a good heart. (The Dalai Lama)

Whether one believes in a religion or not, and whether one believes in rebirth or not, there isn't anyone who doesn't appreciate

kindness and compassion. (The Dalai Lama)

When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.

(Abraham Joshua Heschel)

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So many gods, so many creeds, so many paths that wind and wind,

while just the art of being kind is all the sad world needs.

(Ella Wheeler Wilcox)

No kind action ever stops with itself. One kind action leads to another. Good example is followed. A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees. The greatest work

that kindness does to others is that it makes them kind themselves. (Amelia Earhart)

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Kindness works simply and perseveringly… Hence it is the furthest reaching and the most effective of all forces.

(Albert Schweitzer)

Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind.

(Eric Hoffer)

This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple;

the philosophy is kindness. (The Dalai Lama)

When we feel love and kindness toward others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for, but it helps us also to develop

inner happiness and peace. (The Dalai Lama)

Wherever there is a human being, there is a chance for a kindness. (Seneca)

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Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness: kindness in your face,

kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile. (Mother Teresa )

Thoughtfulness, the kindly regard for others, is the beginning of holiness. (Mother Teresa)

Kind words can be short and easy to speak but their echoes are truly endless.

(Mother Teresa)

Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care,

kindness and understanding you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again.

(Og Mandino)

A kind word is like a spring day. (Russian Proverb)

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Nobody appears inferior to us when our heart is kindled with kindness.

(Hazrat Inayat Khan)

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. (Plato)

True kindness presupposes the faculty of imagining as one’s own the sufferings and joy of others.

(Andre Gide)

Our task must be to free ourselves from our prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all humanity and the whole of nature in its beauty.

(Albert Einstein)

Recompense injury with justice, and recompense kindness with kindness. (Confucius)

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I've never known any human being, high or humble, who ever regretted, when nearing life's end, having done kindly deeds.

But I have known more than one millionaire who became haunted by the realization that they had led selfish lives.

(B. C. Forbes)

I have always depended on the kindness of strangers. (Tennessee Williams )

The very nature of kindness is to spread. If you are kind to others, they will be kind to you, and tomorrow to somebody else.

(Sri Chinmoy)

Life is made up, not of great sacrifices or duties, but of little things, in which smiles, and kindnesses, and small obligations, given habitually,

are what win and preserve the heart and secure comfort. (Humphrey Davy)

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Men are cruel, but Man is kind. (Tagore)

Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.

(Franklin Delano Roosevelt)

You can accomplish by kindness what you cannot by force. (Publilius Syrus)

I have never met a person whose greatest need was anything other than real, unconditional love. You can find it in a simple act of kindness toward

someone who needs help. There is no mistaking love. You feel it in your heart. It is the common fiber of life, the flame that heals our soul, energizes

our spirit and supplies passion to our lives. It is our connection to God and to each other. (Elizabeth Kubler-Ross)

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Kindness is gladdening the hearts of those who are traveling the dark journey with us. (Henri-Frederic Amiel)

Today we are afraid of simple words like goodness and mercy and kindness. We don't believe in the good old words because we don't believe in good old

values anymore. And that's why the world is sick. (Lin Yutang)

Kindness has taken a bad rap in many ways, being associated with weakness or meekness or labels like “goody-goody.” But true kindness comes from

strength, and is full of life. (Bo Lozoff)

One who possesses kindness possesses courage, but one who possesses courage is not necessarily kind.

(Confucius)

Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair but manifestations of strength and resolution.

(Kahlil Gibran )

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Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.

(Albert Schweitzer)

Kindness in women, not their beauteous looks, shall win my love. (William Shakespeare)

A kind heart is a fountain of gladness, making everything in its vicinity freshen into smiles.

(Washington Irving)

Kindness is the golden chain by which society is bound together. (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)

Perhaps you will forget tomorrow the kind words you say today, but the recipient may cherish them over a lifetime.

(Dale Carnegie)

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Kindness, I've discovered, is everything in life. (Isaac Bashevis Singer)

Remember there's no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.

(Scott Adams)

One who knows how to show and to accept kindness will be a friend better than any possession.

(Sophocles)

How beautiful a day can be when kindness touches it! (George Elliston)

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No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted. (Aesop)

The highest form of wisdom is kindness. (The Talmud)

Choose being kind over being right, and you'll be right every time.

(Richard Carlson)

Kindness is the sunshine in which virtue grows. (Robert Green Ingersoll )

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Kindness is the light that dissolves all walls between souls, families, and nations.

(Paramahansa Yogananda)

Though we all have the fear and the seeds of anger within us, we must learn not to water those seeds and instead nourish our positive qualities –

those of compassion, understanding, and loving kindness. (Thich Nhat Hanh)

A little kindness from person to person is better than a vast love for all humankind.

(Richard Dehmel)

By the accident of fortune a man may rule the world for a time, but by virtue of love and kindness he may rule the world forever.

(Lao-Tzu)

Kindness begets kindness. (Sophocles)

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The everyday kindness of the back roads more than makes up for the acts of greed in the headlines.

(Charles Kuralt)

Deeds of kindness are equal in weight to all the commandments. (Talmud)

Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom.

(Theodore Rubin)

What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness? (Jean-Jacques Rousseau )

Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.

(Mark Twain)

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Forget injuries, never forget kindnesses. (Confucius)

One can pay back the loan of gold, but one lies forever in debt to those who are kind.

(Marcus Aurelius)

Kindness is never wasted. If it has no effect on the recipient, at least it benefits the bestower.

(S. H. Simmons)

To err on the side of kindness is seldom an error. (Liz Armbruster)

There is no duty more obligatory than the repayment of kindness. (Cicero)

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Whoever is kind to His creatures, God is kind to him. (Muhammad)

I could not have slept tonight if I had left that helpless little creature to perish on the ground. (Reply to friends who chided him for delaying them by

stopping to return a fledgling to its nest.) (Abraham Lincoln)

If man is not to stifle his human feelings, he must practice kindness towards animals, for he who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.

(Immanuel Kant)

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Kind words do not cost much, yet they accomplish much. (Blaise Pascal)

The kindest word in all the world is the unkind word, unsaid. (Author Unknown)

Blessed is he who speaks a kindness; thrice blessed is he who repeats it. (Arabian proverb)

Be generous with kindly words, especially about those who are absent. (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)

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Be kind to unkind people - they need it the most.

Kindness is loving people more than they deserve. (Joseph Joubert)

Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not. (Samuel Johnson)

Treat everyone with kindness, even those who are rude to you - not because they are kind, but because you are.

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Once a man came to me and spoke for hours about “his great visions of God” he felt he was having. He asked me for confirmation, saying,

“Are these wondrous dreams true?”

I replied, “How many goats do you have?” He looked surprised and said, “I am speaking of sublime visions and you ask about goats!” And I spoke

again saying, “Yes, brother - how many do you have?” “Well, Hafiz, I have sixty-two.”

“And how many wives?” Again he looked surprised, then said, “four.”

“How many rose bushes in your garden, how many children, are your

parents still alive, do you feed the birds in winter?” And to all he answered.

Then I said, “You asked me if I thought your visions were true, I would say that they were if they make you become more human, more kind to every

creature and plant that you know.” (Hafiz)

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Aikido Story

The train clanked and rattled through the suburbs of Tokyo on a drowsy spring afternoon. Our car was comparatively empty - a few housewives

with their kids in tow, some old folks going shopping. I gazed absently at the drab houses and dusty hedgerows.

At one station the doors opened, and suddenly the afternoon quiet was

shattered by a man bellowing violent, incomprehensible curses. The man staggered into our car. He wore laborer’s clothing, and he was big, drunk,

and dirty. Screaming, he swung at a woman holding a baby. The blow sent her spinning into the laps of an elderly couple. It was a miracle that

she was unharmed.

Terrified, the couple jumped up and scrambled toward the other end of the car. The laborer aimed a kick at the retreating back of the old woman

but missed as she scuttled to safety. This so enraged the drunk that he grabbed the metal pole in the center of the car and tried to wrench it out of its stanchion. I could see that one of his hands was cut and bleeding.

The train lurched ahead, the passengers frozen with fear. I stood up.

I was young then, some 20 years ago, and in pretty good shape. I’d been putting in a solid eight hours of aikido training nearly every day for the

past three years. I like to throw and grapple. I thought I was tough. Trouble was, my martial skill was untested in actual combat. As students

of aikido, we were not allowed to fight.

"Aikido," my teacher had said again and again, "is the art of reconciliation. Whoever has the mind to fight has broken his connection

with the universe. If you try to dominate people, you are already defeated. We study how to resolve conflict, not how to start it."

I listened to his words. I tried hard, I even went so far as to cross the

street to avoid the pinball punks who lounged around the train stations. My forbearance exalted me. I felt both tough and holy. In my heart,

however, I wanted an absolutely legitimate opportunity whereby I might save the innocent by destroying the guilty.

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This is it! I said to myself, getting to my feet. People are in danger and if I don’t do something fast, they will probably get hurt. Seeing me stand up, the drunk recognized a chance to focus his rage. "Aha!" He roared. "A foreigner! You need a lesson in Japanese manners!" I held on lightly to the commuter strap overhead and gave him a slow look of disgust and dismissal. I planned to take this turkey apart, but he had to make the first move. I wanted him mad, so I pursed my lips and blew him an insolent

kiss.

"All right!” he hollered. "You’re gonna get a lesson." He gathered himself for a rush at me. A split second before he could move, someone shouted

"Hey!" It was earsplitting. I remember the strangely joyous, lilting quality of it - as though you and a friend had been searching diligently for something,

and he suddenly stumbled upon it. "Hey!"

I wheeled to my left; the drunk spun to his right. We both stared down at a little old Japanese. He must have been well into his seventies, this tiny

gentleman, sitting there immaculate in his kimono. He took no notice of me, but beamed delightedly at the laborer, as though he had a most important,

most welcome secret to share.

"C’mere," the old man said in an easy vernacular, beckoning to the drunk. "C’mere and talk with me." He waved his hand lightly. The big man

followed, as if on a string. He planted his feet belligerently in front of the old gentleman, and roared above the clacking wheels, "Why the hell should I talk to you?" The drunk now had his back to me. If his elbow moved so

much as a millimeter, I’d drop him in his socks.

The old man continued to beam at the laborer.

"What’cha been drinkin’?" he asked, his eyes sparkling with interest. "I been drinkin’ sake," the laborer bellowed back, "and it’s none of your

business!" Flecks of spittle spattered the old man.

"Ok, that’s wonderful," the old man said, "absolutely wonderful! You see, I love sake too. Every night, me and my wife (she’s 76, you know), we warm up a little bottle of sake and take it out into the garden, and we sit on an old

wooden bench. We watch the sun go down, and we look to see how our

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persimmon tree is doing. My great-grandfather planted that tree, and we worry about whether it will recover from those ice storms we had last winter.

Our tree had done better than I expected, though especially when you consider the poor quality of the soil. It is gratifying to watch when we take

our sake and go out to enjoy the evening - even when it rains!" He looked up at the laborer, eyes twinkling.

As he struggled to follow the old man’s conversation, the drunk’s face began to soften. His fists slowly unclenched. "Yeah," he said. "I love persimmons

too…" His voice trailed off.

"Yes," said the old man, smiling, "and I’m sure you have a wonderful wife." "No," replied the laborer. "My wife died." Very gently, swaying with the

motion of the train, the big man began to sob. "I don’t got no wife, I don’t got no home, I don’t got no job. I am so ashamed of myself." Tears rolled

down his cheeks; a spasm of despair rippled through his body.

Now it was my turn. Standing there in well-scrubbed youthful innocence, my make-this-world-safe-for-democracy righteousness, I suddenly felt

dirtier than he was. Then the train arrived at my stop. As the doors opened, I heard the old man cluck sympathetically. "My, my," he said, "that is a

difficult predicament, indeed. Sit down here and tell me about it."

I turned my head for one last look. The laborer was sprawled on the seat, his head in the old man’s lap. The old man was softly stroking the filthy, matted

hair.

As the train pulled away, I sat down on a bench. What I had wanted to do with muscle had been accomplished with kind words. I had just seen aikido tried in combat, and the essence of it was love. I would have to practice the art with an entirely different spirit. It would be a long time before I could

speak about the resolution of conflict. (Terry Dobson )

Kirpalct@yahoo.com