“I have no particular love for my species, but own to an exhaustless fund of compassion.”

Brains are still unfashionable for women to wear, and it has always been proof of women’s superiority that the more intelligent a man is, the more women admire him, while the bigger fool a woman is, the more men run after her.

But the truth is the highest consideration.

Man is not made better by being degraded; he is seldom restrained from crime by harsh measures, except the principle of fear predominates in his character; and then he is never made radically better for its influence.

I have learned to live each day as it comes, and not to borrow trouble by dreading tomorrow.

Of all the calamities to which humanity is subject, none is so dreadful as insanity. … All experience shows that insanity seasonably treated is as certainly curable as a cold or a fever.

The tapestry of history has no point at which you can cut it and leave the design intelligible.

I think even lying on my bed I can still do something.

Man is not made better by being degraded.

A man usually values that most for which he has labored; he uses that most frugally which he has toiled hour by hour and day by day to acquire.

Be of good cheer, for sadness cannot heal the national wounds.

I proceed, gentlemen, to call your attention to the present state of insane persons confined within the commonwealth; in cages, closets, cellars, stalls, pens; chained, naked, beaten with rods, and lashed into obedience.

Every evil has its good, and every ill an antidote.

Compassion is an unstable emotion. It needs to be translated into action, or it withers.

There is so much we can do to render service, to make a difference in the world – no matter how large or small our circle of influence.

The ways are two: love and want of love. That is all.

Before I was humiliated I was like a stone that lies in deep mud, and he who is mighty came and in his compassion raised me up and exalted me very high and placed me on the top of the wall.

We don’t make ourselves compassionate; we are born compassionate.

By practicing meditation we establish love, compassion, sympathetic joy & equanimity as our home.

Once we are honest about our feelings, we can invite ourselves to consider alternative modes of viewing our pain and can see that releasing our grip on anger and resentment can actually be an act of self-compassion.

We have the power to improve our work lives immeasurably through awareness, compassion, patience & ingenuity.