To forgive is not to forget. The merit lies in loving in spite of the vivid knowledge that one that must be loved is not a friend. There is not merit in loving an enemy when you forget him for a friend.
Mahatma GandhiRead
Compassion is a muscle that gets stronger with use.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Compassion grows stronger as we practice it, just like a muscle.
This quote by Mahatma Gandhi suggests that compassion is not just an inherent trait, but a skill that can be developed through intentional practice. Just as physical muscles become stronger with exercise, so too can our capacity for empathy and kindness be enhanced the more we engage in compassionate acts towards others.
Themes
CompassionEmpathyStrengthPracticeGrowth
In practice
Example use cases
Using this quote to inspire a team during a community service day.
More from Mahatma Gandhi
All quotes βLove never claims, it ever gives. Love ever suffers, never resents never revenges itself.
Mahatma GandhiRead
Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.
Mahatma GandhiRead
The real test of nonviolence lies in its being brought in contact with those who have contempt for it.
Mahatma GandhiRead
Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.
Mahatma GandhiRead
The devotion of such titans of spirit as Lenin to an Ideal must bear fruit. The nobility of his selflessness will be an example through centuries to come, and his Ideal will reach perfection.
Mahatma GandhiRead
Similar quotes
The struggle of life is one of our greatest blessings. It makes us patient, sensitive, and Godlike. It teaches us that although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.
Helen KellerRead
Whoever doesn't flare up at someone who's angry wins a battle hard to win.
Gautama BuddhaRead
If men wound you with injuries, meet them with patience; hasty words rankle the wound, soft language dresses it, forgiveness cures it, and oblivion takes away the scar. It is more noble by silence to avoid an injury than by argument to overcome it.
Francis BeaumontRead
All people on the planet are children, except for a very few. No one is grown up except those free of desire.
RumiRead
I did what most writers do at their beginnings: emulated my elders, imitated my peers, thus turning away from any possibility of discovering truths beneath my skin and behind my eye.
Ray BradburyRead
When her muzzle grew more white than brown, the chipmunk forgot that she and the squirrel had had nothing to talk about. She forgot the definition of "jazz" as well and came to think of it as every beautiful thing she had ever failed to appreciate: the taste of warm rain; the smell of a baby; the din of a swollen river, rushing past her tree and onward to infinity.
David SedarisRead