QuoteProject
Compassion is not an option. It's the key to our survival.
Karen Armstrong
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Compassion is essential for human survival, not merely a choice.

In this quote, Karen Armstrong emphasizes the importance of compassion in sustaining our human existence. She suggests that empathy and understanding for one another are crucial not just for nurturing relationships but also for building a society where individuals can thrive together. Without compassion, we risk losing our humanity in the face of conflict and adversity.

Themes

CompassionSurvivalEmpathyHumanityKindness

In practice

Example use cases

During a speech on community service, one could use this quote to inspire volunteering.

More from Karen Armstrong

Compassion is the key in Islam and Buddhism and Judaism and Christianity. They are profoundly similar.
Karen ArmstrongRead
Yet a personal God can become a grave liability. He can be a mere idol carved in our own image, a projection of our limited needs, fears and desires. We can assume that he loves what we love and hates what we hate, endorsing our prejudices instead of compelling us to transcend them.
Karen ArmstrongRead
When violence becomes imbedded in a region, then this affects everything. It affects your dreams, your fantasies and relationships, and your religion becomes violent, too.
Karen ArmstrongRead
Far from being the father of jihad, [Prophet] Mohammad was a peacemaker, who risked his life and nearly lost the loyalty of his closest companions because he was determined to effect a reconciliation with Mecca
Karen ArmstrongRead
Yes, all fundamentalists feel that in a secular society, God has been relegated to the margin, to the periphery and they are all in different ways seeking to drag him out of that peripheral position, back to center stage.
Karen ArmstrongRead
Religion is a search for transcendence. But transcendence isn't necessarily sited in an external god, which can be a very unspiritual, unreligious concept.
Karen ArmstrongRead

Similar quotes

Frequent and violent temptations were a proof that the citadel of the soul had not fallen and that the devil raged to make it fall.
James JoyceRead
The end of violence or the aftermath of violence is bitterness. The aftermath of nonviolence is reconciliation and the creation of a beloved community. A boycott is never an end within itself. It is merely a means to awaken a sense of shame within the oppressor but the end is reconciliation, the end is redemption.
Martin Luther King, Jr.Read
To be defeated and not submit, is victory; to be victorious and rest on one's laurels, is defeat.
Jozef PilsudskiRead
A ship in port is safe, but that's not what ships are built for.
Grace HopperRead
It's something my mother believed in: If you are in a position of privilege, if you can put your name to something that you genuinely believe in, you can smash any stigma you want, and you can encourage anybody to do anything.
Prince HarryRead
Over half a million women are raped in this country every year, and only a fraction of them report it because they're too ashamed. It’s a really screwed up world, but its not your fault, and what happened to you, it doesn't make you the monster.
Mariska HargitayRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.