Animals can communicate quite well. And they do. And generally speaking, they are ignored
Alice WalkerRead
Be compassionate to everyone. Don't just search for whatever it is that annoys and frightens you-see beyond those things to the basic human being. Especially see the child in the man or woman. Even if they are destroying you, allow a moment to see how lost in their own delusion and suffering they are.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Be empathetic towards others, understanding their struggles rather than focusing on their flaws.
This quote by Alice Walker emphasizes the importance of compassion and understanding in our interactions with others. It encourages us to look past the negative behaviors that may disturb or frighten us and to recognize the deeper humanity and suffering within everyone, suggesting that even those who seem to harm us are often struggling with their own issues and delusions. By seeing the 'child' within each person, we can foster a greater sense of empathy and connection.
Themes
CompassionEmpathyUnderstandingHumanitySuffering
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about forgiveness and empathy during a workshop.
More from Alice Walker
All quotes →June Jordan, who died of cancer in 2002, was a brilliant, fierce, radical, and frequently furious poet. We were friends for thirty years. Not once in that time did she step back from what was transpiring politically and morally in the world. She spoke up, and led her students, whom she adored, to do the same.
Alice WalkerRead
On a spiritual level, it's as though with my sighted eye I see what's before me, and with my unsighted eye I see what's hidden. It's illuminated life more than darkened it.
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I think 'The Color Purple' is so bursting with love, the need for connection, the showing of the need for connection around the globe.
Alice WalkerRead
How long will it take the citizens of the United States, one wonders, to recognize that the house their country bombed in Iraq is the same one they were living in until it was foreclosed?
Alice WalkerRead
One white man on the platform in South Carolina asked us where we were going--we had got off the train to get some fresh air and to dust the grit and dust out of our clothes. When we said Africa he looked offended and tickled too. Niggers going to Africa, he said to his wife. Now I have seen everything.
Alice WalkerRead
Similar quotes
We have to have a deep, patient compassion for the fears of others and irrational mania of those who hate or condemn us.
Thomas MertonRead
Pity arises when we are sorry for someone.Compassion is when we understand and help wisely.
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One does not ask of one who suffers: What is your country and what is your religion? One merely says: You suffer, that is enough for me.
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The root of compassion is not empathy; that is kindness. Kindness is great, but it is not the ultimate compassion. Ultimate compassion relieves the suffering that comes from separateness. The suffering that comes from separateness is relieved only when you are fully present with another person, not when you are separately present.
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For fear of causing terror to living beings, Mahamati, let the Bodhisattva who is disciplining himself to attain compassion, refrain from eating flesh.
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If I can stop one heart from breaking…” Emily Dickinson 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 DickinsonRead