QuoteProject
The experience of helping a fellow man in danger, or even of training in a realistic manner to be ready to give this help, tends to change the balance of power in a youth's inner life with the result that compassion can become the master motive.
Kurt Hahn
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Helping others in need fosters compassion and strengthens one's character.

Kurt Hahn emphasizes that the act of assisting someone in distress, or even preparing oneself to do so, significantly influences a young person's internal dynamics. This transformative experience can cultivate a deep sense of compassion, which then becomes a driving force in their life, reshaping their priorities and moral compass.

Themes

CompassionHelping OthersYouthInner LifeTransformative Experience

In practice

Example use cases

During a motivational speech, a speaker quotes this to inspire young leaders to engage in community service.

More from Kurt Hahn

Education must enable young people to effect what they have recognized to be right, despite hardships, despite dangers, despite inner skepticism, despite boredom, and despite mockery from the world. . . .
Kurt HahnRead

Similar quotes

Enjoy when you can, and endure when you must.
Johann Wolfgang Von GoetheRead
Caesar was a man of great common sense and good taste, meaning thereby a man without originality or moral courage.
George Bernard ShawRead
Men who know themselves are no longer fools. They stand on the threshold of the door of Wisdom.
Havelock EllisRead
Better that one heart be broken a thousand times in the retelling, he has decided, if it means that a thousand other hearts need not be broken at all.
Elie WieselRead
Care about people's approval and you will be their prisoner.
LaoziRead
Never lose a holy curiosity. Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value. He is considered successful in our day who gets more out of life than he puts in. But a man of value will give more than he receives.
Albert EinsteinRead

A little wisdom, now and then

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