We burned with love for ourselves, all of us, starters of the fire we suffered- our love was the affliction for which only our love was the cure.
Jonathan Safran FoerRead
People who care about animals tend to care about people. They don't care about animals to the exclusion of people. Caring is not a finite resource and, even more than that, it's like a muscle: the more you exercise it, the stronger it gets.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Caring for animals and people are interconnected aspects of empathy and compassion.
This quote by Jonathan Safran Foer emphasizes the idea that caring for animals often reflects a broader capacity for empathy that extends to people as well. It suggests that compassion is not limited; rather, it grows stronger the more it is practiced, akin to a muscle that benefits from regular exercise, thereby fostering a deeper connection between caring for both animals and humans.
Themes
CareCompassionEmpathyAnimalsPeopleRelationshipStrength
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about volunteer work, one might use this quote to highlight the importance of compassion in community service.
More from Jonathan Safran Foer
All quotes →Memory was supposed to fill the time, but it made time a hole to be filled. Each second was two hundred yards, to be walked, crawled. You couldn't see the next hour, it was so far in the distance. Tomorrow was over the horizon, and would take an entire day to reach.
Jonathan Safran FoerRead
She was not crying Which surprised me very much But I understand now That she had found places For her melancholy That were behind more masks Than only her eyes
Jonathan Safran FoerRead
What do babies dream of? She must be dreaming of the before-life, just as I dream of the afterlife.
Jonathan Safran FoerRead
A few weeks after the worst day, I started writing lots of letters. I don't know why, but it was one of the only things that made my boots lighter.
Jonathan Safran FoerRead
What is being awake if not interpreting our dreams, or dreaming if not interpreting our wake?
Jonathan Safran FoerRead
Similar quotes
Journalism is popular, but it is popular mainly as fiction. Life is one world, and life seen in the newspapers is another.
Gilbert K. ChestertonRead
And so was Luria, whose words now came back to me: ‘A man does not consist of memory alone. He has feeling, will, sensibility, moral being ... It is here ... you may touch him, and see a profound change.’ Memory, mental activity, mind alone, could not hold him; but moral attention and action could hold him completely.
Oliver SacksRead
A small grove massacred to the last ash, _x000D_ _x000D_ An oak with heart-rot, give away the show: _x000D_ _x000D_ This great society is going to smash; _x000D_ _x000D_ They cannot fool us with how fast they go, _x000D_ _x000D_ How much they cost each other and the gods. _x000D_ _x000D_ A culture is no better than its woods.
W. H. AudenRead
No one, however weak, is denied a share in the victory of the cross. No one is beyond the help of the prayer of Christ.
Pope Leo IRead
To the extent that this world surrenders its richness and diversity, it surrenders its poetry; to the extent that it relinquishes its capacity to surprise, it relinquishes its music; to the extent that it loses its ability to tolerate ridiculous and even dangerous exceptions, it loses its grace.
Tom RobbinsRead
I looked up at the mass of signs and stars in the night sky and laid myself open for the first time to the benign indifference of the world.
Albert CamusRead