QuoteProject
You are right,” he had said. “Love is not the word. No one can love his neighbor. Say, rather, ‘Know thy neighbor as thyself.” That is, comprehend his hardships and understand his position, deal with his faults as gently as with your own. Do not judge him where you do not judge yourself. Madame, this is the meaning of the word love.
Pearl S. Buck
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote emphasizes understanding and compassion towards others as the true essence of love.

In this quote, Pearl S. Buck suggests that love is more than just an emotional attachment; it involves a deep understanding and empathy towards others. By encouraging individuals to comprehend the struggles of their neighbors and to be gentle with their faults, the quote advocates for a love that is rooted in self-awareness and compassion, urging us to avoid judgment and instead embrace mutual respect and understanding.

Themes

LoveUnderstandingCompassionEmpathyNeighbor

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used during a community service meeting to inspire volunteers to understand the needs of those they are helping.

More from Pearl S. Buck

Now, five years is nothing in a man's life except when he is very young and very old... - Wang Lung
Pearl S. BuckRead
You are free when you gain back yourself,” Madame Wu said. “You can be as free within these walls as you could be in the whole world. And how could you be free if, however far you wander, you still carry inside yourself the constant thought of him? See where you belong in the stream of life. Let it flow through you, cool and strong. Do not dam it with your two hands, lest he break the dam and so escape you. Let him go free, and you will be free.
Pearl S. BuckRead
We should so provide for old age that it may have no urgent wants of this world to absorb it from meditation on the next. It is awful to see the lean hands of dotage making a coffer of the grave.
Pearl S. BuckRead
To know how to do something well is to enjoy it.
Pearl S. BuckRead
The lack of emotional security of our American young people is due, I believe, to their isolation from the larger family unit. No two people - no mere father and mother - as I have often said, are enough to provide emotional security for a child. He needs to feel himself one in a world of kinfolk, persons of variety in age and temperament, and yet allied to himself by an indissoluble bond which he cannot break if he could, for nature has welded him into it before he was born.
Pearl S. BuckRead
Let woman out of the home, let man into it, should be the aim of education. The home needs man, and the world outside needs woman.
Pearl S. BuckRead

Similar quotes

Now get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must come; make her laugh at that.
William ShakespeareRead
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.
Khalil GibranRead
Everybody wants to share life and be in love and be loved.
Judy BlumeRead
In loving one another through our works we bring an increase of grace and a growth in divine love.
Mother TeresaRead
Such short little lives our pets have to spend with us, and they spend most of it waiting for us to come home each day. It is amazing how much love and laughter they bring into our lives and even how much closer we become with each other because of them.
John GroganRead
The battle for our hearts is fought on the pages of our calendar.
Bob GoffRead

A little wisdom, now and then

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