No principle is worth the sacrifice of a single human being.
Daniel BerriganRead
Sometime in your life, hope that you might see one starved man, the look on his face when the bread finally arrives. Hope that you might have baked it or bought or even kneaded it yourself. For that look on his face, for your meeting his eyes across a piece of bread, you might be willing to lose a lot, or suffer a lot, or die a little, even.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the profound impact that showing kindness and providing for others can have on our lives.
Daniel Berrigan's quote reflects the deep emotional connection and fulfillment one can experience from helping those in need. It highlights the importance of compassion and the lengths one is willing to go to in order to bring hope and sustain life for others. The imagery of sharing bread symbolizes not only physical sustenance but also human connection, suggesting that the simple act of kindness can be transformative both for the giver and the receiver.
Themes
CompassionKindnessSufferingHopeBreadHuman ConnectionAltruism
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about community service.
More from Daniel Berrigan
All quotes →Instead of building the peace by attacking injustices like starvation, disease, illiteracy, political and economic servitude, we spend a trillion dollars on war since 1946, until hatred and conflict have become the international preoccupation.
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Of course, let us have peace, we cry, "but at the same time let us have normalcy, let us lose nothing, let our lives stand intact, let us know neither prison nor ill repute nor disruption of ties ... " There is no peace because there are no peacemakers. There are no makers of peace because the making of peace is at least as costly as the making of war - at least as exigent, at least as disruptive, at least as liable to bring disgrace and prison, and death in its wake.
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The death of a single human being is too heavy a price for the vindication of any principle, however sacred.
Daniel BerriganRead
The God of life summons us to life; more, to be lifegivers, especially toward those who lie under the heel of the powers.
Daniel BerriganRead
For my part, I believe that the vain, glorious and the violent will not inherit the earth. . . . In pursuance of that faith my friends and I take the hands of the dying in our hands. And some of us travel to the Pentagon, and others live in the Bowery and serve there, and others speak unpopularly and plainly of the fate of the unborn and of convicted criminals. It is all one.
Daniel BerriganRead
Similar quotes
Pity arises when we are sorry for someone.Compassion is when we understand and help wisely.
Gautama BuddhaRead
I entrust this Twenty-second World Day of the Sick to the intercession of Mary. I ask her to help the sick to bear their sufferings in fellowship with Jesus Christ and to support all those who care for them. To all the ill, and to all the health-care workers and volunteers who assist them, I cordially impart my Apostolic Blessing.
Pope FrancisRead
The compassion we feel normally is biased and mixed with attachment. Genuine compassion flows towards all living beings, particularly your enemies. If I try to develop compassion towards my enemy, it may not benefit him directly, he may not even be aware of it. But it will immediately benefit me by calming my mind. On the other hand, if I dwell on how awful everything is, I immediately lose my peace of mind.
Dalai LamaRead
What I've come to learn is that the world is never saved in grand messianic gestures, but in the simple accumulation of gentle, soft, almost invisible acts of compassion, everyday acts of compassion. In South Africa they have a phrase called ubuntu. Ubuntu comes out of a philosophy that says, the only way for me to be human is for you to reflect my humanity back at me.
Chris AbaniRead
By compassion we make others' misery our own, and so, by relieving them, we relieve ourselves also.
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I wish people would realize that animals are totally dependent on us, helpless, like children, a trust that is put upon us.
James HerriotRead