Many biblical verses are like inkblot tests, revealing more about us than about the text in question.
Harold S. KushnerRead
Do things for people not because of who they are or what they do in return, but because of who you are.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of selflessness and integrity in actions towards others.
Harold S. Kushner's quote highlights the idea that our actions should be motivated by our own values and character rather than by external factors such as the identity or actions of others. It advocates for a selfless approach to love and kindness, suggesting that true virtue lies in acting according to who we are at our core rather than what we hope to gain in return.
Themes
SelflessnessKindnessIntegrityCharacterValues
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech about community service, one might use this quote to inspire volunteers.
More from Harold S. Kushner
All quotes βI am quite confident that the most important part of a human being is not his physical body but his nonphysical essence, which some people call soul and others, personality... The nonphysical part cannot die and cannot decay because it's not physical.
Harold S. KushnerRead
That is why we have to make room in our lives for people who may sometimes disappoint or exasperate us. If we hold our friends to a standard of perfection, or if they do that to us, we will end up far lonelier than we want to be.
Harold S. KushnerRead
Pain is a part of being alive, and we need to learn that. Pain does not last forever, nor is it necessarily unbeatable, and we need to be taught that.
Harold S. KushnerRead
Our souls are not hungry for fame, comfort, wealth, or power. Our souls are hungry for meaning, for the sense that we have figured out how to live so that our lives matter.
Harold S. KushnerRead
We cannot live without the knowledge that someone cares about us.
Harold S. KushnerRead
Similar quotes
Never take your obedience as the reason God blesses you; obedience is the outcome of being rightly related to God.
Oswald ChambersRead
Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice.
Henry David ThoreauRead
Human security recognizes the importance of individuals and that the key to ensuring growth in developing countries is to foster individual talent and abilities, build self-reliance, and put people in a position to make a broader contribution to society. Growth must be inclusive, and no one must be left behind.
Shinzo AbeRead
The pagan loves the earth in order to enjoy it and confine himself within it; the Christian in order to make it purer and draw from it the strength to escape from it.
Pierre Teilhard De ChardinRead
It is in the interest of tyrants to reduce the people to ignorance and vice. For they cannot live in any country where virtue and knowledge prevail.
Samuel AdamsRead
She felt a stealing sense of fatigue as she walked; the sparkle had died out of her, and the taste of life was stale on her lips. She hardly knew what she had been seeking, or why the failure to find it had so blotted the light from her sky: she was only aware of a vague sense of failure, of an inner isolation deeper than the loneliness about her.
Edith WhartonRead