Witness the American ideal: the Self-Made Man. But there is no such person. If we can stand on our own two feet, it is because others have raised us up. If, as adults, we can lay claim to competence and compassion, it only means that other human beings have been willing and enabled to commit their competence and compassion to us--through infancy, childhood, and adolescence, right up to this very moment.

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One cannot be deeply responsive to the world without being saddened very often.

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Compassion instills a sense of calm, inner strength, and a deep confidence and satisfaction. — Dalai Lama

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If, then, my awareness of the past and future makes me less aware of the present, I must begin to wonder whether I am actually living in the real world. ― Alan Wilson Watts

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People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone.

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Other people teach us who we are. Their attitudes to us are the mirror in which we learn to see ourselves, but the mirror is distorted. We are, perhaps, rather dimly aware of the immense power of our social environment. ― Alan Wilson Watts

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My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style. — Maya Angelou

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Empathy is the language of the blind who can see, and compassion is the music of the deaf who can hear. ― Shree Shambav

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If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. — The Dalai Lama

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A priest once quoted to me the Roman saying that a religion is dead when the priests laugh at each other across the altar. I always laugh at the altar, be it Christian, Hindu, or Buddhist, because real religion is the transformation of anxiety into laughter. ― Alan Wilson Watts

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