Compassion Quotes by Karen Armstrong

Compassion is not a popular virtue

— Karen Armstrong

Religions don't own compassion; it is a human virtue.

— Karen Armstrong

Compassion is not an option. It's the key to our survival.

— Karen Armstrong

“Humiliate your enemy is dangerous.”

— Karen Armstrong

[T]he family is a school of compassion because it is here that we learn to live with other people. (68)

— Karen Armstrong

...there is something wrong with any spirituality that does not inspire selfless concern for others

— Karen Armstrong

“included: no religious doctrine or practice can be authentic if it does not lead to practical compassion.”

— Karen Armstrong

If it is not tempered by compassion, and empathy, reason can lead men and women into a moral void.

— Karen Armstrong

Compassion is the key in Islam and Buddhism and Judaism and Christianity. They are profoundly similar.

— Karen Armstrong

Compassion is a practically acquired knowledge, like dancing. You must do it and practice diligently day by day.

— Karen Armstrong

“the attempt to become a compassionate human being is a lifelong project.”

— Karen Armstrong

“cultivate an informed empathy with the suffering of all human beings—even those regarded as enemies.”

— Karen Armstrong

“The “principle of charity” and the “science of compassion” are both crucial to any attempt to understand discourse and ideas that initially…

— Karen Armstrong

Each of the world religions has its own particular genius, its own special insight into the nature and requirements of compassion, and…

— Karen Armstrong

“Compassion has dropped so far out of sight these days that many are confused about what is required. It even inspires overt…

— Karen Armstrong

Often when religious leaders come together, they talk about a particular sexual ethic, or an abstruse doctrine, as though this, rather than…

— Karen Armstrong

“With this new empathetic understanding of the context, we will find that we can imagine ourselves, in similar circumstances, feeling the same.”

— Karen Armstrong

“compassion” derives from the Latin patiri and the Greek pathein, meaning “to suffer, undergo, or experience.” So “compassion” means “to endure [something]…

— Karen Armstrong

Religions have always stressed that compassion is not only central to religious life, it is the key to enlightenment and it the…

— Karen Armstrong

“You could stamp on this natural shoot of compassion, Mencius argued, just as you can cripple or deform your body, but if…

— Karen Armstrong

Compassion is aptly summed up in the Golden Rule, which asks us to look into our own hearts, discover what gives us…

— Karen Armstrong

Compassion has been advocated by all the great faiths because it has been found to be the safest and surest means of…

— Karen Armstrong

Western liberal humanism is not something that comes naturally to us: like an appreciation of art or poetry, it has to be…

— Karen Armstrong

The more aggressive our ideologies become, the more aggressive our discourse whether it's in the United States, from Washington D.C., or whether…

— Karen Armstrong

Religions have found that if you behave in a certain way, if you sort of perform certain rituals that expand your mind…

— Karen Armstrong

Compassion is not a popular virtue. Very often when I talk to religious people, and mention how important it is that compassion…

— Karen Armstrong

“A truly compassionate person touches a chord in us that resonates with some of our deepest yearnings. People flock to such individuals,…

— Karen Armstrong

The early doctrines of the church, even doctrines like Trinity and Incarnation were originally also calls for action, calls for selflessness, calls…

— Karen Armstrong

“The new atheists show a disturbing lack of understanding of or concern about the complexity and ambiguity of modern experience, and their…

— Karen Armstrong

“A personalized God can be a mere idol carved in our own image- a projection of our limited needs, fears, and desires.…

— Karen Armstrong

“We need myths that will help us to identify with all our fellow-beings, not simply with those who belong to our ethnic,…

— Karen Armstrong

“Compassion can be defined, therefore, as an attitude of principled, consistent altruism. The”

— Karen Armstrong

When you feel compassion, you dethrone yourself from the centre of the world.

— Karen Armstrong

If we want to create a viable, peaceful world, we've got to integrate compassion into the gritty realities of 21st century life.

— Karen Armstrong

Compassion doesn't, of course, mean feeling sorry for people, or pity, which is how the word has become emasculated in a way.

— Karen Armstrong

“At their best, all religious, philosophical, and ethical traditions are based on the principle of compassion. I”

— Karen Armstrong

Compassion is not feeling sorry for others. It's not soft. It requires an intellectual effort.

— Karen Armstrong

“As we develop our compassionate mind, we should feel an increasing sense of responsibility for the suffering of others and form a…

— Karen Armstrong

“Then, as now, there would always be people who preferred the option of devoting their religious energies to sacred space over the…

— Karen Armstrong

And so, one of the reasons why I started my Charter for Compassion, was to bring the Golden Rule back to the…

— Karen Armstrong