Quotes about Kindness

It is easy enough to do good once or twice, but to keep on doing good without getting disgusted with the ingratitude of those whom we have benefited, that is not so easy.

My neighbor is every person, especially those who need my help, as Christ explained in the tenth chapter of Luke. Even if a person has done me some wrong, or has hurt me in any way, he is still a human being with flesh and blood. As long as a person remains a human being, so long is he to be an object of our love.

Each one should become as it were a Christ to the other that we may be Christs to one another and Christ may be the same in all, that is, that we may be truly Christians.

And this our God, so Scripture says, rejoices over us when we are persuaded that He is not incensed at us but is our kind and lovable Friend.

Thus Augustine says: "We know that we owe our existence to His goodness. We know that we are creatures because of the kindness of God, not because of merit. For it has pleased God that no one should glory except in the Lord.

This is the manner that God uses with all of us to strengthen and test our faith, in that He treats us in such a way that we do not know what He will do with us. He does this only so that we will commend ourselves to Him, yield ourselves only to His kindness, and not doubt that He will give us what we desire or something better.

I only ask in all kindness that the man who wishes at this time to have my books will by no means let them be a hindrance to his own study of the Scriptures, but read them as I read the orders and the ordures of the pope[5] and the books of the sophists.

Instead, we should remember to forgive others even when they have caused us suffering, as we often experience in this life. If we are unwilling to forgive, we can be certain that we won't be forgiven ourselves.

As I have always both offered and desired peace so that I might devote myself to quieter and more useful studies, and have stormed with such great fury merely for the purpose of overwhelming my unequal opponents by the volume and violence of words no less than of intellect, I not only gladly ceased but also joyfully and thankfully considered this suggestion a very welcome kindness to me, provided our hope could be realized.

But it is an insight of faith to know and to see that good works, self-glory, and holy life do not do it, but only God's kindness.

See, according to this rule the good things we have from God should flow from one to the other and be common to all, so that everyone should "put on" his neighbor and so conduct himself toward him as if he himself were in the other's place.

For a man does not serve that he may put men under obligations. He does not distinguish between friends and enemies or anticipate their thankfulness or unthankfulness, but he most freely and most willingly spends himself and all that he has, whether he wastes all on the thankless or whether he gains a reward.