In the last few years, plenty of us have shown the world how kind people could truly be. We’ve pulled through a historic pandemic by helping each other, organizing help groups, and taking care of those who couldn’t. Now, in the face of war, we do all that we can to help those suffering—be it a donation, actual physical help, or spreading the unaltered truth to those incapable of finding it. There’s a profound kindness in each of us, and although it shines the most in the hardest of times, it sure does, too, in happy times. However, to stay on the positive track of restoring faith in humanity, you might need some help, and inspiring words should do the trick. So, from the wisdom of the greatest writers, most famous people, historical figures, and politicians come the most motivational kindness quotes that we’re serving precisely for those who wish to better the world, one act of kindness at a time.
And kindness should be the basis of everything in life! It’s an act that truly helps those around you while also stirring something deep inside you. Be that an inspiration or motivation for bettering oneself, kindness is what truly matters thinking about a more humane society. The wise quotes that you’re about to see will confirm the statement, if not elevate it to new heights.
The beautiful quotes are waiting for you just a bit further down. And although you might think yourself impenetrable by famous quotes, just check them out and see if they don’t embolden you to be at least a tiny bit kinder. Vote for the kindness quotes that did just that, and share these wise words with your friends!
This post may include affiliate links.
"Always remember that to argue, and win, is to break down the reality of the person you are arguing against. It is painful to lose your reality, so be kind, even if you are right." - Haruki Murakami
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” - Maya Angelou
"Act with kindness, but do not expect gratitude." - Confucius
“No one is born hating another person… People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” - Nelson Mandela
Unfortunately, this isn't one of those "those who can't do, teach" things.
“Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.” - Lao Tzu
“A part of kindness consists in loving people more than they deserve.” - Joseph Joubert
“Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.” - Mark Twain
“A great man shows his greatness by the way he treats little men.” - Thomas Carlyle
"There is overwhelming evidence that the higher the level of self-esteem, the more likely one will be to treat others with respect, kindness, and generosity." - Nathaniel Branden
I don't know, Nat. Can I call you Nat? Nat, there's a former president that defies this logic.
“Kindness begins with the understanding that we all struggle.” - Charles Glassman
“Kindness is always fashionable, and always welcome.” - Amelia Barr
"The ideals which have always shone before me and filled me with joy are goodness, beauty, and truth." - Albert Einstein
“Go and love someone exactly as they are. And then watch how quickly they transform into the greatest, truest version of themselves. When one feels seen and appreciated in their own essence, one is instantly empowered.” - Wes Angelozzi
“Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.” - Leo Buscaglia
“How lovely that everyone, great and small, can make a contribution toward introducing justice straightaway. And you can always, always give something, even if it is only kindness!” - Anne Frank
"Kind people are the best kind of people."
“Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for you.” - Princess Diana
“Remember, there’s no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.” - Scott Adams
I think this is so true, you never know what future your kindness has created.
“It is the characteristic of the magnanimous man to ask no favor but to be ready to do kindness to others.” - Aristotle
“Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for a kindness.” - Lucius Annaeus Seneca
“A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees.” - Amelia Earhart
“Guard well within yourself that treasure, kindness. Know how to give without hesitation, how to lose without regret, how to acquire without meanness.” - George Sand
“I shall pass through this world but once. Any good, therefore, that I can do or any kindness I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer it or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.” - Stephen Grellet
"Let us learn to live with kindness, to love everyone, even when they do not love us." - Pope Francis
“Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.” - Mother Teresa
“For attractive lips, speak words of kindness. For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people. For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry. For beautiful hair, let a child run his fingers through it once a day. For poise, walk with the knowledge that you will never walk alone.” - Sam Levenson
As a child myself I ran my fingers through my own hair. And now it's gone.
“Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty.” - Anne Herbert
“Kindness is the golden chain by which society is bound together.” - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“Kindness is the only service that will stand the storm of life and not wash out. It will wear well and will be remembered long after the prism of politeness or the complexion of courtesy has faded away.” - Abraham Lincoln
“Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.” - Desmond Tutu
“Unexpected kindness is the most powerful, least costly, and most underrated agent of human change.” - Bob Kerrey
“Gratitude is the inward feeling of kindness received. Thankfulness is the natural impulse to express that feeling. Thanksgiving is the following of that impulse.” - Henry van Dyke
“This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.” - Dalai Lama
“When we feel love and kindness toward others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for, but it helps us also to develop inner happiness and peace.” - Dalai Lama
“We’re here for a reason. I believe a bit of the reason is to throw little torches out to lead people through the dark.” - Whoopi Goldberg
"One who knows how to show and to accept kindness will be a friend better than any possession." - Sophocles
"An egoist lives in poverty. A kind person lives in abundance." - Maxime Lagacé
"Today I bent the truth to be kind, and I have no regret, for I am far surer of what is kind than I am of what is true." - Robert Brault
"Be nice to strangers. Be nice even when it doesn’t matter." - Sam Altman
"Kids want to appear tough and independent. Adults want to appear kind and perfect. The wise are just kind." - Maxime Lagacé
"How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a weary world." - William Shakespeare
"Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one." - Bill Gates
“You cannot do kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
“I think probably kindness is my number one attribute in a human being. I’ll put it before any of the things like courage or bravery or generosity or anything else.” - Roald Dahl
“Love and kindness are never wasted. They always make a difference. They bless the one who receives them, and they bless you, the giver.” - Barbara De Angelis
“What we all have in common is an appreciation of kindness and compassion; all the religions have this. Love. We all lean towards love.” - Richard Gere
“That is what compassion does. It challenges our assumptions, our sense of self-limitation, worthlessness, of not having a place in the world, our feelings of loneliness and estrangement. These are narrow, constrictive states of mind. As we develop compassion, our hearts open.” - Sharon Salzberg
"It is futile to judge a kind deed by its motives. Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind." - Eric Hoffer
“When you callously ignore the suffering of others, you lose the capacity to share their happiness, too.” - Albert Schweitzer
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” - Margaret Mead
“My wish for you is that you continue. Continue to be who and how you are, to astonish a mean world with your acts of kindness. Continue to allow humor to lighten the burden of your tender heart.” - Maya Angelou
“Sometimes it takes only one act of kindness and caring to change a person’s life.” - Jackie Chan
“Because that’s what kindness is. It’s not doing something for someone else because they can’t, but because you can.” - Andrew Iskander
“To practice five things under all circumstances constitutes perfect virtue; these five are gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness, and kindness.” - Confucius
“Simple kindness may be the most vital key to the riddle of how human beings can live with each other in peace and care properly for this planet we all share.” - Bo Lozoff
“Kindness is the light that dissolves all walls between souls, families, and nations.” - Paramahansa Yogananda
"The level of our success is limited only by our imagination and no act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted." - Aesop
“Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom.” - Theodore Isaac Rubin
“The everyday kindness of the back roads more than makes up for the acts of greed in the headlines.” - Charles Kuralt
“Kindness makes a fellow feel good whether it’s being done to him or by him.” - Frank A. Clark
“Kindness–that simple word. To be kind–it covers everything, to my mind. If you’re kind that’s it.” - Roald Dahl
“Life is made up, not of great sacrifices or duties, but of little things, in which smiles and kindness, and small obligations given habitually, are what preserve the heart and secure comfort. - Humphry Davy
“I feel the capacity to care is the thing which gives life its deepest significance.” - Pablo Casais
"One who is kind is sympathetic and gentle with others. He is considerate of others' feelings and courteous in his behavior. He has a helpful nature. Kindness pardons others' weaknesses and faults. Kindness is extended to all -- to the aged and the young, to animals, to those low of station as well as the high." - Ezra Taft Benson
"Transparency, honesty, kindness, good stewardship, even humor, work in businesses at all times." - John Gerzema
"He that has done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another, than he whom you yourself have obliged." - Benjamin Franklin
"I feel no need for any other faith than my faith in the kindness of human beings. I am so absorbed in the wonder of earth and the life upon it that I cannot think of heaven and angels." - Pearl S. Buck
You have to have faith, because the evidence is hard to find and circumstantial.
"Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again." - Og Mandino
"Kind words can be short and easy to speak but their echoes are truly endless." - Mother Teresa
“Compassion isn’t about solutions. It’s about giving all the love that you’ve got.” - Cheryl Strayed
“Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people.” - Franklin D. Roosevelt
“Kindness is an electrical spark of life that runs through all kingdoms and has a reciprocal action when shown to others.” - Joe Hayes
“Do things for people not because of who they are or what they do in return, but because of who you are.” - Harold S. Kushner
“The words of kindness are more healing to a drooping heart than balm or honey.” - Sarah Fielding
“Kindness and politeness are not overrated at all. They’re underused.” - Tommy Lee Jones
“Kindness is a passport that opens doors and fashions friends. It softens hearts and molds relationships that can last lifetimes.” - Joseph B. Wirthlin
“When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.” - Abraham Joshua Heschel
“A little thought and a little kindness are often worth more than a great deal of money.” - John Ruskin
“The best portion of a good man’s life is his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love.” - William Wordsworth
“I’ve been searching for ways to heal myself, and I’ve found that kindness is the best way.” - Lady Gaga
“Imagine what our real neighborhoods would be like if each of us offered, as a matter of course, just one kind word to another person.” - Mr. Rogers
“When you carry out acts of kindness you get a wonderful feeling inside. It is as though something inside your body responds and says, yes, this is how I ought to feel.” - Harold Kushner
“Many men fail because they do not see the importance of being kind and courteous to the men under them. Kindness to everybody always pays for itself. And, besides, it is a pleasure to be kind.” - Charles M. Schwab
“There are three ways to ultimate success: The first way is to be kind. The second way is to be kind. The third way is to be kind.” - Mr. Rogers
"There are two ways of spreading light: to be The candle or the mirror that reflects it.” - Edith Wharton
“Our human compassion binds us the one to the other—not in pity or patronizingly, but as human beings who have learnt how to turn our common suffering into hope for the future.” - Nelson Mandela
“Three things in human life are important: the first is to be kind; the second is to be kind; and the third is to be kind.” - Henry James
“Those who make compassion an essential part of their lives find the joy of life. Kindness deepens the spirit and produces rewards that cannot be completely explained in words. It is an experience more powerful than words. To become acquainted with kindness one must be prepared to learn new things and feel new feelings. Kindness is more than a philosophy of the mind. It is a philosophy of the spirit.” - Robert J. Furey
“Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.” - Marlene Dietrich
“The true greatness of a person, in my view, is evident in the way he or she treats those with whom courtesy and kindness are not required.” - Joseph B. Wirthlin
"Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate." - Albert Schweitzer
"I hope you will have a wonderful year, that you’ll dream dangerously and outrageously, that you’ll make something that didn’t exist before you made it, that you will be loved and that you will be liked, and that you will have people to love and to like in return. And, most importantly (because I think there should be more kindness and more wisdom in the world right now), that you will, when you need to be, be wise, and that you will always be kind." - Neil Gaiman
"One can’t be kind to one person and cruel to another." - Morarji Desai
"Never be so kind, you forget to be clever. Never be so clever, you forget to be kind." - Taylor Swift
"The first thing a kindness deserves is acceptance, the second, transmission." - George MacDonald
"The only way to tell the truth is to speak with kindness. Only the words of a loving man can be heard." - Henry David Thoreau
“You can cultivate mercy when you extend acts of compassion and kindness to yourself and to other people.” - Bree Miller
My favorite quote is from Marc Chagall: 'Time does not pass, time arises'. It reminds me that I am in control of my destiny..
My favorite quote is from Marc Chagall: 'Time does not pass, time arises'. It reminds me that I am in control of my destiny..
