quotations: compassion and solidarity
Juan Luis Segundo, Uruguayan Jesuit priest: The world that is satisfying to us is the same world that is devastating to [the poor].”
Henri Nouwen, Donald McNeill and Douglas Morrison (theologians): Compassion challenges us to cry out with those in misery, to mourn with those who are lonely, to weep with those in tears. Compassion requires us to be weak with the weak, vulnerable with the vulnerable, and powerless with the powerless….its an ethical essential to reclaiming our souls. (Loeb).
Reverend William Sloan Coffin: If you are not angry, you are probably a cynic. And if you lower your quotient of anger at oppression, you lower your quotient of compassion for the oppressed. I see anger and love as very related (in: Loeb p. 323)
The Dalai Lama: Without love we could not survive. Human beings are social creatures, and a concern for each other is the very basis of our life together.
Rabbi Hillel: If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, what am I?
The Dalai Lama, The Nobel Lecture, December 11, 1989: Peace, in the sense of the absence of war, is of little value to someone who is dying of hunger or cold. It will not remove the pain of torture inflicted on a prisoner of conscience. It does not comfort those who have lost their loved ones in floods caused by senseless deforestation in a neighboring country. Peace can only last where human rights are respected, where the people are fed, and where individuals and nations are free.
Eugene Debs, 1908 speech: Now my friends, I am opposed to the system of society in which we live today, not because I lack the natural equipment to do for myself but because I am not satisfied to make myself comfortable knowing that there are thousands of my fellow men who suffer for the barest necessities of life. We were taught under the old ethic that man's business on this earth was to look out for himself. That was the ethic of the jungle; the ethic of the wild beast. Take care of yourself, no matter what may become of your fellow man. Thousands of years ago the question was asked; ''Am I my brother's keeper?'' That question has never yet been answered in a way that is satisfactory to civilized society.
Yes, I am my brother's keeper. I am under a moral obligation to him that is inspired, not by any maudlin sentimentality but by the higher duty I owe myself. What would you think me if I were capable of seating myself at a table and gorging myself with food and saw about me the children of my fellow beings starving to death.
Australian Aboriginal activists group, Queensland, 1970s: If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.
Henri Nouwen, Donald McNeill and Douglas Morrison (theologians): Compassion challenges us to cry out with those in misery, to mourn with those who are lonely, to weep with those in tears. Compassion requires us to be weak with the weak, vulnerable with the vulnerable, and powerless with the powerless….its an ethical essential to reclaiming our souls. (Loeb).
Reverend William Sloan Coffin: If you are not angry, you are probably a cynic. And if you lower your quotient of anger at oppression, you lower your quotient of compassion for the oppressed. I see anger and love as very related (in: Loeb p. 323)
The Dalai Lama: Without love we could not survive. Human beings are social creatures, and a concern for each other is the very basis of our life together.
Rabbi Hillel: If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, what am I?
The Dalai Lama, The Nobel Lecture, December 11, 1989: Peace, in the sense of the absence of war, is of little value to someone who is dying of hunger or cold. It will not remove the pain of torture inflicted on a prisoner of conscience. It does not comfort those who have lost their loved ones in floods caused by senseless deforestation in a neighboring country. Peace can only last where human rights are respected, where the people are fed, and where individuals and nations are free.
Eugene Debs, 1908 speech: Now my friends, I am opposed to the system of society in which we live today, not because I lack the natural equipment to do for myself but because I am not satisfied to make myself comfortable knowing that there are thousands of my fellow men who suffer for the barest necessities of life. We were taught under the old ethic that man's business on this earth was to look out for himself. That was the ethic of the jungle; the ethic of the wild beast. Take care of yourself, no matter what may become of your fellow man. Thousands of years ago the question was asked; ''Am I my brother's keeper?'' That question has never yet been answered in a way that is satisfactory to civilized society.
Yes, I am my brother's keeper. I am under a moral obligation to him that is inspired, not by any maudlin sentimentality but by the higher duty I owe myself. What would you think me if I were capable of seating myself at a table and gorging myself with food and saw about me the children of my fellow beings starving to death.
Australian Aboriginal activists group, Queensland, 1970s: If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.