105 Quotes To Remind You Kindness Matters

Can you think of a quality that carries more weight than kindness? We can’t either. It’s perhaps one of the most powerful forces in the universe, and yet it still somehow eludes everyone at times. But we’ve said it before and we’ll say it a million times more: kindness matters. It really, really does. That’ll never change. It’s lovely to think that we all carry that truth in our bones and don’t need any reminders. That’s the whole thing about being human, though — we’re imperfect by nature. Sometimes, we need a few motivational words from others to bring everything into focus.

When you’re raising tiny humans, it’s especially important to keep kindness in perspective. There’s a reason why there are so many helpful parenting books on how to raise your children to be thoughtful, compassionate human beings. In order to raise future generations of kind people, we have to first practice it and then pass it on to our little ones.

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When we think of kindness, it means more than just being nice. It’s about selflessness and being understanding. If you’re looking for some key examples, think of characters like Buzz Lightyear. Although he was a bit hard to love in the first half of Toy Story, we eventually saw how caring he was. Buzz was willing to risk his life to help protect the other toys. Even Katniss Everdeen from Hunger Games is a prime example of kindness. Although intense (and the fact that she murdered a few folks), we know she loves deeply and will do anything to protect those she cares about.

So, when the going gets tough and anger is getting the best of you, be like Buzz. These 105 quotes will remind you just how much kindness matters.

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Quotes on Kindness and Generosity

1. “Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.” — Lao Tzu

2. “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

3. “My religious philosophy is kindness. Try to be kind. That’s something worth achieving.” — Pierce Brosnan

4. “Every minute of every hour of every day, you are making the world — just as you are making yourself — and you might as well do it with generosity and kindness and style.” — Rebecca Solnit

5. “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

6. “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

7. “For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.” — Audrey Hepburn

8. “I have understood that the most important things are tenderness and kindness. I can’t do without them.” — Brigitte Bardot

9. “First and foremost, we need to be the adults we want our children to be. We should watch our own gossiping and anger. We should model the kindness we want to see.” — Brené Brown

10. “Whether one believes in a religion or not, and whether one believes in rebirth or not, there isn’t anyone who doesn’t appreciate kindness and compassion.” — Dalai Lama

11. “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

12. “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

13. “To practice five things under all circumstances constitutes perfect virtue; these five are gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness, and kindness.” — Confucius

14. “A kindness received should be returned with a freer hand.” — Saint Ambrose

15. “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina of softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt

16. “Ask yourself: Have you been kind today? Make kindness your daily modus operandi and change your world.” — Annie Lennox

17. “Let us more and more insist on raising funds of love, of kindness, of understanding, of peace. Money will come if we seek the first the Kingdom of God — the rest will be given.” — Mother Teresa

18. “I don’t believe revenge is part of my agenda. I’m a firm believer that, just like hate spreads hate, love and kindness spread love and kindness.” — Whitney Wolfe Herd

19. “Whatever possession we gain by our sword cannot be sure or lasting, but the love gained by kindness and moderation is certain and durable.” — Alexander the Great

20. “I have always depended on the kindness of stranger.” — Tennessee Williams

21. “Kindness in ourselves is the honey that blunts the sting of unkindness in another.” — Walter Savage Landor

22. “Nothing is black or white, nothing’s ‘us or them.’ But then there are magical, beautiful things in the world. There’s incredible acts of kindness and bravery, and in the most unlikely places, and it gives you hope.” — Dave Matthews

23. “One of the toughest things for leaders to master is kindness. Kindness shares credit and offers enthusiastic praise for others’ work. It’s a balancing act between being genuinely kind and not looking weak.” — Travis Bradberry

24. “Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom.” — Theodore Isaac Rubin

25. “We are constituted so that simple acts of kindness, such as giving to charity or expressing gratitude, have a positive effect on our long-term moods. The key to the happy life, it seems, is the good life: a life with sustained relationships, challenging work, and connections to community.” — Paul Bloom

26. “And as I’ve gotten older, I’ve had more of a tendency to look for people who live by kindness, tolerance, compassion, a gentler way of looking at things.” — Martin Scorsese

27. “You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

28. “I always say that kindness is the greatest beauty that you can have.” — Andie MacDowell

29. “There is a rollicking kindness that looks like malice.” — Friedrich Nietzsche

30. “He that has done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another, than he whom you yourself have obliged.” — Benjamin Franklin

31. “It is still breathtaking to me to watch people bring love, preciousness, and kindness to their inner world, allowing the light of God to shine through their eyes so that the beauty of their soul can come forth.” — Debbie Ford

32. “Truth is a deep kindness that teaches us to be content in our everyday life and share with the people the same happiness.” — Khalil Gibran

33. “You can tell by the kindness of a dog how a human should be.” — Captain Beefheart

34. “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

35. “Kindly words do not enter so deeply into men as a reputation for kindness.” — Mencius

36. “Society tends to pin women against each other, but we need to treat each other with kindness and complement one another instead. Because women’s voices are the strongest when they’re together.” — Normani Kordei

37. “The first thing a kindness deserves is acceptance, the second, transmission.” — George MacDonald

38. “True popularity comes from acts of kindness rather than acts of stupidity.” — Bo Bennett

39. “A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds. A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love.” — Saint Basil

40. “Kindness eases everything almost as much as money does.” — Mason Cooley

41. “You don’t teach morals and ethics and empathy and kindness in the schools. You teach them at home, and children learn by example.” — Judy Sheindlin

42. “People of power have to show empathy and kindness to the young.” — Edward Enninful

43. “If you have the chance to be exposed to a loving, understanding environment where the seed of compassion, loving kindness, can be watered every day, then you become a more loving person.” — Thich Nhat Hanh

44. “Our brand of democracy is hard. But I can promise that a year from now, when I no longer hold this office, I’ll be right there with you as a citizen-inspired by those voices of fairness and vision, of grit and good humor and kindness that have helped America travel so far.” — Barack Obama

45. “Sometimes kindness is wiser than the truth.” — Birds of America

46. “Well, I think when we can turn to the person sitting next to us and really see them with kindness and see ourselves reflected back — when there’s some dignity and compassion traveling back and forth.” — Sharon Stone

47. “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

48. “I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind. Yet, strange, I am ungrateful to those teachers.” — Khalil Gibran

49. “The influence of a mother upon the lives of her children cannot be measured. They know and absorb her example and attitudes when it comes to questions of honesty, temperance, kindness, and industry.” — Billy Graham

50. “As much as we need a prosperous economy, we also need a prosperity of kindness and decency.” — Caroline Kennedy

51. “It’s also selfish because it makes you feel good when you help others. I’ve been helped by acts of kindness from strangers. That’s why we’re here, after all, to help others.” — Carol Burnett

52. “Not always actions show the man; we find who does a kindness is not therefore kind.” — Alexander Pope

53. “I’m a big believer in acts of kindness, no matter how small.” — Liam Neeson

54. “The best portion of a good man’s life is his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love.” — William Wordsworth

55. “Getting money is not all a man’s business: to cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life.” — Samuel Johnson

56. “The best you can do is do each day well with kindness as a good person.” — Mayim Bialik

57. “We need more kindness, more compassion, more joy, more laughter. I definitely want to contribute to that.” — Ellen DeGeneres

58. “One of the magical things about kindness is that it’s what we nerds call a ‘happiness aggregator.’ People confuse kindness with being nice. And they’re very different. You can be nice and be passive. But kindness requires action.” — Daniel Lubetzky

59. “Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.” — Albert Schweitzer

60. “A warm smile is the universal language of kindness.” — William Arthur Ward

61. “A laugh, to be joyous, must flow from a joyous heart, for without kindness, there can be no true joy.” — Thomas Carlyle

62. “It’s not our job to play judge and jury, to determine who is worthy of our kindness and who is not. We just need to be kind, unconditionally and without ulterior motive, even — or rather, especially — when we’d prefer not to be.” — Josh Radnor

63. “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

64. “One who knows how to show and to accept kindness will be a friend better than any possession.” — Sophocles

65. “Saints were saints because they acted with loving kindness whether they felt like it or not.” — Dan Millman

66. “Kindness in women, not their beauteous looks, shall win my love.” — Washington Irving

67. “True beauty is born through our actions and aspirations and in the kindness we offer to others.” — Alek Wek

68. “The man who practices unselfishness, who is genuinely interested in the welfare of others, who feels it a privilege to have the power to do a fellow-creature a kindness — even though polished manners and a gracious presence may be absent — will be an elevating influence wherever he goes.” — Orison Swett Marden

69. “In the face of unspeakable evil, our whole nation must respond with countless acts of kindness, warmth, and generosity.” — Steve Scalise

70. “Kindness pardons others’ weaknesses and faults.” — Ezra Taft Benson

71. “When I pontificate, it sounds so, you know, Oh, well, she’s preaching. I’m not preaching, but I think maybe I learned it from my animal friends. Kindness and consideration of somebody besides yourself. I think that keeps you feeling young. I really do.” — Betty White

72. “If you have an impulse to kindness, act on it.” — Douglas Coupland

73. “I’ve been searching for ways to heal myself, and I’ve found that kindness is the best way.” — Lady Gaga

74. “Goodness is about character — integrity, honesty, kindness, generosity, moral courage, and the like. More than anything else, it is about how we treat other people.” — Dennis Prager

75. “We have to be active about kindness and about peace. I’ve always fantasized that it would be great if there was a Department of Peace.” — Dave Matthews

76. “Remember, there’s no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.” — Scott Adams

77. “I guess all we can do is live our lives with as much kindness and decency as possible, and try not to dwell on God standing over us with a giant shovel.” — Malcolm in the Middle

78. “The world is part of us, and we are part of the world. Even through the smallest acts, we can demonstrate that. I believe in the human spirit, in the kindness in all of us, and I am hopeful for this world.” — Clemantine Wamariya

79. “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

80. “Here are the values that I stand for: honesty, equality, kindness, compassion, treating people the way you want to be treated, and helping those in need. To me, those are traditional values.” — Ellen DeGeneres

81. “Kindness is a passport that opens doors and fashions friends. It softens hearts and molds relationships that can last lifetimes.” — Joseph B. Wirthlin

82. “You can accomplish by kindness what you cannot by force.” — Publilius Syrus

83. “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

84. “Kindness and a generous spirit got a long way. And a sense of humor. It’s like medicine — very healing.” — Max Irons

85. “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

86. “If there’s no bigger meaning, then the smallest act of kindness is the greatest thing in the world.” — Angel

87. “He who aspires to paradise should learn to deal with people with kindness.” — Abu Bakr

88. “The way I stand up to bullies is with kindness and love. Because I think that’s what they really need. They’re misunderstood and probably really upset themselves.” — Chrissy Metz

89. “Kindness and faithfulness keep a king safe, through kindness his throne is made secure.” — King Solomon

90. “Kindness has converted more sinners than zeal, eloquence, or learning.” — Frederick William Faber

Kindness Quotes for Kids

1. “People just deserve to be treated with kindness.” — Sophia Bush
2. “No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” — Aesop
3. “Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.” — Mark Twain
4. “Kindness is loving people more than they deserve.” — Joseph Joubert
5. “A little thought and a little kindness are often worth more than a great deal of money.” — John Ruskin
6. “Kindness is ever the begetter of kindness.” — Sophocles
7. “It is veneer, rouge, aestheticism, art, museums, new theaters, etc. that make American impotent. The good things are football, kindness, and jazz bands.” — George Santayana
8. “It’s very important to choose kindness and stop bullying.” — Jacob Tremblay
9. “Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for a kindness.” — Lucius Annaeus Seneca
10. “Everyone responds to kindness.” — Richard Gere
11. “Kindness and politeness are not overrated at all. They’re underused.” — Tommy Lee Jones
12. “You can be rich in spirit, kindness, love, and all those things that you can’t put a dollar sign on.” — Dolly Parton
13. “The level of our success is limited only by our imagination and no act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted. ” — Aesop
14. “Kindness makes a fellow feel good whether it’s being done to him or by him.” — Frank A. Clark
15. “The end result of kindness is that it draws people to you.” — Anita Roddick