Kindness Quotes

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Here are the best kindness quotes to inspire you to make the world a kinder and more considerate place.

Kindness is a quality or type of behavior that is characterized by acts of generosity, consideration, and care and concern for others.

It is a virtue that is prized in almost every culture and religion in the world.

Whether it’s Random Acts of Kindness Day, or any other day of the year, take a moment to be kind to someone else. Your small kind gesture could make their day, or even change their life.

Top 10 Kindness Quotes

Kindness, I’ve discovered, is everything in life.

Isaac Bashevis Singer

The magic in this world seems to work in whispers and small kindnesses.

Charles de Lint
Robert Ingersoll quote "Kindness is strength"Pin
“Kindness is strength.” – Robert G. Ingersoll

Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind.

Eric Hoffer

Kindness has no religion. Religions are like narrow tracks but kindness is like an open sky.

Amit Ray

How do we change the world? One random act of kindness at a time.

Morgan Freeman

Kind words can be short and easy to speak but their echoes are truly endless.

Mother Teresa
Sophocles quote "Kindness is ever the begetter of kindness"Pin
“Kindness is ever the begetter of kindness.” – Sophocles

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.

Plato

There is no wrong way to perform an act of kindness.

Catherine Ryan Hyde, Pay it Forward

Quotes about Kindness

Our kindness may be the most persuasive argument for that which we believe.

Gordon B. Hinckley

Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.

Lao Tzu

I have understood that the most important things are tenderness and kindness. I can’t do without them.

Brigitte Bardot

You can tell by the kindness of a dog how a human should be.

Captain Beefheart
William Arthur Ward quote "A warm smile is the universal language of kindness"Pin
“A warm smile is the universal language of kindness.” – William Arthur Ward

I would rather make mistakes in kindness and compassion than work miracles in unkindness and hardness.

Mother Teresa

What I want is so simple I almost can’t say it: elementary kindness.

Barbara Kingsolver

Love and kindness are never wasted. They always make a difference.

Helen James

I think people are willing to talk about anything if you come to it with kindness.

Jacqueline Woodson

Kindness is not a business. True kindness expects nothing in return and should never act with conditions.

Roy T. Bennett

Life is mostly froth and bubble; Two things stand like stone: Kindness in another’s trouble, Courage in our own.

Adam Lindsay Gordon

Feelings are a bodily thing, and respecting them is called kindness.

A.S. Byatt

You can always, always give something, even if it is only kindness!

Anne Frank

Courage. Kindness. Friendship. Character. These are the qualities that define us as human beings, and propel us, on occasion, to greatness.

R.J. Palacio, Wonder

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
"Kindness is loving people more than they deserve"Pin
“Kindness is loving people more than they deserve.” – Joseph Joubert

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

Kindness means building bridges instead of walls.

Unknown

I feel no need for any other faith than my faith in the kindness of human beings.

Pearl S. Buck

Silence the angry man with love. Silence the ill-natured man with kindness. Silence the miser with generosity. Silence the liar with truth.

Buddha

We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness.

Charlie Chaplin

Getting money is not all a man’s business: to cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life.

Samuel Johnson

Kindness and good nature unite men more effectually and with greater strength than any agreements whatsoever, since thereby the engagements of men’s hearts become stronger than the bond and obligation of words.

Thomas More, Utopia

How beautiful a day can be, when kindness touches it!

George Elliston

You can be rich in spirit, kindness, love and all those things that you can’t put a dollar sign on.

Dolly Parton

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
Rousseau quote "What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?"Pin
“What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness? – Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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

My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.

Dalai Lama

Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom.

Theodore Isaac Rubin

Make kindness your modus operandi and change your world.

Annie Lennox

If you do something with acceptance and kindness, you can create a true friendship.

Dustin Lance Black

Kindness and politeness are not overrated at all. They’re underused.

Tommy Lee Jones

If a person seems wicked, do not cast him away. Awaken him with your words, elevate him with your deeds, repay his injury with your kindness. Do not cast him away; cast away his wickedness.

Lao Tzu

Practice kindness – particularly when you feel irritated or things are not going well. Kindness hardly ever goes wrong.

Lewis Richmond

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

Mean girls go far in high school. Kind women go far in life.

Mandy Hale
Douglas Coupland quote "If you have an impulse to kindness act on it"Pin
“If you have an impulse to kindness, act on it.” – Douglas Coupland

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

The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been kindness, beauty, and truth.

Albert Einstein

I respect kindness in human beings first of all, and kindness to animals.

Brendan Behan

Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.

Albert Schweitzer

Hate ricochets, but kindness does too.

Robin Roe

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

All I’m saying is, kindness don’t have no boundaries.

Kathryn Stockett, The Help

Forget injuries; never forget kindness.

Confucius

I’ve been searching for ways to heal myself, and I’ve found that kindness is the best way.

Lady Gaga

Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the figure of a free people.

Franklin D. Roosevelt
Marian Keyes quote "Love and kindness go hand in hand"Pin
“Love and kindness go hand in hand.” – Marian Keyes

The best part of life is not just surviving, but thriving with passion and compassion and humor and style and generosity and kindness.

Maya Angelou

Each smallest act of kindness, reverberates across great distances and spans of time –affecting lives unknown to the one who’s generous spirit, was the source of this good echo. Because kindness is passed on and grows each time it’s passed until a simple courtesy becomes an act of selfless courage, years later, and far away. Likewise, each small meanness, each expression of hatred, each act of evil.

Dean Koontz

Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair, but manifestations of strength and resolution.

Kahlil Gibran

Human kindness is like a defective tap, the first gush may be impressive but the stream soon dries up.

P.D. James

It is sometimes difficult to view compassion and loving kindness as the strengths they are.

Sharon Salzberg

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

A laugh, to be joyous, must flow from a joyous heart, for without kindness, there can be no true joy.

Thomas Carlyle

A little thought and a little kindness are often worth more than a great deal of money.

John Ruskin

The simplest acts of kindness are by far more powerful then a thousand heads bowing in prayer.

Mahatma Gandhi

He is as full of valor as of kindness. Princely in both.

William Shakespeare, Henry V
"For attractive lips, speak words of kindness"Pin
“For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.” – Audrey Hepburn

We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over; so in a series of kindnesses there is at last one which makes the heart run over.

Ray Bradbury, Farenheit 451

Happiness is the new rich. Inner peace is the new success. Health is the new wealth. Kindness is the new cool.

Syed Balkhi

A kind gesture can reach a wound that only compassion can heal.

Steve Maraboli

We’re all born with selfish desires, so we can all relate to those feelings in others. But kindness is something made individually by each person…so it’s easy to misunderstand when others are trying to be kind to you.

Natsuki Takaya

Kindness can transform someone’s dark moment with a blaze of light. You’ll never know how much your caring matters. Make a difference for another today.

Amy Leigh Mercree

Being Kind Quotes

Because I haven’t yet learned the simplest and most important thing of all: the world is difficult, and we are all breakable. So just be kind.

Caitlin Moran, How to Build a Girl

Be kind to people whether they deserve your kindness or not. If your kindness reaches the deserving good for you if your kindness reaches the undeserving take joy in your compassion.

James Fadiman

Kind hearts are the gardens. Kind thoughts are the roots. Kind words are the blossoms. Kind deeds are the fruits.

Kirpal Singh

Choose being kind over being right and you’ll be right every time.

Richard Carlson

Be kind in your actions. Do not think that you are the only one who can do efficient work, work worth showing. This makes you harsh in your judgment of others who may not have the same talents. Do your best and trust that others do their best. And be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.

Mother Teresa
Kurt Vonnegut quote "You’ve got to be kind"Pin
“You’ve got to be kind.” – Kurt Vonnegut

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

Always be kind, but kindness doesn’t mean that you have to not say what you think.

Grace VanderWaal

Always try to be a little kinder than is necessary.

J.M. Barrie

When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

It’s a little embarrassing that after 45 years of research & study, the best advice I can give people is to be a little kinder to each other.

Aldous Huxley

One man practicing kindness in the wilderness is worth all the temples this world pulls.

Jack Kerouac

If you can be anything, be kind.

Unknown

Men are more prone to revenge injuries than to requite kindness.

Thomas Fuller

Kindly words do not enter so deeply into men as a reputation for kindness.

Mencius

A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees.

Amelia Earhart
"Be a little kinder than you have to"Pin
“Be a little kinder than you have to.” – E. Lockhart

When words are both true and kind, they can change the world.

Buddha

Unexpected kindness is the most powerful, least costly, and most underrated agent of human change.

Bob Kerrey

When you treat yourself with the kindness and high regard that you would give to one of your spiritual heroes, your body becomes the epicenter of quiet joy rather than a battlefield for the ego.

Debbie Ford

I must be cruel only to be kind; Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.

William Shakespeare, Hamlet

Never lose a chance of saying a kind word.

William Makepeace Thackeray

If we are going to be kind, let it be out of simple generosity, not because we fear guilt or retribution.

J.M. Coetzee

Friendships between women, as any woman will tell you, are built of a thousand small kindnesses… swapped back and forth and over again.

Michelle Obama, Becoming

Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be kind. Always.

Brad Meltzer

Moments of kindness and reconciliation are worth having, even if the parting has to come sooner or later.

Alice Monroe
"You can accomplish by kindness what you cannot by force"Pin
“You can accomplish by kindness what you cannot by force.” – Publilius Syrus

Be kind. Always if you have a choice, be kind.

Anne Rice

Treat everyone with politeness and kindness, not because they are nice, but because you are.

Roy T. Bennett

Acts of Kindness Quotes

A random act of kindness, no matter how small, can make a tremendous impact on someone else’s life.

Roy T. Bennett,
The Light in the Heart

You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Always find opportunities to make someone smile, and to offer random acts of kindness in everyday life.

Roy T. Bennett

There is no small act of kindness. Every compassionate act makes large the world.

Mary Anne Radmacher

Good words bring good feelings to the heart. Speak with kindness, always.

Rod Williams

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.

St. Basil

I have found that it is the small everyday deed of ordinary folks that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love.

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

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
"A kind and compassionate act is often its own reward"Pin
“A kind and compassionate act is often its own reward.” – William John Bennett

The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the greatest intention.

Kahlil Gibran

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

Real generosity is doing something nice for someone who will never find out.

Frank A. Clark

Taking responsibility for oneself is by definition an act of kindness.

Sharon Salzberg

The best portion of a good man’s life is his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love.

William Wordsworth

I expect to pass through life but once. If therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again.

William Penn

Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for a kindness.

Seneca

I’m a big believer in acts of kindness, no matter how small.

Liam Neeson

He that has done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another, than he whom you yourself have obliged.

Benjamin Franklin

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
Tennessee Williams quote "I have always depended on the kindness of strangers"Pin
“I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.” – Tennessee Williams

No act of kindness is too small. The gift of kindness may start as a small ripple that over time can turn into a tidal wave affecting the lives of many.

Kevin Heath

Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.

Mark Twain

Remember there’s no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.

Scott Adams

I have never met a person whose greatest need was anything other than real, unconditional love. You can find it in a simple act of kindness toward someone who needs help.

Elizabeth Kübler Ross

Sometimes it’s easy to lose faith in people. And sometimes one act of kindness is all it takes to give you hope again.

Randa Abdel-Fattah

We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over. So in a series of acts of kindness there is, at last, one which makes the heart run over.

James Boswell

Wherever there is a human in need, there is an opportunity for kindness and to make a difference.

Kevin Heath

Not always actions show the man; we find who does a kindness is not therefore kind.

Alexander Pope

Together we can change the world, just one random act of kindness at a time.

Ron Hall
Aesop quote "No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted"Pin
“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” – Aesop

We hope these kindness quotes shift your mindset and have you ready to be kinder today.

We know it can be tough sometimes, but want you to give kindness because you deserve it, even if you don’t think others do.

Sometimes even a random act of kindness can make a huge difference in the world. So get out there and enjoy being kind today, and let us know how it works in the comments.

Natalie Seale

Natalie Seale is a writer and researcher with an MA, MSc, and PhD in History from the University of Edinburgh. Natalie is an avid reader, a keen traveller, and enjoys cooking and walking with her English Spaniel. Her posts focus on inspiring ideas and tips that help people learn, gro, and inspire others.

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