Kindness

Kind words! Oh, earth like heaven would be
And sweet would be our fellowship,
If kind thoughts dwelt in ev'ry heart,
And kind words hallow'd ev'ry lip.
~ William Baxter, from Poems (1852). Kind Words

A kind and compassionate act is often its own reward.
~ William J. Bennett

Your greatness is measured by your kindness; your education and intellect by your modesty; your ignorance is betrayed by your suspicions and prejudices, and your real caliber is measured by the consideration and tolerance you have for others.
~ William J.H. Boetcker

When kindness has left people, even for a few moments, we become afraid of them as if their reason had left them. When it has left a place where we have always found it, it is like shipwreck; we drop from security into something malevolent and bottomless.
~ Willa Sibert Cather, My Mortal Enemy (1926). Part 1. Chapter 6

Open thy bowels of compassion.
~ William Congreve, The Mourning Bride (1697). Act IV, scene vii

Your chilly stars I can forgo,
This warm kind world is all I know.
~ William Johnson (Cory), Ionica (1858). Mimnermus in Church

Man may dismiss compassion from his heart,
But God never will.
~ William Cowper, The Task (1785). Book VI. The Winter Walk At Noon

Kind words cost so little and are worth so much! Speak no evil of anyone; every unkind will sooner or later fly back into your face, and make you stumble in the race of life.
~ William James "Will" Durant, Commencement Address, delivered at the Webb School of Claremont, California (7 June 1958). We Have a Right to be Happy Today

Kind thoughts are rarer than either kind words or deeds. They imply a great deal of thinking about others. This in itself is rare. But they also imply a great deal of thinking about others without the thoughts being criticisms. This is rarer still.
~ Frederick William Faber

Kind words are the music of the world. They have a power which seems to be beyond natural causes, as if they were some angel's song which had lost its way and come on earth. It seems as if they could almost do what in reality God alone can do -- soften the hard and angry hearts of human beings.
~ Frederick William Faber

Kindness has converted more sinners, than zeal, eloquence or learning.
~ Frederick William Faber

Many a friendship -- long, loyal, and self-sacrificing -- rested at first upon no thicker a foundation than a kind word.
~ Frederick William Faber

If you're naturally kind, you attract a lot of people you don't like.
~ William Feather

Kindness is an essential part of God's work and ours here on earth.
~ Billy Graham

Flowers on the coffin cast no fragrance backward over life's dreary way.
~ (Col.) William C. Hunter, PEP: Poise - Efficiency - Peace; A Book of Hows Not Whys For Physical and Mental Efficiency (1911).

Kindness brings happiness; there is nothing you can invest in that will bring greater dividends than kindness and cheery words.
~ (Col.) William C. Hunter, PEP: Poise - Efficiency - Peace; A Book of Hows Not Whys For Physical and Mental Efficiency (1911).

What have you done this day in the way of showing kindness, appreciation and love?
~ (Col.) William C. Hunter, Brass Tacks (1910).

[T]he merit of persons is to be no rule of our charity, but that we are to do acts of kindness to those that least of all deserve it.
~ William Law, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life (1728). Chapter VIII

Would you have the very great kindness to mind your own business?
~ W. Somerset Maugham, The Circle, Act II (1921).

Ninety percent of all mental illness that comes before me could have been prevented, or could yet be cured, by simple kindness.
~ William Bede McGrath, quoted in Spirit Fruit (1974).

Then learnedst thou how much harder it is to give properly than to take properly, and that bestowing well is an art -- the last, subtlest masterpiece of kindness.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra (1885).

Kind words will never die -- neither will they buy groceries.
~ (Edgar Wilson) "Bill" Nye

Perform a kind action, and you find a kind feeling growing in yourself, even if it was not there before. As you increase the number of your kind and charitable interests, you find that the more you do for them, the more you love them.
~ William Bourne Oliver Peabody

He is my brother, and I cannot release myself from the obligation to do him good.
~ William Morley (W.M.) Punshon, from Lectures and Sermons (1873). Sermons. Kindness to the Poor

Courtesy is due even to the lowliest; and, though costing nothing, is often amply rewarded.
~ William J. Macquorn Rankine, in Songs and Fables (1874). Fables. VIII: The Cat and Salutation

Kindly words, sympathizing attentions, watchfulness against wounding men's sensitiveness, -- these cost very little, but they are priceless in their value. Are they not almost the staple of our daily happiness? From hour to hour, from moment to moment, we are supported, blest, by small kindnesses.
~ Frederick William (F.W.) Robertson

The one who will be found in trial capable of great acts of love is ever the one who is always doing considerate small ones.
~ Frederick William (F.W.) Robertson

Neither love nor hate, nor any order of intense adherence to personal involvement in human experience, may be so apt to serve the soul as this freedom and this necessity to be kind.
~ William Saroyan, The Bicycle Rider in Beverly Hills (1952).

A kind heart he hath: a woman would run through fire and water for such a kind heart.
~ William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor. Act III, scene iv

I must be cruel, only to be kind:
Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.
~ William Shakespeare, Hamlet. Act III, scene iv

In nature there's no blemish but the mind;
None can be call'd deform'd but the unkind.
~ William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night. Act III, scene iv

[K]indness, nobler ever than revenge.
~ William Shakespeare, As You Like It. Act IV, scene ii

This was the unkindest cut of all.
~ William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar. Act III, scene ii

Yet do I fear thy nature;
It is too full o' the milk of human kindness.
~ William Shakespeare, Macbeth. Act I, scene v

You can get more with a kind word and a gun than you can get with just a kind word.
~ William "Willie" Sutton

Never lose a chance of saying a kind word.
~ William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair: A Novel without a Hero (1848). Chapter XIX

A warm smile is the universal language of kindness.
~ William Arthur Ward, Reward Yourself

Do you wish the world were happy?
Then remember day by day
Just to scatter seeds of kindness
As you pass along the way.
~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox, from Poems of Power (1901). Wishing

If you are sighing for a lofty work,
If great ambitions dominate your mind,
Just watch yourself and see you do not shirk
The common little ways of being kind.
~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox, from Poems of Power (1901). Mission

So many gods, so many creeds;
So many paths that wind and wind,
While just the art of being kind
Is all the sad world needs.
~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox, from Custer and Other Poems (1896). The World's Need

To say that on a daily basis you can make a difference, well, you can. One act of kindness a day can do it.
~ Betty Williams, in PeaceJam Foundation (4 July 1995). An Interview with Betty Williams

I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.
~ Thomas Lanier ("Tennessee") Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire (1947).

Indulge yourself by being generous -- help someone out, perform an act of kindness, offer a compliment. The person who will feel most uplifted by you having done so is ... you.
~ Paul Wilson, The Little Book of Calm (1996).

A face with gladness overspread!
Soft smiles, by human kindness bred!
~ William Wordsworth, from Memorials of a Tour in Scotland (1803). V. To A Highland Girl

Worse than idle is compassion
If it ends in tears and sighs.
~ William Wordsworth, Yarrow Revisited and Other Poems (1835). The Armenian Lady's Love