Karl A. Menninger Quotes

… bleeding hearts

To pity distress is but human; to relieve it is Godlike.

People see a hungry face, and they want to feed it; that's a natural response.

It is selfish to concern oneself with tragedies.

The American people have not become heartless.

I don't really have a lot of appropriate feelings for people on an individual basis, but I've always wanted to make people happy.

The human capacity for compassion is not a reflex that is triggered automatically by the presence of another living thing.

The problem with compassion is that it is not photogenic.

Compassion doesn't, of course, mean feeling sorry for people, or pity, which is how the word has become emasculated in a way.

A tear dries quickly when it is shed for troubles of others.

I have empathy; I am humane. I understand human misery.

Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight.

There's no compassion like the penny.

Though we cannot relieve all the distressed, we should relieve as many as we can.

We do have a moral responsibility to reach out to our neighbors in need.

May I never see in the patient anything but a fellow creature in pain.

We all have that capacity to reach out to people we don't even know and care about them ...

Compassion is not weakness, and concern for the unfortunate is not socialism.

We're a compassionate nation.

We are a compassionate society.

Compassion and empathy are anathema to sports.

Fraternity and compassion are written into nature's DNA.

What makes us different from other species is our capacity for compassion and empathy with the struggles of other people.

You never know how many people are compassionate about something, especially when it's not happening to you. You just hope somebody's out there helping.

Pity is easy, but it is difficult to care.