Joan Halifax Quotes

“Compassion may be defined as the capacity to be attentive to the experience of others, to wish the best for others, and to sense what will truly serve others.”

“We live in a time when science is validating what humans have known throughout the ages: that compassion is not a luxury; it is a necessity for our well-being, resilience, and survival.”

“The past is the best way to suppose what may come.”

“An old man concludeth from his knowing mankind that they know him too and that maketh him very wary.”

“Friendship cannot live with ceremony nor without civility.”

“Weak men are apt to be cruel because they stick at nothing that may repair the ill effect of their mistakes.”

“Men are not hanged for stealing horses but that horses may not be stolen.”

“A busy fool is fitter to be shut up than a downright madman.”

“He that leaveth nothing to Chance will do few things ill but he will do very few things.”

“There is an accumulative cruelty in a number of men, though none in particular are ill-natured.”