Talking about kindness is one thing. Putting it into practice, however, is a whole another can of worms, especially when you’re angry, frustrated, or sad.
We all need reminders to be emphatic, even when all we really want to do is lash out and yell. And these kindness quotes are a perfect way to center yourself during difficult times and remember your values.
I have also included Bible kindness quotes alongside those that are easy enough for kids to understand and learn about compassion, forgiveness, and what it truly means to be kind.
I hope you enjoy them and discover new ways of practicing small acts of kindness in your everyday life!
Short Kindness Quotes
Short and sweet does the trick – these short quotes about kindness will enlighten and inspire in just a few words.
1. “You can accomplish by kindness what you cannot by force.” – Publilius Syrus
2. “When words are both true and kind, they can change the world.” – Buddha
3. “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” – Plato
4. “Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for a kindness.” – Lucius Annaeus Seneca
5. “I feel the capacity to care is the thing which gives life its deepest significance.” – Pablo Casals
6. “You cannot do kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
7. “Being considerate of others will take your children further in life than any college degree.” – Marian Wright Edelman
8. “Treat everyone with politeness and kindness, not because they’re nice, but because you are.” – Roy T. Bennett
9. “The words of kindness are more healing to a drooping heart than balm or honey.” – Sarah Fielding
10. “Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind.” – Eric Hoffer
11. “One who knows how to show and to accept kindness will be a friend better than any possession.” – Sophocles
12. “Kindness is loving yourself enough to love those around you.” – Raktivist
13. “Unexpected kindness is the most powerful, least costly, and most underrated agent of human change.” – Bob Kerrey
14. “I’ve been searching for ways to heal myself, and I’ve found that kindness is the best way.” – Lady Gaga
15. “Kindness is the light that dissolves all walls between souls, families, and nations.” – Paramahansa Yogananda
16. “Every sunrise is an invitation for us to arise and brighten someone’s day.” – Richelle E. Goodrich
17. “I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.” – Vincent Van Gogh
18. “An eye for an eye, and the whole world would be blind.” – Kahlil Gibran
19. “When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.” – Abraham Joshua Heschel
20. “A negative mind will never give you a positive life.” – Ziad K. Abdelnour
21. “How beautiful a day can be when kindness touches it!” – George Elliston
22. “Extend yourself in kindness to other human beings wherever you can.” – Oprah Winfrey
23. “A great man shows his greatness by the way he treats little men.” – Thomas Carlyle
24. “In a gentle way, you can shake the world.” – Mahatma Gandhi
25. “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about.” – Wendy Mass
26. “Kindness gives birth to kindness.” – Sophocles
27. “True beauty is born through our actions and aspirations and in the kindness we offer to others.” – Alek Wek
28. “If you want to lift yourself up, lift someone else up.” – Booker T. Washington
29. “Never look down on anybody unless you’re helping them up.” – Jesse Jackson
30. “What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?” – Jean-Jacques Rousseau
31. “Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not.” – Samuel Johnson
Inspirational Kindness Quotes
Get a brand new perspective on the importance of kindness and compassion with this collection of inspirational quotes!
1. “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
2. “One of my great regrets, and I don’t have many, is that I spent too long putting people’s status and reputation ahead of their more important qualities. I learned far too late in life that a long list of letters after someone’s name is no guarantee of compassion, kindness, humour, all the far more relevant stuff.” – Bill Nighy
3. “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
4. “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
5. “Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom.” – Theodore Isaac Rubin
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. “I think probably kindness is my number one attribute in a human being. I’ll put it before any of the things like courage, or bravery, or generosity, or anything else… Kindness – that simple word. To be kind – it covers everything, to my mind. If you’re kind, that’s it.” – Roahl Dahl
8. “Remember there’s no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.” – Scott Adams
9. “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
10. “I actually think that the most efficacious way of making a difference is to lead by example, and doing random acts of kindness is setting a very good example of how to behave in the world.” – Misha Collins
11. “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
12. “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
13. “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt
14. “Because that’s what kindness is. It’s not doing something for someone else because they can’t, but because you can.” – Andrew Iskander
15. “Happiness is the new rich. Inner peace is the new success. Health is the new wealth. Kindness is the new cool.” – Syed Balkhi
16. “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
17. “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
18. “Research has shown that a simple act of kindness directed toward another improves the functioning of the immune system and stimulates the production of serotonin in both the recipient of the kindness and the person extending the kindness. Kindness extended, received or observed beneficially impacts the physical health and feelings of everyone involved.” – Wayne Dyer
19. “Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair, but manifestations of strength and resolution.” – Kahlil Gibran
20. “Sometimes when we are generous in small, barely detectable ways it can change someone’s life forever.” – Margaret Cho
21. “Don’t wait for other people to be loving, giving, compassionate, grateful, forgiving, generous, or friendly… lead the way!” – Steve Maraboli
22. “Courage. Kindness. Friendship. Character. These are the qualities that define us as human beings, and propel us, on occasion, to greatness.” – R. J. Palacio
23. “The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mole, but true beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul. It is the caring that she lovingly gives, the passion that she knows.” – Audrey Hepburn
24. “Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.” – Desmond Tutu
25. “No kind action ever stops with itself. One kind action leads to another. Good example is followed. A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees. The greatest work that kindness does to others is that it makes them kind themselves.” – Amelia Earhart
26. “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
27. “Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.” – Albert Schweitzer
28. “Kind hearts are the gardens, kind thoughts are the roots, kind words are the flowers, kind deeds are the fruits. Take care of your garden. And keep out the weeds. Fill it with sunshine, kind words, and kind deeds.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
29. “I expect to pass through this world but once; any good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now; let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.” – Etienne de Grellet
30. “Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.” – Lao Tzu
31. “One thing I do know for a fact is that the nicer we are to our fellow human beings, the nicer the universe is to us.” – Joe Rogan
32. “To practice five things under all circumstances constitutes perfect virtue; these five are gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness, and kindness.” – Confucius
Kindness Quotes For Kids
These easy-to-understand quotes are perfect for kids of all ages to learn about compassion and find the motivation to help and be kind to others. Feel free to print them out and discuss them with your kiddos on a rainy day – you might even learn a thing or two!
1. “Try to be a rainbow in someone else’s cloud.” – Maya Angelou
2. “When you are kind to others, it not only changes you, it changes the world.” – Harold Kushner
3. “A warm smile is the universal language of kindness.” – William Arthur Ward
4. “No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” – Aesop
5. “Be nice to strangers. Be nice even when it doesn’t matter.” – Sam Altman
6. “Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.” – Dalai Lama
7. “Always try to be a little kinder than is necessary.” – J. M. Barrie
8. “You can always, always give something, even if it is only kindness!” – Anne Frank
9. “Never lose a chance of saying a kind word.” – William Makepeace Thackeray
10. “Never be so busy as not to think of others.” – Mother Teresa
11. “Kind words don’t cost much. Yet they accomplish much.” – Blaise Pascal
12. “Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.” – Mark Twain
13. “Remember you’re the one who can fill the world with sunshine.” – Walt Disney
14. “If we all do one random act of kindness daily, we just might set the world in the right direction.” – Martin Kornfeld
15. “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” – Dr. Seuss
16. “Kindness begins with the understanding that we all struggle.” – Charles Glassman
17. “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou
18. “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
19. “Good words bring good feelings to the heart. Speak with kindness, always.” – Rod Williams
20. “To the world, you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world.” – Dr. Seuss
21. “Life’s way too short to be grumpy.” – Sara L. Clarke
22. “Sometimes it takes only one act of kindness and caring to change a person’s life.” – Jackie Chan
23. “If you see someone without a smile, give them yours.” – Dolly Parton
Kindness Quotes From The Bible
Find new inspiration in these Bible verses about kindness, compassion, and forgiveness.
1. “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.” – Colossians 3:12-13
2. “She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.” – Proverbs 31:26
3. “Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.” – 1 Peter 3:8-9
4. “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” – Ephesians 4:32
The key to a kinder and more compassionate life is understanding that every person you come across during your day is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Perhaps they’re stuck in an unhappy marriage. Maybe the woman that almost rear-ended you this morning is a single mom with a million problems on her mind.
Sometimes you’ll encounter people that seem just plain mean and wonder if they even deserve to be treated kindly.
But when you allow kindness to wash away negativity like water off a duck’s back, you are giving yourself an opportunity to lead a positive life, be a better mom, dad, friend, and partner. So every day, make an effort to be the kindest you that you can be.
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