The Golden Rule is Universal.
Below are hundreds of versions or formulations of the Golden Rule. We are constantly updating our data base, so check back often for new formulations.
It's found in many religious sacred texts, throughout time, defying language, culture, race, space, and time.
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Agnosticism
Walk a mile in another man’s shoes before you pass judgment.
African
“One going to take a pointed stick to pinch a baby bird should first try it on himself to feel how it hurts.”
-Yoruba Proverb African Traditional (Nigeria)
“Whenever a person breaks a stick in the forest, let him consider what it would feel like if it were himself who was thus broken.”
-Yoruba Proverb African Traditional (Nigeria)
Bahá'í
“Blessed is he who preferreth his brother before himself.”
-Bahá’u’lláh, Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh
“Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.”
-Udana-Varga, 5:18
“Oh Son of Being! Ascribe not to any soul that which thou wouldst not have ascribed to thee, and say not that which thou doest not. This is My command unto thee, do thou observe it.”
-Arabic Hidden Words
“And if thine eyes be turned towards justice, choose thou for thy neighbour that which thou choosest for thyself.”
or
“He should not wish for others what he does not wish for himself.”
-Epistle to the Son of the Wolf
“Wish not for others what ye wish not for yourselves”
-Kitab-I-Aqdas
“Lay not upon any soul a load that you would not wish to be laid upon you, and desire not for anyone the things you would not desire for yourself.”
-Baha’u’llah Gleanings
“He should not wish for others what he does not wish for himself.”
-Baha’u’llah
Buddhism
“Is there a deed, Rahula, thou dost wish to do? Then bethink thee thus: Is this deed conducive to my own harm, or to others harm, or to that of both? Then is this a bad deed entailing suffering. Such a deed must thou surely not do.”
-Majjhima Nikaya 1.415
“The Ariyan disciple thus reflects, Here am I, fond of my life, not wanting to die, fond of pleasure and averse from pain. Suppose someone should rob me of my life… it would not be a thing pleasing and delightful to me. If I, in my turn, should rob of his life one fond of his life, not wanting to die, one fond of pleasure and averse to pain, it would not be a thing pleasing or delightful to him. For a state that is not pleasant or delightful to me must also be to him also; and a state that is not pleasing or delightful to me, how could I inflict that upon another? As a result of such reflection he himself abstains from taking the life of creatures and he encourages others so to abstain, and speaks in praise of so abstaining.”
-Samyutta Nikaya v.353
“All beings love life. All beings fear death. Knowing this the wise man does not kill nor cause to kill’.”
-Dhammapadha
“In five ways should a clansman minister to his friends and familiars, by treating them as he treats himself.”
-Sigalovada Sutta v. 31
“Comparing oneself to others in such terms as “Just as I am so are they, just as they are so am I,” he should neither kill nor cause others to kill.”
-Sutta Nipata v. 705
“…a state that is not pleasing or delightful to me, how could I inflict that upon another?”
-Samyutta Nikaya v. 353
“Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.”
-Tripitaka Udana-Varga 5:18
Compassion and tolerance are not a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength.
-Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
Christianity
“Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”
-Yahshua, Matthew 7:12
“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
-Yahshua, Matthew 22:39
“You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.”
-YHWH, Leviticus 19:18
“Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.”
-Luke 6.30-31
“And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said unto him, What is written in the law? How readest thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself. And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: do this, and thou shalt live.”
-Luke 10:25-28
“Whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them.”
-Matthew 7.12
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.”
-Matthew 22.36-40
“Owe no man anything, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law”
-Romans 13:8-10
“For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”
-Galatians 5:14
“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”
-Bible, version unknown
“Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.”
-Matthew 7:12
“…and don’t do what you hate…”,
-Gospel of Thomas 6
“What you hate, do not do to anyone.”
-Deuterocanonical Bible, NRSV, Tobit 4:15, Roman Catholic Church and Orthodox Christianity
“Think of your brethren like unto yourselves, and be familiar with all and free with your substance, that they may be rich like unto you.”
-Jacob 2:17
Confucianism
“Do not do to others what you would not like yourself. Then there will be no resentment against you, either in the family or in the state.”
-Analects 12:2
“Now the man of perfect virtue, wishing to be established himself, seeks also to establish others; wishing to be enlarged himself, he seeks also to enlarge others. To be able to judge of others by what is nigh in ourselves? This may be called the art of virtue.”
Analects of Confucius 6:30
“Do not unto others what you would not have them do unto you.”
-Analects 15:23
“One word which sums up the basis for all good conduct…loving kindness. Do not do unto others what you would not want done to yourself.”
-Analects of Confucius 15.23
“One should not behave towards others in a way which is disagreeable to oneself.”
-Mencius Vii.A.4
“Tse-kung asked, ‘Is there one word that can serve as a principle of conduct for life?’ Confucius replied, ‘It is the word ‘shu’ — reciprocity. Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire.’”
-Doctrine of the Mean 13.3
“When one cultivates to the utmost the principles of his nature, and exercises them on the principle of reciprocity, he is not far from the path. What you do not like when done to yourself, do not do to others.”
-Li Ki 28.1.32
“What a man dislikes in his superiors, let him not display in the treatment of his inferiors; what he dislikes in inferiors, let him not display in the service of his superiors; what he hates in those who are before him, let him not therewith precede those who are behind him; what he hates in those who are behind him, let him not therewith follow those who are before him; what he hates to receive on the right, let him not bestow on the left; what he hates to receive on the left, let him not bestow on the right: – this is what is called “The principle with which, as with a measuring-square, to regulate one’s conduct.”
-The Great Learning 10.2
“Try your best to treat others as you would wish to be treated yourself, and you will find that this is the shortest way to benevolence.”
-Mencius VII.A.4
Greek Philosophers
“We should behave to friends as we would wish friends to behave to us.”
-Aristotle
“Do not do to others what would anger you if done to you by others.”
or
“Do not do to others that which would anger you if others did it to you.”
-Socrates
“What you would avoid suffering yourself, seek not to impose upon others.”
-Epictetus
Hinduism
“This is the sum of duty; do naught onto others what you would not have them do unto you.”
-Mahabharata
“Wound not others, do no one injury by thought or deed, utter no word to pain thy fellow creatures.”
-The Ordinances of Manu
“One should not behave towards others in a way which is disagreeable to oneself. This is the essence of morality. All other activities are due to selfish desire.”
-Mahabharata, Anusasana Parva 113.8
“Do naught to others which, if done to thee, would cause thee pain: this is the sum of duty.”
or
“This is the sum of duty: Do naught unto others which would cause you pain if done to you.”
or
“This is the sum of the Dharma [duty]: do naught unto others which would cause you pain if done to you.”
-Mahabharata 5:1517
Humanism
Humanists acknowledge human interdependence, the need for mutual respect and the kinship of all humanity.
Humanists affirm that individual and social problems can only be resolved by means of human reason, intelligent effort, critical thinking joined with compassion and a spirit of empathy for all living beings.
“Don’t do things you wouldn’t want to have done to you.”
-British Humanist Society
“Do for all others, both directly and indirectly, what you would want done for you.”
And, “Don’t do to any others, either directly or indirectly, what you wouldn’t want done to you.”
-Craig Cline
Islam
“Not one of you truly believes until you wish for others that which you wish for yourself.”
-The Prophet Mohammed Hadith
“No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself.”
-Sunnah Islam
“Do unto all men as you would wish to have done unto you; and reject for others what you would reject for yourself.”
-Hadith, Islam
“Not one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself.”
or
“None of you [truly] believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself.”
-Number 13 of Imam “Al-Nawawi’s Forty Hadiths
“Additionally, the Prophet Muhammad said there is no excuse for committing unjust acts: ‘Do not be people without minds of your own, saying that if others treat you well you will treat them well, and that if they do wrong you will do wrong to them. Instead, accustom yourselves to do good if people do good and not to do wrong (even) if they do evil.’”
-Al-Tirmidhi
Jainism
“In happiness and suffering, in joy and grief, we should regard all creatures as we regard our own self.”
-Lord Mahavir 24th Tirthankara
“One who you think should be hit is none else but you. One who you think should be governed is none else but you. One who you think should be tortured is none else but you. One who you think should be enslaved is none else but you. One who you think should be killed is none else but you. A sage is ingenuous and leads his life after comprehending the parity of the killed and the killer. Therefore, neither does he cause violence to others nor does he make others do so.”
-Acarangasutra 5.101-2
“One should treat all beings as he himself would be treated.”
-Agamas Sutrakritanga 1.10.13
“A man should wander about treating all creatures as he himself would be treated.”
-Agamas Sutrakritanga 1.11.33
“Therefore, neither does he [a sage] cause violence to others nor does he make others do so.”
-Acarangasutra 5.101-2.
“In happiness and suffering, in joy and grief, we should regard all creatures as we regard our own self.”
-Lord Mahavira, 24th Tirthankara
Judaism
“You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.”
-YHWH, Leviticus 19:18
“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
-Leviticus 19.18
“Take heed to thyself, my child, in all thy works; and be discreet in all thy behavior. And what thou thyself hatest, do to no man.”
-Tobit 4.14-15
“Whatsoever thou wouldest that men should not do unto thee, do not do that to them.”
or
“A certain heathen came to Shammai and said to him, “Make me a proselyte, on condition that you teach me the whole Torah while I stand on one foot.” Thereupon he repulsed him with the rod which was in his hand. When he went to Hillel, he said to him, “What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor: that is the whole Torah; all the rest of it is commentary; go and learn.”
or
“What is hateful to you, do not to your fellow man. That is the entire law: all the rest is commentary.”
or
“What is hateful to you do not do to your neighbour. This is the whole Torah [Law]; all the rest is commentary.”
-Hillel Talmud, Shabbat 31a
“…thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”
or
Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbour as yourself.
-Bible, The New International Version, Leviticus 19:18
Latter-Day Saints
“And let every man esteem his brother as himself, and practice virtue and holiness before me.”
-Doctrine and Covenants 38:24
Native American
“Respect for all life is the foundation.”
-The Great Law of Peace
“Whatever befalls the earth, befalls the sons of the earth. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself. ”
and
“We are part of the earth and the earth is part of us.”
-Chief Seattle
“Be tolerant of those who are lost on their path. Ignorance, conceit, anger, jealousy and greed stem from a lost soul. Pray that they will find guidance.”
and
“Respect all things that are placed upon this earth – whether it be people or plant.”
and
“Avoid hurting the hearts of others. The poison of your pain will return to you.”
and
“Be true to yourself first. You cannot nurture and help others if you cannot nurture and help yourself first.”
-Native American Code of Ethics
“All things are our relatives; what we do to everything, we do to ourselves. All is really One.”
-Black Elk
“We are as much alive as we keep the earth alive.”
-Chief Dan George
The Spider Grandmother gave two rules: Don’t go around hurting people, and Try to understand things.
-Capo 2nd Hopi Indian culture
“Do not wrong or hate your neighbor. For it is not he who you wrong, but yourself.”
-Pima proverb
“Do not wrong or hate your neighbor. For it is not he who you wrong, but yourself.”
Persian
“Do as you would be done by.”
Roman Antiquity
“Treat your inferiors as you would be treated by your superiors.”
-Seneca: Epistle 47:11
“The law imprinted on the hearts of all men is to love the members of society as themselves.”
-Roman Pagan Religion
Shintoism
“Be charitable to all beings, love is the representative of God.”
-Ko-ji-ki Hachiman Kasuga
“The heart of the person before you is a mirror. See there your own form”
-Shinto
Sikhism
“Do not create enmity with anyone as God is within everyone.”
-Guru Arjan Devji 259. Guru Granth Sahib
“We obtain salvation by loving our fellow man and God.”
-Granth Japji
“Compassion-mercy and religion are the support of the entire world.”
-Japji Sahib
“No one is my enemy, none a stranger and everyone is my friend.”
–Guru Arjan Dev
Sufism
“The basis of Sufism is consideration of the hearts and feelings of others. If you haven’t the will to gladden someone’s heart, then at least beware lest you hurt someone’s heart, for on our path, no sin exists but this.”
-Dr. Javad Nurbakhsh, Master of the Nimatullahi Sufi Order
Taoism
“Regard your neighbor’s gain as your gain, and your neighbor’s loss as your own loss.”
-Tai Shang Kan Yin P’ien
“Recompense injury with kindness.”
-Tao Teh Ching
“The sage has no interest of his own, but takes the interests of the people as his own. He is kind to the kind; he is also kind to the unkind: for Virtue is kind. He is faithful to the faithful; he is also faithful to the unfaithful: for Virtue is faithful.”
-Tao Teh Ching, Chapter 49
“Regard your neighbor’s gain as your own gain, and your neighbor’s loss as your own loss.”
-T’ai Shang Kan Ying P’ien
“To those who are good to me, I am good; to those who are not good to me, I am also good. Thus all get to be good. To those who are sincere with me, I am sincere; to those who are not sincere with me, I am also sincere. Thus all get to be sincere.”
Utilitarianism
“To do as one would be done by, and to love one’s neighbor as one’s self, constitute the ideal perfection of utilitarian morality.”
-John Stuart Mill
Unitarian Universalism
“We affirm and promote respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.”
–Unitarian Universalism Principles
“Do unto others as God would do unto them, as a perfect parent.”
–Unitarian Universalism Principles
Wicca
“And it harm none, do as ye will.”
“An’ it harm no one, do what thou wilt” (i.e. do what ever you want to, as long as it harms nobody, including yourself)
-The Wiccan Rede
Writers
“Every man takes care that his neighbor does not cheat him. But the day comes when he begins to care that he does not cheat his neighbor. Then all goes well.”
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
“The Golden Rule would reconcile capital and labor, all political contention and uproar, all selfishness and greed.”
-Joseph Parker
“Treat other the way you want to be treated” (This variation is know as the “Platinum Rule”).
-Popularized by : Tony Alessandra
“Act as you would want all other people to act towards all other people.”
Zoroastrianism
“That nature alone is good which refrains from doing to another whatsoever is not good for itself.”
-Dadisten-I-dinik, 94,5
“That nature only is good when it shall not do unto another whatever is not good for its own self.”
and
“Whatever thou dost not approve for thyself, do not approve for anyone else. When thou hast acted in this manner, thou art righteous.”
-Avesta: Dadistan-i-dink 94:5
“When a good man is beaten through malice, the effort of every one should continue just as though it happened to himself.”
“Whatever is disagreeable to yourself do not do unto others.”
-Shayast-na-Shayast 13:29
“Comparing oneself to others in such terms as Just as I am so are they, just as they are so am I, he should neither kill nor cause others to kill.”
Unattributed Material / simple forms
Do not that to a neighbor which you shall take ill from him.
-Grecian
The true rule of life is to guard and do by the things of others as they do by their own.
-Hindu
“I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I DO and I understand.”
Chinese proverb
One should seek for others the happiness one desires for one’s self.
-Buddhist
Let none of you treat his brother in a way he himself would not like to be treated.
-Islam
The law imprinted on the hearts of all men is to love the members of society
-Roman
The Gurdjieff Work
“I am Thou
Thou are I
He is ours
We both are His
So may all be for our neighbor.
Only he can be just who is able to put himself in the position of others.
Only he who can take care of what belongs to others may have his own.
Treat Another’s as your own and be ye so related.”
and
“Only he who can take care of what belongs to others may have his own.”
and
“Treat another’s as your own and be ye so related.”
and
“Only he may enter here who puts himself in the position of the other results of my labors.”
and
“The highest aim and sense of human life is the striving to attain the welfare of one’s neighbor,” and that this is possible exclusively only by the conscious renunciation of one’s own.”
-G. Gurdjieff
Golden Rule Snippets
There are creeds and rules to guide us
And help us in life’s school,
But the finest creed for every need,
Is the good old golden rule.
-Folk Rhyme
“To do to others as I would
That they should do to me,
Will make me gentle, kind and good,
As children ought to be.”
-Anonymous Children’s Verse
Samuel “Golden Rule” Jones (1846-1904) was a politician who attempted to live by the golden rule in his private, business and public conduct. He became mayor of Toledo, Ohio. He said, “We must all understand the gospel of DO. I know well enough how to practice the golden rule; the difficulty comes in my unwillingness to do it entirely, my half-way doing it.”
As familiar and right as the term ‘the golden rule’ is, this term is not biblical – indeed was not used in this way until the 17th century.
Arthur Nash published, in 1923, a book titled The Golden Rule in Business in which he recounts how he took a tiny firm and made it the world’s largest garment manufacturer by the constant application of the Golden Rule. He started by doubling and tripling all of his employees’ salaries, and tried thereafter to think of the employees’ and customers’ welfare in all his decisions.
J.C. Penney opened a store in Wyoming in 1902 called the Golden Rule Store. He believed in low prices and loving service to his customers, and was confident that, “by good service to our customers we will create in them that spring of sparkling goodwill which will prompt them to want to help us to serve them.” He believed that “between secular and sacred no arbitrary line exists . . . the golden rule was meant for business as much as for other human relationships.”
One of the most famous nonviolent Abolitionists was Adin Ballou. His writings analyzed the ideas and practices of nonviolence more philosophically than any other writer of the 19th century. Ballou’s argument for nonviolence began with a simple point: everyone must choose either to practice or abstain from violence. “They who will not be obedient to the law of love, shall bow down under the law of physical force.”
George Boraster in a 1683 sermon pointed out that we all need a simple formula for right conduct for “the shortness of human life, and the difficulty and tediousness of learning, and the intricacy of knowledge, and the multiplicity of particular cases, exceptions and restrictions require a brief and memorable rule to counteract these confusions and remind us of the good.”
Other References
“And, finally, let’s remember that if there is one law that we can all be most certain of that seems to bind people of all faiths, and people who are still finding their way towards faith but have a sense of ethics and morality in them — that one law, that Golden Rule that we should treat one another as we wish to be treated. The Torah says ‘Love thy neighbor as yourself.’ In Islam, there is a Hadith that states: ‘None of you truly believes until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself.’ The Holy Bible tells us to ‘put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.’ Put on love.
Whatever our beliefs, whatever our traditions, we must seek to be instruments of peace, and bringing light where there is darkness, and sowing love where there is hatred.”
-President Barack Obama
“All Real aims and purposes are strivings for unification at one or another level. All coming-into-real-relationship is a three-become-One, whether this pursuit of relationship involves ‘Other’ people, a coming to a new intellectual understanding, or coming to a new level of relationship with the natural world of birds, animals and trees. When we identify other [and this takes place both wholly within us – and also with respect to all outside others] the Relationship, or Holy Reconciling itself belongs to neither self or other but is a separate , balanced fusion of both, and yet beyond each.
-From Keith Buzzell; quote from paper on Kundabuffer
“An army of principles will penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot; it will succeed where diplomatic management would fail: it is neither the Rhine, the Channel, nor the ocean that can arrest its progress: it will march on the horizon of the world and it will conquer.”
Thomas Paine
“Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace.”
–Albert Schweitzer
“It is not sufficient to have compassion only for those who are cute.”
-Richard Summerbell
“Neighbors’ willingness to act, when needed, for one another’s benefit, and particularly for the benefit of one another’s children.”
-Dr. Felton Earls
“The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another.”
–Thomas Merton
“A religious man is a person … whose greatest passion is compassion.”
-Abraham Joshua Heschel
“Men are only as great as they are kind.”
Elbert Hubbard
“An untrammelled conscience will always know more than all the books and teachers put together. But for the present, until your own conscience is formed, live according to the commandment of our Teacher Jesus Christ: “Do not do to others what you would wish them to do to you.”
-Bogachevsky
“Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.”
and
“We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love.”
and
“Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.”
-Mother Theresa
“The highest forms of understanding we can achieve are laughter and human compassion.”
-Richard Feynman, in What Do You Care What Other People Think?
“Choose being kind over being right and you’ll be right every time.”
-Richard Carlson
“We are made kind by being kind.”
-Eric Hoffer
“Be the change you wish to see in the world.”
and
“The golden way was to be friends with the world and to regard the whole human family like the members of one family.”
-Gandhi
“We teach who we are.”
–Parker J. Palmer, The Active Life: A Spirituality of Work Creativity, and Caring
“…in caring we aim not at giving birth to something new; we aim at nurturing, protecting, guiding, healing, or empowering something that already has life. The energy behind caring is compassion for others which, in turn, is energized by the knowledge that we are all in this together, that the fate of other beings has implications for our own fate.”
–Parker J. Palmer, The Active Life: A Spirituality of Work Creativity, and Caring, p. 9-10
“If you send out goodness from yourself, or if you share that which is happy or good within you, it will all come back to you multiplied ten thousand times. In the kingdom of love there is no competition; there is no possessiveness or control. The more love you give away, the more love you will have.”
-John O’Donohue, Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom
“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.”
-Aesop
“Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for kindness.”
-Seneca
“It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.”
-Kahil Gibran
“Kindness is the golden chain by which society is bound together.”
and
“Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them to become what they are capable of being.”
-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“A person’s true wealth is the good he or she does in the world.”
-Mohammed
“What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?”
-Rousseau
“We need to feel the problems of others as our own. . .”
-Rigoberta Menchu´ Tum
“As we try living by the golden rule, treating everyone as we would like to be treated, we find that it is an ongoing process, not to be achieved in one day, but hopefully in a lifetime.”
-Dolly Larsen
“You are never strong enough that you don’t need help.”
and
“From the depth of need and despair, people can work together, can organize themselves to solve their own problems and fill their own needs with dignity and strength.”
-Cesar Chavez
“I know up on top you are seeing great sights, but down on the bottom we, too, should have rights!”
-Dr. Seuss
“If I have seen farther than others, it is because I was standing on the shoulders of giants.”
-Isaac Newton
“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage”
-Lao Tzu
“All is connected . . . no one thing can change by itself.”
-Paul Hawken
“If the human race wishes to have a prolonged and indefinite period of material prosperity, they have only got to behave in a peaceful and helpful way toward one another.”
-Winston Churchill
“The good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain until it is secured for all of us and incorporated into our common life.”
-Jane Addams
“More than ever before in human history, we share a common destiny. We can master it only if we face it together.”
-Kofi Annan
“Oh, ‘tis love, ‘tis love that make the world go round.”
-Lewis Carroll
“The feeling we have here — remember it, take it home and do some good with it. I’ll leave you with this: Please, be kind.”
-Mickey Hart, closing a performance in Chicago
“Friends are as companions on a journey, who ought to aid each other to persevere in the road to a happier life .”
-Pythagoras
“Any fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction.”
and
“All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded the individual.”
and
“I love just as I am.”
and
“It is a very high goal: free and responsible development of the individual, so that he may place his powers freely and gladly in the service in the service of all mankind.”
and
“A human being is a part of a whole, called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest… a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
-Albert Einstein
“Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind.”
and
“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”
and
“Our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s future. And we are all mortal.”
and
“Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures.”
-John F. Kennedy
“One way or another, we all have to find what best fosters the flowering of our humanity in this contemporary life, and dedicate ourselves to that.”
-Joseph Campbell
“Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.”
and
“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”
-Martin Luther King Jr.
“Think we have to own the fears that we have of each other, and then, in some practical way, some daily way, figure out how to see people differently than the way we were brought up to.”
-Alice Walker
“Just living is not enough. One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.”
-Hans Christian Andersen
“A great architect is not made by way of a brain nearly so much as he is made by way of a cultivated, enriched heart.”
and
“The heart is the chief feature of a functioning mind.”
-Frank Lloyd Wright
“What is the purpose of a giant sequoia tree? The purpose of the giant sequoia tree is to provide shade for the tiny titmouse.”
-Edward Abbey
“How glorious a greeting the sun gives the mountains!”
and
“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.”
-John Muir
“In true dialogue, both sides are willing to change.”
-Nhat Hanh
“Before we can forgive one another, we have to understand one another.”
-Emma Goldman
“Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.”
-Shakespeare, All’s Well that Ends Well – Act 1 Scene 1
“There are three different paths to reach the Highest: the path of I, the path of Thou, and the path of Thou and I. According to the first, all that is, was, or ever shall be is I, my higher Self. In other words, I am, I was, I shall be for ever in Eternity. According to the second. Thou art, O Lord, and all it Thine. And according to the third, Thou art the Lord, and I am Thy servant, or Thy son.In the perfection of any of these three ways, a man will find God.”
-Ramakrishna, 1836-1886
He who sees that the Lord of all is ever the same in all that is, immortal in the field of mortality – he sees the truth.
And when a man sees that the God in himself is the same God in all that is, he hurts not himself by hurting others: then he goes indeed to the highest Path.
-XIII. 27-28 Bhagavad Gita
Of what use are words of wisdom to the man who is unwise?
Of what use use a lamp to a man who is blind?
Hear the essence of thousands of sacred books: to help others
is virtue; to hurt others is sin.
A man rises or goes down by his own actions: like the builder
Of a wall, or as the digger of a well.
The narrow-minded man thinks and says: “This man is one of us;
this one is not, he is a stranger. To the man of noble soul the
whole of mankind is but one family.
-Dhammapada
“Sustainability is equity over time. As a value, it refers to giving equal weight in your decisions to the future as well as the present. You might think of it as extending the Golden Rule through time, so that you do unto future generations (as well as to your present fellow beings)as you would have them do unto you.”
-Robert Gilman
“One serves oneself best by serving others first.”
–Martin Sheen
“A mature person is one who does not think only in absolutes, who is able to be objective even when deeply stirred emotionally, who has learned that there is both good and bad in all people and in all things, and who walks humbly and deals charitably with the circumstances of life, knowing that in this world no one is all-knowing and therefore all of us need both love and charity.”
–Eleanor Roosevelt
Life is just a short walk from the cradle to the grave – and it sure behooves us to be kind to one another along the way.
–Alice Childress
Always be a little kinder than is necessary.
–Sir J.M. Barrie
Doing nothing for others is the undoing of ourselves.
–Horace Mann
Every life deserves a certain amount of dignity, no matter how poor or damaged the shell that carries it.
–Rick Bragg
You may call God love, you may call God goodness, but the best name for God is compassion.
–Meister Eckhart
Suffering makes kinsmen of us all.
–Elbert Hubbard
What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult for each other?
–George Eliot in Middlemarch
Compassion for me is just what the word says; it is “suffering with.” It is an immediate participation in the suffering of another to such a degree that you forget yourself and your own safety and spontaneously do what is necessary.
–Joseph Campbell
Compassion asks us to go where it hurts, to enter into places of pain, to share in brokenness, fear, confusion, and anguish. Compassion challenges us to cry out with those in misery, to mourn with those who are lonely, to weep with those in tears. Compassion requires us to be weak with the weak, vulnerable with the vulnerable, and powerless with the powerless. Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human.
–Henri J.M. Nouwen
Genuine compassion comes from the fact that you see your own limitation: you wish to be kind, and you find that you aren’t kind. Then, instead of beating yourself up, you see that is what all human beings are up against, and you begin to have . . . genuine compassion for the human condition.
–Pema Chödrön
The Golden Rule is truth and hope.
How to consciously carry it inside ourselves is the question and our universal struggle?
It is only in the remembering, again and again.
This principle is and should always be the only measure.
–Bonnie Phillips and Nancy Borgenicht
The Golden Rule is a real ‘something’ of substance, embodying truth and hope, that we can carry consciously inside ourselves to meet life – to meet life with this universal principle, in which to measure our responsibility to both the inner and outer event. This remembering, again and again, is the energy by which we insure that our planet and all life upon it is on a becoming trajectory.
–Bonnie Phillips
“The deepest level of communication
is not communication,
but communion.
It is wordless.
It is beyond words.
It is beyond speech.
It is beyond concept.
Not that we discover a new unity, but we discover an old unity.
My dear brothers and sisters, we are already one.
But we imagine we are not.
And what we have to recover is our original unity.
What we have to be, is what we are.”
-Thomas Merton
“Love is that: Which the essence of another is essential to your own existence.”
- James J. Irwin
Treat others and the planet as you wish to be treated
Mark Umbreit's Twelve Steps of Personal Peacemaking
These steps are a modified version of the internationally embraced Twelve Steps of AA. They are reprinted here by permission of the author, Mark Umbreit, Director of the Center for Restorative Justice & Peacemaking at the University of Minnesota.
Admit that conflict and violence within yourself and among your relationships consumes too much of your energy, creates stress, and leads to unhappiness.
Believe that a power greater than yourself can bring you strength and peace.
Make a commitment to connect with a higher power, as you understand it, whether this higher power be understood as [the collective wisdom of a group,] God, Yahweh, Allah, Buddha, Krishna, Mother Earth-Father Sky, The Divine, or whatever understanding brings you strength and peace.
Make an honest moral inventory of how you have contributed to conflict and violence in your personal relationships, your life in community, and as a citizen of your country and the world. Accept the fact that often your best intentions result in unintended negative consequences upon other people.
Admit to your higher power, to yourself, and to others the exact nature of your contributions to conflict and to emotional or physical violence.
Focus more on the here and now. Slow down. Breathe deeply. Keep life and your conflicts in perspective. Become responsible for your feelings and behavior.
In a spirit of humility and compassion for yourself and all others, seek spiritual guidance in confronting your shortcomings which may contribute to conflict and emotional or physical violence.
Make a list of all persons you have harmed and become willing to make direct amends to all such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
Continue to be mindful of your actions and their effect on others, and when you have offended another, whether intentionally or not, promptly admit it and apologize.
Seek through prayer, meditation, and other self-care techniques, to gain emotional and spiritual strength (in the context of your specific religious or secular tradition).
Forgive those who may have offended you. Don’t take things too personally. Remember that most people don’t mean to offend, but that their actions (and yours) frequently lead to unintended negative consequences.
Commit to being an instrument of peace and healing among all those who cross your path in your life’s journey. Don’t hang onto resentment and anger. Let it go. Remember, the one who benefits the most from forgiveness is the person who gives it. It can bring a renewed sense of freedom and energy to your life.