By the Lips, From the Heart
There is the kindness of ‘please’ and ‘thank you.’ And the kindness of “I was wrong, I’m sorry.” The small kindnesses that smooth our interactions and help other people feel as though you’re aware of them .
Seth Godin • Three types of kindness
I’ve been thinking about the way, when you walk
down a crowded aisle, people pull in their legs
to let you by. Or how strangers still say “bless you”
when someone sneezes, a leftover
from the Bubonic plague. “Don’t die,” we are saying.
And sometimes, when you spill lemons
from your grocery bag, someone else will help you
pick them up. Mostl
... See moreDanusha Laméris • Poem: Small Kindnesses (Published 2019)
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If you and I go around grumbling about ingratitude, who is to blame? Is it human nature—or is it our ignorance of human nature? Let’s not expect gratitude. Then, if we get some occasionally, it will come as a delightful surprise. If we don’t get it, we won’t be disturbed.
Dale Carnegie • How to Stop Worrying and Start Living (Dale Carnegie Books)
“Good manners without sincerity are like a beautiful dead lady,” he remarked on suitable occasion. “Straightforwardness without civility is like a surgeon’s knife, effective but unpleasant. Candor with courtesy is helpful and admirable.”
Paramahansa Yogananda • Autobiography of a Yogi (Self-Realization Fellowship)
Be generous. Be generous with your time and your resources and with giving credit and, especially, with your words. It’s so much easier to be a critic than a celebrator. Always remember there is a human being on the other end of every exchange and behind every cultural artifact being critiqued. To understand and be understood, those are among... See more
Maria Popova • 13 Life-Learnings from 13 Years of Brain Pickings
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How tragic it is that we so often keep our gratitude to ourselves, speaking it aloud only when the person to whom we feel indebted is no longer here, and we are comforting his or her mourners.
Jonathan Sacks • To Heal a Fractured World: The Ethics of Responsibility
It occurs in ages of affluence, not poverty; in eras of freedom, not slavery. When we seem to have little to thank God for, we thank God. When we have much to be grateful for, we forget.
Jonathan Sacks • Studies in Spirituality (Covenant & Conversation Book 9)
Poem: Small Kindnesses (Published 2019)
nytimes.com
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