Inside my empty bottle I was constructing a lighthouse while all the others were making ships. -Charles Simic

“It is among the most basic human truths: Every one of us, some day, will be brought to our knees. By a diagnosis we didn’t expect, a phone call we can’t imagine, or a loss we cannot endure.

“That common humanity inspires our mercy. It fortifies our compassion. It drives us to look out for the sick, the elderly, the poor, and the most vulnerable among us.

“Yesterday’s bill — yesterday’s devastating bill — does the opposite.
The bill is more than premiums and tax cuts. It is a cold and calculated world view: One that scapegoats the struggling, and sees fault in suffering. One dead set on dividing us based on who we love, where we come from, the direction of our faith and the size of our fortunes.

“We see it in their tax plan, their budget cuts, their immigration policy, their civil rights assaults — and yesterday, in their cruel health care plan.

“We must reject it.

“We must decide, instead, to take care of each other — because, but for the grace of God, we will all one day wake up in need of a little mercy.

“This nation’s character has never been defined by the power we give the already strong — but by the strength we give the weak.”

-Representative Joseph Kennedy III

Oh, the comfort — the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person — having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are, chaff and grain together, certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and with the breath of kindness blow the rest away. -Dinah Maria Mulock Craik

“No matter how difficult it is, life is beautiful.”  Then she said, “No matter how beautiful it is, life is difficult.” -Anonymous

Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom. -Theodore Rubin

What didn’t you do to bury me / But you forgot that I was a seed. -Dinos Christianopoulos

The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. -Albert Einstein

No human being is illegal. -Elie Wiesel