The Little Book of Compassion

The virtue of compassion is universally valued. Derived from the Latin ‘com’ and ‘passio’ and meaning ‘to suffer together’, practising compassion can strengthen your relationships, lessen the grip of negative thoughts, and increase emotional resilience. But how can we lean into loving kindness and cultivate compassion every day?

The Little Book of Compassion offers guidance from some of the world’s greatest minds in the art of responding to ourselves and others with compassion and kindness in times of difficulty. For true compassion allows us to diminish our indifference to the suffering around us.

‘We must learn to regard people less in the light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer.’
– Dietrich Bonhoeffer

‘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

‘Our primary purpose is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.’
– Dalai Lama