Unless we are very, very careful, we doom each other by holding onto images of one another based on preconceptions that are in turn based on indifference to what is other than ourselves... I notice that I have to pay careful attention in order to listen to others with an openness that allows them to be as they are, or as they think themselves to be... The opposite of this inattention is love, is the honoring of others in a way that grants them the grace of their own autonomy and allows mutual discovery... Compassion is one of the purest springs of love. (Anne Truitt)

For myself, I find I become less cynical rather than more--remembering my own wrongs and follies; and realize that people's hearts are not often as bad as their acts, and very seldom as bad as their words. (J.R.R. Tolkien, adapted)

I have always been mystified by the speed with which people condemn one another... This seems to give them intense pleasure. Whenever I am tempted by this pleasure, I remember some impulse in myself that could have led me, granted certain circumstances, into the condemned position. This has caused me to distrust the part of myself that would relish self-righteousness. (Anne Truitt)

If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people. (Virginia Woolf)

Allow yourself the uncomfortable luxury of changing your mind. It can be disorienting to say, 'I don't know.' But it's infinitely more rewarding to understand than to be right - even if that means changing your mind about a topic, an ideology, or, above all, yourself. (adapted, Maria Popova)

People everywhere are deluded by the superstition that their happiness rests with other people and with outward things, and, as a result, they live in continual disappointments, regrets, and lamentations... No one is hindered by another; we are only hindered by ourselves. (adapted, James Allen)

From a group that is working with the Arbinger Institute. Declare you truce!

Generosity has little to do with giving gifts, and everything to do with giving space to others to be who they are. (Patti Digh)

When someone we have been blaming becomes real to us, we change. We become a person who sees another person as real. We change from being accusing, guarded, and self-absorbed to being open, self-forgetful, and welcoming. (C. Terry Warner, Bonds That Make Us Free, p.151)

Wanting love is good and wanting to excel is good. The trouble comes from trying to tie them together. Pursue love and pursue excellence - pursue them with abandon. But you will spoil the joy native to each if you spend your life wanting to be loved *because* you excel. (adapted, Adam Miller)

If we didn't choose sides, there'd be nothing dividing us. (L.T. Downing)

The enemy is fear. We think it is hate; but, it is fear. (Gandhi)

So war and peace start in the human heart. Whether that heart is open or whether that heart closes has global implications. (Pema Chodron)

Consider letting go of the barriers between yourself and others, let go of the definition our cultures have inflicted upon us and allow the best part of ourselves to connect with the wondrous parts of others. Allow yourself to connect in a deeper and more profound way. (David W. Earle)

Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love. (Fyodor Dostoyevsky "The Brothers

Gratitude is not a platitude. It is not, 'Oh, well, I could have it worse, so I really should be grateful.' It's not even, 'Wow, look how good I've got it, I sure am thankful for my good fortune.' These platitudes are comparisons in disguise, and comparisons are fatal to gratitude. Because sooner or later, life will put us on the wrong side of that comparison, and what we thought was gratitude will be a vapor. (adapted, Dr. Kelly Flanagan, "Looking for Thanksgiving in all the Wrong Places")

The paradox of control: Individuals who scramble to control or dominate or manipulate one another in order to get what they think they want, are in reality giving themselves over to another's control. They allow others to determine their happiness.
And...
"The paradox of vengefulness is that it makes us dependent upon those who have harmed us, believing that our release from pain will come only when our tormentors suffer." (adapted, Laura Hillenbrand)

Listen with affection to anyone who talks, be in their shoes when they talk, try to know them without your mind pressing against theirs, or arguing, or changing the subject. This person is showing you his soul... True listeners know that if you are bad-tempered it does not mean that you are always so. They don't love you just when you are nice; they love all of you. (Brenda Ueland, Strength to Your Sword Arm)

Bless you prison, bless you for being in my life. For there, lying upon the rotting prison straw, I came to realize that the object of life is not prosperity as we are made to believe, but the maturity of the human soul. (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956)

"At the very root of becoming a human being is the active acknowledgment and responsiveness to other beings as independent intelligence's. This must be done against the prevailing current of our own society - we must learn to become alive to one another." C. Terry Warner