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Gentleness

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Gentleness means recognizing that the world around us is fragile, especially other people. It is recognizing our own capacity to do harm and choosing instead to be tender, soft-spoken, soft-hearted, and careful. When we are gentle we touch the world in ways that protect and preserve it.


Being gentle doesn't mean being weak; gentleness can be firm, even powerful. To behave in a gentle manner requires that we stay centered in our own values and strength -- that we are active rather than reactive. Coming from this center, a gentle word or touch can channel our energy into healing or making peace.

Gentleness


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The source of a true smile is an awakened mind. Smiling helps you approach the day with gentleness and understanding.

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Source type: Book
Peace is Every Step
Contribution #7354


Self-awareness is an act of self-kindness.

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iphone app book - "Complete Mindfulness: The Art of Being"
http://www.facebook.com/mindfulcreation
Contribution #7042


Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.

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Contribution #6764


We ought at all times to wait for the enlightenment that comes from above before we speak; for there is nothing so destitute as a soul philosophising about God, when it is without Him.

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Source type: Website
monachos.net
Hesychios the Priest
"membership profile of Archimandrite Irenei"
http://www.monachos.net/forum/member.php?10476-Archimandrite-Irenei
Viewed on April 3, 2012
Contribution #6707


When words fail....Music speaks.

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Found on a bumper sticker
Contribution #6134


You can bomb the world to pieces, but you can't bomb it into peace.

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music
Contribution #4842


Be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars. In the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul.

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No source entered for Contribution #4537


Blessed...considers the poor: the LORD will deliver him in time of trouble. The righteous considers the cause of the poor: but the wicked regards not to know it. Finally,...whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. ...as His divine power has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that has called us to glory and virtue: ...giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; to virtue knowledge; to knowledge temperance; to temperance patience; to patience godliness; to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.

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Source type: Sacred Text
Psalms 41:1; Proverbs 29:7; Hebrews 10:24 ; Ephesians 4:32 ; 2 Peter 1:5-7; Philippians 4; 2 Peter 1:3 :8;
http://
Contribution #4505


The beginning of divine wisdom is clemency and gentleness, which arise from greatness of soul and the bearing of infirmities.

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Source type: Book
On the Harm of Foolish Zeal that Has the Guise of Being Divine
Contribution #4369


You cannot be too gentle, too kind. Shun even to appear harsh in your treatment of each other. Joy, radiant joy, streams from the face of one who gives and kindles joy in the heart of one who receives.

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No source entered for Contribution #4352


O FRIEND! In the garden of thy heart plant naught but the rose of love, and from the nightingale of affection and desire loosen not thy hold. Treasure the companionship of the righteous and eschew all fellowship with the ungodly.

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Source type: Sacred Text
Baha'i Writings
The Hidden Words of Baha'u'llah pg 52
Published by US Baha'i Publishing Trust
Published in 1985
http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/b/HW/hw-76.html
Contribution #4287


It is only persons of firmness that can have real gentleness. Those who appear gentle are, in general, only a weak character, which easily changes into asperity.

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No source entered for Contribution #4038


The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

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Source type: Sacred Text
Bible
Galatians 5:22
http://
Contribution #4037


The serenity of mind, gentleness, silence, self-restraint, and the purity of mind are called the austerity of thought.

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No source entered for Contribution #4036


I have three precious things which I hold fast and prize. The first is gentleness; the second is frugality; the third is humility, which keeps me from putting myself before others. Be gentle and you can be bold; be frugal and you can be liberal; avoid putting yourself before others and you can become a leader among men.

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No source entered for Contribution #4034


It was the love of love, the love that swallows up all else, a grateful love, a love of nature, of people, of animals, a love engendering gentleness and goodness that moved me and that I saw in you.

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No source entered for Contribution #4033


I place a high moral value on the way people behave. I find it repellent to have a lot, and to behave with anything other than courtesy in the old sense of the word - politeness of the heart, a gentleness of the spirit.

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No source entered for Contribution #4032


When you encounter difficulties and contradictions, do not try to break them, but bend them with gentleness and time.

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No source entered for Contribution #4031


The last word" is the most dangerous of infernal machines; and husband and wife should no more fight to get it than they would struggle for the possession of a lighted bomb-shell.

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No source entered for Contribution #3211


If you have nothing nice to say about a person . . . don't say it.

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My mother always said this to us as we grew up.
Contribution #3109


Hate and force cannot be in just a part of the world without having an effect on the rest of it.

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No source entered for Contribution #2747


The colossal misunderstanding of our time is the assumption that insight will work with people who are unmotivated to change. Communication does not depend on syntax, or eloquence, or rhetoric, or articulation but on the emotional context in which the message is being heard. People can only hear you when they are moving toward you, and they are not likely to when your words are pursuing them. Even the choicest words lose their power when they are used to overpower. Attitudes are the real figures of speech.

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No source entered for Contribution #2473


When the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, persuasion, kind unassuming persuasion, should ever be adopted. It is an old and true maxim that 'a drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall.' So with men. If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere friend. Therein is a drop of honey that catches his heart, which, say what he will, is the great highroad to his reason, and which, once gained, you will find but little trouble in convincing him of the justice of your cause, if indeed that cause is really a good one.

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No source entered for Contribution #2439


Force is all-conquering, but its victories are short-lived.

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No source entered for Contribution #2432


When your little child tells a lie, do not rush at him as though the world were about to go into bankruptcy. Be honest with him. A tyrant father will have liars for his children; do you know that? A lie is born of tyranny upon the one hand and weakness upon the other, and when you rush at a poor little boy with a club in your hand, of course he lies.

I thank thee, Mother Nature, that thou hast put ingenuity enough in the brain of a child, when attacked by a brutal parent, to throw up a little breastwork in the shape of a lie.

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Source type: Book
What's God Got to Do With It?
by Tim Page
Page 53 ("The Liberty of Man, Woman, and Child" 1877)
Published by Steerforth Press , Hanover, NH , 2005
http://www.amazon.com/Whats-God-Got-Ingersoll-Separation/dp/1586420968/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1224970457&sr=8-1
Contribution #2260


Use a sweet tongue, courtesy, and gentleness, and thou mayest manage to guide an elephant by a hair.

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Virtues Reflection Cards
http://www.virtuesproject.com
Contribution #2234


The spiritual warrior's discipline is gentleness. Asserting gentleness in all spheres of life, non-violence and peace are achieved.

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Virtues Reflection Cards
http://www.virtuesproject.com
Contribution #2199


Softness overcomes hardness.

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Source type: Book
The Little Book of Chinese Proverbs
by Jonathan Clements
Page 208
Published by Barnes & Noble Books , New York , 2003
Contribution #1614


Our problems are not solved    by physical force,    by hatred,    by warOur problems are solved    by loving kindness    by gentleness,    by joy

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Source type: Book
Heart of a Buddha
Published by Amitabha Publications , Temple City, CA , 2003
Contribution #1456


The best index to a person's character is how he treats people who can't do him any good--and how he treats people who can't fight back.

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Source type: Book
Brilliance: Uncommon Voices from Uncommon Women
by Susan Scott Dan Zadra
Page 60
Published by Compendium Publishing , Lynnwood, WA, USA , 2005
Contribution #1407


Gentleness, self-sacrifice and generosity are the exclusive possesions of no one race or religion.

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Source type: Website
Mohandas Gandhi
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/mohandasga160794.html
Viewed on April 22, 2008
Contribution #1007


Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.

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Source type: Sacred Text
Bible
Matthew 5:5
Version or Translation NASV
Published by Foundation Press
Published in LaHabra, USA
http://
Contribution #850


The basic difference between being assertive and being aggressive is how our words and behavior affect the rights and well being of others.

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No source entered for Contribution #419


In a gentle way, you can shake the world.

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Source type: Website
Mahatma Gandhi
Viewed on April 9, 2008
Contribution #319


Feelings are everywhere -- be gentle.

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Source type: Website
J. Masai
Viewed on April 9, 2008
Contribution #318


Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near.

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Source type: Sacred Text
Bible
Philippians 4:5
http://
Contribution #316