| 10. Compassion is the response to the physical, spiritual, or emotional suffering of others that motivates a desire to help. |
| 9. The etymology of “compassion” is Latin, meaning “co-suffering.” More involved than simple empathy, compassion commonly gives rise to an active desire to alleviate another’s suffering. |
| 8. Compassion is often regarded as having an emotional aspect to it, though when based on cerebral notions such as fairness, justice and interdependence, it may be considered rational in nature and its application understood as an activity based on sound judgment. |
| 7. Compassion is a sense of sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others. |
| 6. Compassion is often, though not inevitably, the key component in what manifests in the social context as altruism |
| 5. Ranked a great virtue in numerous philosophies, compassion is considered in almost all the major religious traditions as among the greatest of virtues. |
| 4. In Buddhism compassion “supplies the complement to loving-kindness: whereas loving-kindness has the characteristic of wishing for the happiness and welfare of others, compassion has the characteristic of wishing that others be free from suffering, a wish to be extended without limits to all living beings. |
| 3. In Islam, foremost among God’s attributes are mercy and compassion. Each of the 114 chapters of the Quran, with one exception, begins with the verse, “In the name of Allah the Compassionate, the Merciful.” |
| 2. Compassion for all life, human and non-human, is central to the Jain tradition |
| 1.In ethical terms, the Golden Rule often embodies by implication the principle of compassion: Do to others what you would have them do to you. |