Kinder than is necessary. Because it's not enough to be kind. One should be kinder than needed.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of being exceptionally kind to others, beyond what is merely required.
R. J. Palacio's quote encourages us to practice kindness in an extraordinary manner, suggesting that mere kindness is insufficient in a world that often needs more compassion. By advocating for a level of kindness that surpasses expectations, it calls for a deeper commitment to care for others and create positive change in our interactions.
In practice
This quote can be shared during a motivational speech at a charity event to inspire attendees to show more kindness.
If every person in this room made it a rule that wherever you are, whenever you can, you will try to act a little kinder than is necessary - the world really would be a better place. And if you do this, if you act just a little kinder than is necessary, someone else, somewhere, someday, may recognize in you, in every single one of you, the face of God.
Courage. Kindness. Friendship. Character. These are the qualities that define us as human beings, and propel us, on occasion, to greatness.
Whenever there is a conflict between being right and being kind, if possible, choose being kind.
The best way to measure how much you've grown isn't by inches or the number of laps you can now run around the track or even your grade point average - though those things are important, to be sure. It's what you've done with your time, how you've chosen to spend your days, and whom you have touched this year. That, to me, is the greatest measure of success.
I'll make my heaven in a lady's lap
Gaston was not only a fierce lover, with endless wisdom and imagination, but he was also, perhaps, the first man in the history of the species who had made an emergency landing and had come close to killing himself and his sweetheart simply to make love in a field of violets.
Love knows how to form itself. God will do his work if we do ours. Our job is to prepare ourselves for love. When we do, love finds us every time.
To love our success more than God and our neighbor hardens the heart, making us less able to feel and to sense.
If I'm honest about the people that I love, then I need my characters to live through the same things that the people I love and care about are living with and struggling with.
Love is a delicate plant that needs constant tending and nurturing, and this cannot be done by snorting at the adored object like a gas explosion and calling her friends lice.
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