Believing there's no God means I can't really be forgiven except by kindness and faulty memories. That's good; it makes me want to be more thoughtful. I have to try to treat people right the first time around.
Penn JilletteRead
People need to be fed, medicated, educated, clothed, and sheltered, and if we're compassionate we'll help them, but you get no moral credit for forcing other people to do what you think is right. There is great joy in helping people, but no joy in doing it at gunpoint.
Interpretation
What this quote means
True compassion involves willingly helping others rather than imposing your beliefs on them through force.
This quote emphasizes the importance of genuine compassion and assistance that comes from a place of kindness rather than coercion. It suggests that while it's virtuous to help those in need—providing them with food, medical care, education, clothing, and shelter—the act of ensuring they receive help should not be done through force or imposition of one's own moral beliefs. Instead, true joy comes from offering assistance willingly and compassionately, rather than under duress.
Themes
CompassionHelpingMoralForceJoyAssistance
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational speech about community service.
More from Penn Jillette
All quotes →The end never justifies the means because there is no end; there are only means.
Penn JilletteRead
If you believe that there’s a heaven and hell . . . how much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?
Penn JilletteRead
If there's something you really want to believe, that's what you should question the most.
Penn JilletteRead
Similar quotes
The righteousness by which we are justified is imputed; the righteousness by which we are sanctified is imparted. The first is our title to heaven, the second is our fitness for heaven.
Ellen G. WhiteRead
Be it or be it not true that Man is shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin, it is unquestionably true that Government is begotten of aggression, and by aggression.
Herbert SpencerRead
Duplicity in matters of religion is not confined to Pakistan, but it hurts the most in societies where debate on religion is asphyxiated and preachers of hate have become keepers of faith.
Asma JahangirRead
We are a profoundly interconnected species, as the global economic and ecological crises reveal in vivid and frightening detail. We must embrace the simple fact that we are dependent on and accountable to one another.
Parker PalmerRead
I believe in the fundamental truth of all great religions of the world. I believe that they are all God- given and I believe that they were necessary for the people to whom these religions were revealed. And I believe that if only we could all of us read the scriptures of the different faiths from the standpoints of the followers of these faiths, we should find that they were at bottom all one and were all helpful to one another.
Mahatma GandhiRead
There's nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be.
John LennonRead