If there’s one thing we’ve learned recently, it’s that there’s a lack of empathy in this world. They say we should be the change we want to see, which is why we’ve put together this list of kindness quotes for kids. It’s perfect for World Kindness Day in November and all year round. Have a student read one of these kindness quotes out loud every day, or hang printouts of kindness quotes around your classroom. We’ve all faced so much in the past few years, and we’re all exhausted. Making an effort to be kind is more important now than ever, shown especially in kindness quotes. Check out this list of our favorite 100 kindness quotes as a reminder to stay empathetic!
Our Favorite Kindness Quotes for Kids
1. Be a rainbow in somebody else’s cloud. —Maya Angelou
2. You can always, always give something, even if it is only kindness! —Anne Frank
3. If you see someone without a smile, give them yours. —Dolly Parton
4. Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible. —Dalai Lama
5. I think I have learned that the best way to lift one’s self up is to help someone else. —Booker T. Washington
6. Kindness is a gift everyone can afford to give. —Unknown
7. The only way to have a friend is to be one. —Ralph Waldo Emerson
8. No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted. —Aesop
9. As our kindness for ourselves grows, so does our kindness for other people. —Pema Chodron
10. Know what sparks the light in you, then use that light to illuminate the world. —Oprah Winfrey
11. The superior man is the providence of the inferior. He is eyes for the blind, strength for the weak, and a shield for the defenseless. … He rises by lifting others. —Robert G. Ingersoll
12. If you can be anything, be kind. —Unknown
13. Great things are done by a series of small things brought together. —Vincent van Gogh
14. You can never do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late. —Ralph Waldo Emerson
15. Be nice to strangers. Be nice even when it doesn’t matter. —Sam Altman
16. Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. —Unknown
17. Shall we make a new rule of life from tonight: always to try to be a little kinder than is necessary? —J.M. Barrie
18. Never lose a chance of saying a kind word. —William Makepeace Thackeray
19. What I want is so simple I almost can’t say it: elementary kindness. Enough to eat, enough to go around. The possibility that kids might one day grow up to be neither the destroyers nor the destroyed. —Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams
20. Greatness is not found in possessions, power, position, or prestige. It is discovered in goodness, humility, service, and character. —William Arthur Ward
21. The words of kindness are more healing to a drooping heart than balm or honey. —Sarah Fielding
22. Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind. —Eric Hoffer
23. Hold back nothing of yourselves for yourselves so that He who gives Himself totally to you may receive you totally. —Saint Francis of Assisi
24. Extend yourself in kindness to other human beings wherever you can. —Oprah Winfrey
25. Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty. —Anne Herbert
26. Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them. —A.A. Milne
27. We are all neighbors. Be kind. Be gentle. —Clemantine Wamariya
28. It’s very important to choose kindness and stop bullying. —Jacob Tremblay
29. A part of kindness consists in loving people more than they deserve. —Joseph Joubert
30. Spread love everywhere you go. … Be the living expression of God’s kindness; kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile. —Mother Teresa
31. Compassion isn’t about solutions. It’s about giving all the love that you’ve got. —Cheryl Strayed
32. Kindness is showing someone they matter. —Unknown
33. If you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen. —Conan O’Brien
34. Always stop to think whether your fun may be the cause of another’s unhappiness. —Aesop
35. The mother’s love is not given to us to spoil us with indulgence, but to soften our hearts, that we may in turn soften others with kindness. —Paramahansa Yogananda
36. Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough. —Franklin D. Roosevelt
37. Take one cup of love, two cups of loyalty, three cups of forgiveness, four quarts of faith and one barrel of laughter … blend with tenderness, kindness and understanding. —Zig Ziglar
38. It takes strength to be kind; it’s not a weakness. —Daniel Lubetzky
39. I have always depended on the kindness of strangers. —Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire
40. Be kind to people on the way up—you’ll meet them again on your way down. —Jimmy Durante
41. The catch phrase for the day is “Do an act of kindness. Help one person smile.” —Harvey Ball
42. We should model the kindness we want to see. —Brené Brown
43. One who knows how to show and to accept kindness will be a friend better than any possession. —Sophocles
44. Kindness is wisdom. —Philip James Bailey
45. I work best when there’s a safety trampoline of kindness. —Ruth Negga
46. Deliberately seek opportunities for kindness, sympathy, and patience. —Evelyn Underhill
47. Kindness is a sort of love without being love. —Susan Hill
48. I suspect that the happiest people you know are the ones who work at being kind, helpful and reliable—and happiness sneaks into their lives while they are busy doing those things. It is a by-product, never a primary goal. —Harold Kushner
49. Three things in human life are important. The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind. —Henry James
50. A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees. —Amelia Earhart
51. Kindness is like snow—it beautifies everything it covers. —Kahlil Gibran
52. There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up. —John Holmes
53. We are an arrogant species, full of terrible potential, but we also have a great capacity for love, friendship, generosity, kindness, faith, hope, and joy. —Dean Koontz, Fear Nothing
54. There is nothing more truly artistic than to love people. —Vincent van Gogh
55. The very nature of kindness is to spread. If you are kind to others, today they will be kind to you, and tomorrow to somebody else. —Sri Chinmoy
56. Be mindful. Be grateful. Be positive. Be true. Be kind. —Roy T. Bennett
57. Voluntary service of others demands the best of which one is capable, and must take precedence over service of self. —Mahatma Gandhi
58. Kindness is the key to changing the world. —Unknown
59. Kindness is the greatest wisdom. —Unknown
60. One kind word can change someone’s entire day. —Unknown
61. Kindness is the mark we leave on the world. —Unknown
62. Kindness is the only service that will stand the storm of life and not wash out. —Abraham Lincoln
63. Kindness is free; let’s pass it on. —Unknown
64. Kindness is the greatest gift you can give and receive. —Unknown
65. Kindness is the beauty that can only be seen by the heart. —Unknown
66. The world is full of kind people. If you can’t find one, be one. —Unknown
67. Kindness is the oil that takes the friction out of life. —Unknown
68. Kindness is the gift that keeps on giving. —Unknown
69. Kind hearts are the gardens, kind thoughts are the roots, kind words are the flowers, kind deeds are the fruits. —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
70. Kindness and love are the essence of a happy life. —Unknown
71. Kindness is choosing love over hate, light over darkness, compassion over judgment. —Unknown
72. When we feel love and kindness toward others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for, but it helps us also to develop inner happiness and peace. —Dalai Lama
73. Kindness is the language of the soul. —Unknown
74. Kindness is the investment that pays the highest interest. —Unknown
75. Kindness is a passport that opens doors and fashions friends. It softens hearts and molds relationships that can last lifetimes. —Joseph B. Wirthlin
76. Carry out a random act of kindness with no expectation of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for you. —Diana, Princess of Wales
77. Men, be kind to your fellow-men; this is your first duty, kind to every age and station, kind to all that is not foreign to humanity. What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness? —Jean-Jacques Rousseau
78. There is lasting kindness in Heaven when no kindness is found upon earth. —Augusta, Lady Gregory
79. Kindness has converted more sinners than either zeal, eloquence, or learning. —Frederick William Faber
80. On that best portion of a good man’s life,
His little, nameless, unremembered, acts
Of kindness and of love.
—William Wordsworth
81. A part of kindness consists in loving people more than they deserve. —Joseph Joubert
82. It is only after one is in trouble that one realizes how little sympathy and kindness there are in the world. —Nellie Bly
83. Love and kindness are never wasted. They always make a difference. They bless the one who receives them, and they bless you, the giver. —Barbara De Angelis
84. There is hunger for ordinary bread, and there is hunger for love, for kindness, for thoughtfulness; and this is the great poverty. —Mother Teresa
85. To be able to practice five things everywhere under heaven constitutes perfect virtue … gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness, and kindness. —Confucius
86. He that has done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another, than he whom you yourself have obliged. —Benjamin Franklin
87. Getting money is not all a man’s business: to cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life. —Samuel Johnson
88. True kindness presupposes the faculty of imagining as one’s own the sufferings and joys of others. —André Gide
89. Kindness has converted more people than zeal, science, or eloquence. —Mother Teresa
90. Only through kindness and love can peace of mind be achieved. —Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
91. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break; the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. —Barack Obama
92. Remember there’s no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end. —Scott Adams
93. Everything we have and everything we enjoy, including our very life, is due to the kindness of others. In fact, every happiness there is in the world arises as a result of others’ kindness. —Kelsang Gyatso
94. Guard within yourself that treasure, kindness. Know how to give without hesitation, how to lose without regret, how to acquire without meanness. —George Sand
95. Real kindness seeks no return;
What return can the world make to rain clouds?
—Thiruvalluvar
96. The more you extend kindness to yourself, the more it will become your automatic response to others. —Wayne Dyer
97. Transformation: Compassion and loving kindness can transform an enemy into a friend, while right view and wisdom can transform suffering into happiness. —Thich Nhat Tu
98. Little deeds of kindness,
Little words of love
Help to make earth happy
Like the heavens above.
—Julia Abigail Fletcher Carney
99. Kindness is the power that moves us to support and heal someone who offers nothing in return. —Lewis B. Smedes
100. Pain and suffering, they are a secret. Kindness and love, they are a secret. But I have learned that kindness and love can pay for pain and suffering. —Alan Paton
Come share your favorite kindness quotes for kids in the We Are Teachers HELPLINE group on Facebook!
Plus, if you loved these kindness quotes, check out these motivational quotes for students and teachers.
