Interfaith Quotes About Love, Reciprocation (Golden Rule), Service, Forgiveness and Nonviolence

As I was studying to become an interfaith minister between 2016 to 2017, I gathered hundreds of quotes from the wisdom traditions. In 2020, I decided to publish a selection of those quotes in a book titled The Little Book of Oneness and Goodness. The following quotes are from the Goodness section and talk about love, reciprocation, service, forgiveness and nonviolence.

Love

Spread Love

Spread love everywhere you go: first of all in your own house. Give love to your children, to your wife or husband, to a next-door neighbor. Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God’s kindness; kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile, kindness in your warm greeting.

Mother Teresa (1910-1997)
Albanian-Indian Roman Catholic Nun

Love Alone Can

For hatred can never put an end to hatred; love alone can. This is an unalterable law.

Verse 5, The Dhammapada
Collection of Sayings of the Buddha
Translated by Eknath Easwaran (1910-1999)

Let Your Heart Burn

Do not be content with showing friendship in words alone, let your heart burn with loving kindness for all who may cross your path.

Baha’u’llah (1817-1892)
Founder of the Baha’i Faith

All Thy Heart, Soul and Mind

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and prophets.

St. Matthew 22:37-40
King James Bible

Nothing in Return

Freedom and love go together. Love is not a reaction. If I love you because you love me, that is mere trade, a thing to be bought in the market; it is not love. To love is not to ask anything in return, not even to feel that you are giving something- and it is only such love that can know freedom.

Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895-1986)
Indian Philosopher

Empty the Hatred-Sea

True, this world of ours is full of hatred and disbelief, but that is no reason why we should not love and why we should not believe. We must love and believe in order to empty the hatred-sea.

Sri Chinmoy (1931-2007)
Indian Spiritual Leader

Love Your Equals

He that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God. God is love. Therefore love. Without distinction, without calculation, without procrastination, love. Lavish it upon the poor, where it is very easy; especially upon the rich, who often need it most; most of all upon our equals, where it is very difficult, and for whom perhaps we do the least of all.

Henry Drummond (1851-1897)
Scottish Evangelist, Biologist and Writer

Medicine for a Sick World

The medicine this sick world needs is love. Hatred must be replaced by love, and fear by faith that love will prevail.

Peace Pilgrim
Mildred L. Norman (1908-1981)
Non-denominational Spiritual Teacher

Make Me an Instrument

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy.

St. Francis of Assisi (1182-1226)
Italian Roman Catholic Friar and Preacher

Love is the Law of Life

All love is expansion, all selfishness is contraction. Love is therefore the only law of life. He who loves lives, he who is selfish is dying. Therefore love for love’s sake, because it is law of life, just as you breathe to live.

Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902)
Hindu Monk and Disciple of Ramakrishna

Love Seeks One Thing

Love seeks one thing only; the good of the one loved. It leaves all the other secondary effects to take care of themselves. Love, therefore, is its own reward.

Father Thomas Merton (1915-1968)
American Catholic Writer, Monk, and Mystic

Divine Love

Ordinary love is selfish, darkly rooted in desires and satisfactions. Divine love is without condition, without boundary, without change. The flux of the human heart is gone forever at the transfixing touch of pure love.

Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri (1855-1936)
Indian Guru and Teacher to Yogananda

Reciprocation (Golden Rule)

Do Unto Them

Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.

St. Matthew 7:12
King James Bible

It Begins Within

If one is cruel to himself, how can we expect him to be compassionate with others?

Hasdai ibn Shaprut (915-970)
Jewish Scholar and Patron of Science

Do Not Impose

Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire.

Confucius (551-479 BC)
Chinese Philosopher (Confucianism)

Do Not Sow Thorns

I am a lover, and I deal in love. Sow flowers, so your surroundings become a garden. Don’t sow thorns; for they will prick your feet. We are all one body. Whoever tortures another, wounds himself.

Rahman Baba (1653-1711)
Pashtun Sufi Dervish and Poet from Peshawar

Wish for Your Brother

None of you truly believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself.

40 Hadith (number 13)
Imam al-Nawawi (1233-1277)

The Rest is Commentary

What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow: this is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn.

 Shabbath folio:31a,
Babylonian Talmud

Treat All with Goodness

Treat those who are good with goodness, and also treat those who are not good with goodness. Thus goodness is attained. Be honest to those who are honest, and also be honest to those who are not honest. Thus honesty is attained.

Lao Tzu (6th Century BC)
Legendary Chinese Figure (Taoism)

Service

Kindness in Giving

Kindness in word creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.

Lao Tzu (6th Century BCE)
Legendary Chinese Figure (Taoism)

Your Brother’s Boat

Help your brother’s boat across, and your own will reach the shore.

Hindu proverb

All the Good You Can

Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.

John Wesley (1703-1791)
Anglican Cleric and Founder of Methodism

The Least of These Brethren

Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee hunger, and fed thee? Or thirst, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? Or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these brethren, ye have done it unto me.

St. Matthew 25:40
King James Bible

Remainder is Needed by Others

Find out how much God has given you and from it take what you need; the remainder is needed by others.

Saint Augustine (354-430)
Early Christian theologian

Behold, Service Was Joy

I slept and dreamt that life was joy.
I awoke and saw that life was service.
I acted and behold, service was joy.

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)
Bengali Poet and Writer

Increases Health and Happiness

Doing good to others is not a duty. It is a joy, for it increases your own health and happiness.

Zoroaster (ca. 1000 BCE)
Iranian prophet and founder of Zoroastrianism

If You Can’t Help, Don’t Hurt

Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.

The 14th Dalai Lama (1935)
Gelug School of Tibetan Buddhism

Lose Yourself in Service

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.

Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)
Civil Rights Leader and Nonviolent Visionary

Forgiveness & Nonviolence

The Answer

Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral question of our time—the need for mankind to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to violence and oppression… Sooner or later all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace and thereby transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. If this is to be achieved mankind must evolve for all human conflict, a method that rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.

Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)
Baptist Minister and Civil Rights Leader

Forgive Them

Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.

St. Luke 23:34
King James Bible

Make the Whole World Blind

An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind.

Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)
Civil Rights Leader and Nonviolent Visionary

Unless You Continue to Remember

To be wronged is nothing unless you continue to remember it.

Confucius (551-479 BCE)
Philosopher (Confucianism)

Pray for the Person You Hate

The cure for hatred is straightforward. One should pray for the person toward whom he feels hatred; make specific supplication mentioning this person by name, asking God to give this person good things in this life and the next. When one does this with sincerity, hearts mend. If one truly wants to purify his or her heart and root out disease, there must be total sincerity and conviction that these cures are effective.

Hamza Yusuf (1958)
American Islamic Scholar and Author

Forgive, So That You May Be Forgiven

And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.

Mark 11:25
King James Bible

The Best Revenge

The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.

Marcus Aurelius (121-180)
Roman Emperor

Gudjon Bergmann
Author and Mindfulness Teacher
Amazon Author Profile

Recommended books:

• Monk of All Faiths: Inspired by The Prophet (fiction)
• Spiritual in My Own Way (memoir)
• Co-Human Harmony: Using Our Shared Humanity to Bridge Divides (nonfiction)
• Experifaith: At the Heart of Every Religion (nonfiction)
• Premature Holiness: Five Weeks at the Ashram (novel)
• The Meditating Psychiatrist Who Tried to Kill Himself (novel)

Picture: CC0 License