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George Saunders Quotes about Kindness

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What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness. Those moments when another human being was there, in front of me, suffering, and I responded . . . sensibly. Reservedly. Mildly.

What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness. Those moments when another human being was there, in front of me, suffering, and I responded . . . sensibly. Reservedly. Mildly.

George Saunders
Graduation, Kindness, Regret
George Saunders (2014). “Congratulations, by the way: Some Thoughts on Kindness”, p.22, A&C Black

What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness.

George Saunders
Kindness, Regret, Advice
George Saunders (2014). “Congratulations, by the way: Some Thoughts on Kindness”, p.22, A&C Black

Err in the direction of kindness.

George Saunders
Kindness, Collaboration
George Saunders (2014). “Congratulations, by the way: Some Thoughts on Kindness”, p.56, A&C Black

I think kindness is a sort of gateway virtue - having that simple aspiration can get you into deep water very quickly - in a good way.

George Saunders
Kindness, Simple, Thinking
"George Saunders on Trump, Mystery, and Why He Rejects Social Media". Interview with Catherine Woodiwiss, sojo.net. August 30, 2016.

Kindness, it turns out, is hard - it starts out all rainbows and puppy dogs, and expands to include . . . well, EVERYTHING.

George Saunders
Dog, Kindness, Rainbow
George Saunders (2014). “Congratulations, by the way: Some Thoughts on Kindness”, p.38, A&C Black

As for "toothy kindness" - I think all traditions are full of this sort of tough kindness. If someone is on a wrong or dull path, and someone else startles them into awareness of that, then that's a blessing. And the method by which the startle is obtained might be anger, or satire, or an intentionally applied indifference. But that is, of course, a fine line.

George Saunders
Kindness, Blessing, Thinking
"George Saunders on Trump, Mystery, and Why He Rejects Social Media". Interview with Catherine Woodiwiss, sojo.net. August 30, 2016.

Success is like a mountain that keeps growing ahead of you as you hike it... Err in the direction of kindness.

George Saunders
Graduation, Kindness, Mountain
George Saunders' Commencement Address at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York, 6thfloor.blogs.nytimes.com. July 31, 2013.

Do all the other things, the ambitious things - travel, get rich, get famous, innovate, lead, fall in love, make and lose fortunes...but as you do, to the extent that you can, err in the direction of kindness.

George Saunders
Graduation, Falling In Love, Kindness
George Saunders' address to graduates at Syracuse University in New York, 6thfloor.blogs.nytimes.com. July 31, 2013.

My understanding of kindness is that we are hoping to be truly beneficial in every situation, and that this desire means a whole suite of things: being nicer, sure, but also being more aware, more present, more articulate, more fearless, less habituated, etc., etc. And sometimes even being firm, or having an edge, or even being angry.

George Saunders
Kindness, Mean, Understanding
"George Saunders on Trump, Mystery, and Why He Rejects Social Media". Interview with Catherine Woodiwiss, sojo.net. August 30, 2016.

To me that really would be the essence of kindness, to have one's awareness so developed and refined that you could tell just what was needed, and not do any more or any less, and maybe not even be aware of what you had done, except it would be a helpful thing because of how fully present you were. Well, as Aerosmith once famously said: Dream on.

George Saunders
Dream, Kindness, Essence
"George Saunders on Trump, Mystery, and Why He Rejects Social Media". Interview with Catherine Woodiwiss, sojo.net. August 30, 2016.

The universal human laws - need, love for the beloved, fear, hunger, periodic exaltation, the kindness that rises up naturally in the absence of hunger/fear/pain - are constant, predictable, reliable, universal, and are merely ornamented with the details of local culture.

George Saunders
Pain, Kindness, Law
George Saunders (2012). “The Brain-Dead Megaphone”, p.55, A&C Black

As a fiction writer, one of things you learn is God lives in specificity. You know, human kindness is increased as we pursue specificity.

George Saunders
Kindness, Fiction, God Life
"In Search For Answers, Author George Saunders Covers Trump Campaign". "Weekend Edition Saturday" with Lynn Neary, www.npr.org. July 9, 2016.

"Kindness" can mean a lot of different things. In this case, I felt I had to present his [Donald Trump's] supporters in as fair a light as possible - many of them hadn't been interviewed before and that entailed some interviewer-courtesy in the editing and so on.

George Saunders
Kindness, Mean, Light
"George Saunders on Trump, Mystery, and Why He Rejects Social Media". Interview with Catherine Woodiwiss, sojo.net. August 30, 2016.

It's not fiction's job to be photographically representative of reality. If I want to make a fictional world where there's no kindness, this doesn't mean I believe there's no kindness in the real world. In fact, what it may mean is that I very much value kindness. Like if you make a painting in which only greens are allowed, it wouldn't mean you don't believe in blue.

George Saunders
Jobs, Kindness, Real

I think we need leadership that can gently and with affection remind us of what we Americans mostly agree upon: civility, kindness, tolerance, humour, et cetera. The current Trump administration seems to thrive on trying to enforce a very odd, fearful agenda, that it tries to disguise in a false garment of fondness for the working-class - despite the fact that its policies seem designed to continue the decades-long habit of marginalizing that group.

George Saunders
Kindness, Thinking, Class
Source: www.macleans.ca

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