Tolstoy on kindness

The kinder and the more thoughtful a person is, 

the more kindness he can find in other people.

Kindness enriches our life; with kindness mysterious things

 become clear, difficult things become easy, 

and dull things become cheerful.

You should respond with kindness toward evil done to you, 

and you will destroy in an evil person that pleasure which he derives from evil.

Kindness is for your soul as health

 is for your body: you do not notice it when you have it.

Love is real only when a person can sacrifice himself 

for another person. Only when a person forgets himself for the sake of another,

 and lives for another creature, only this kind of love can be called true love,

 and only in this love do we see the blessing and reward of life. 

This is the foundation of the world.

Nothing can make our life, or the lives of other people, 

more beautiful than perpetual kindness.

 ~ Leo Tolstoy

from A Calendar of Wisdom: Daily Thoughts to Nourish 

the Soul, Written and Selected from the World's Sacred Texts