After having lost their lives on this land they [enemy soldiers] have become our sons as well.

I hold that the more helpless a creature the more entitled it is to protection by man from the cruelty of humankind.

When the suffering of another creature causes you to feel pain, do not submit to the initial desire to flee from the suffering one, but on the contrary, come closer, as close as you can to her who suffers, and try to help her.

Our human compassion binds us the one to the other - not in pity or patronizingly, but as human beings who have learnt how to turn our common suffering into hope for the future.

Just as a mother would protect with her life her own son, her only son, so one should cultivate an unbounded mind towards all beings, and loving-kindness towards all the world.

I am not an Athenian nor a Greek, but a citizen of the world.