Follow an idea
Themes across texts
Find a starting point in compassion, wisdom, liberation, and more. Read how different texts approach a shared question.
67,800 passages · 31 indexed editions · 24 themes
See connections saved between works →Compassion
587 suggested passages across 23 works
Themes are AI-generated reading suggestions. Interpretations can differ, and a shared theme can carry different meanings in each tradition. Open the text to read in context.
Abrahamic Traditions
King James Version (KJV)Leviticus 19:34
[But] the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I [am] the LORD your God.
Read in contextAbrahamic Traditions
The Koran76:8
Who though longing for it themselves, bestowed their food on the poor and the orphan and the captive.
Read in contextGreco-Roman
MeditationsMeditations 8:7
Thou hast no time nor opportunity to read. What then? Hast thou not time and opportunity to exercise thyself, not to wrong thyself; to strive against all carnal pleasures and pains, and to get the upper hand of them; to contemn honour and vainglory; and not only, not to be angry with them, whom towards thee thou doest find unsensible and unthankful; but also to have a care of them still, and of their welfare?
Read in contextAbrahamic Traditions
Ecclesiasticus (Sirach)4:8
Bow down thy ear cheerfully to the poor, and pay what thou owest, and answer him peaceable words with mildness.
Read in contextAbrahamic Traditions
Book of MormonAlma 5:55
Yea, and will you persist in turning your backs upon the poor, and the needy, and in withholding your substance from them?
Read in contextAbrahamic Traditions
Doctrine and Covenants98:42
And if he trespass against thee the second time, and repent not, nevertheless thou shalt forgive him.
Read in contextAbrahamic Traditions
King James Version (KJV)Luke 6:27
But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you,
Read in contextAbrahamic Traditions
The Koran2:172_4884
There is no piety in turning your faces toward the east or the west, but he is pious who believeth in God, and the last day, and the angles, and the Scriptures, and the prophets; who for the love of God disburseth his wealth to his kindred, and to the orphans, and the needy, and the wayfarer, and those who ask, and for ransoming; who observeth prayer, and payeth the legal alms, and who is of those who are faithful to their engagements when they have engaged in them, and patient under ills and hardships, and in time of trouble: these are they who are just, and these are they who fear the Lord.
Read in contextGreco-Roman
MeditationsMeditations 9:10
Labour not as one to whom it is appointed to be wretched, nor as one that either would be pitied, or admired; but let this be thine only care and desire; so always and in all things to prosecute or to forbear, as the law of charity, or mutual society doth require.
Read in contextAbrahamic Traditions
Ecclesiasticus (Sirach)7:23
Let a wise servant be dear to thee as thy own soul, defraud him not of liberty, nor leave him needy.
Read in contextAbrahamic Traditions
Book of Mormon3 Nephi 13:1
Verily, verily, I say that I would that ye should do alms unto the poor; but take heed that ye do not your alms before men to be seen of them; otherwise ye have no reward of your Father who is in heaven.
Read in contextAbrahamic Traditions
Doctrine and Covenants105:3
But behold, they have not learned to be obedient to the things which I required at their hands, but are full of all manner of evil, and do not impart of their substance, as becometh saints, to the poor and afflicted among them;
Read in contextAbrahamic Traditions
King James Version (KJV)Luke 6:35
But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and [to] the evil.
Read in contextAbrahamic Traditions
The Koran2:274
They who give away their substance in alms, by night and day, in private and in public, shall have their reward with their Lord: no fear shall come on them, neither shall they be put to grief.
Read in contextGreco-Roman
MeditationsMeditations 9:29
From some high place as it were to look down, and to behold here flocks, and there sacrifices, without number; and all kind of navigation; some in a rough and stormy sea, and some in a calm: the general differences, or different estates of things, some, that are now first upon being; the several and mutual relations of those things that are together; and some other things that are at their last. Their lives also, who were long ago, and theirs who shall be hereafter, and the present estate and life of those many nations of barbarians that are now in the world, thou must likewise consider in thy mind. And how many there be, who never so much as heard of thy name, how many that will soon forget it; how many who but even now did commend thee, within a very little while perchance will speak ill of thee. So that neither fame, nor honour, nor anything else that this world doth afford, is worth the while. The sum then of all; whatsoever doth happen unto thee, whereof God is the cause, to accept it contentedly: whatsoever thou doest, whereof thou thyself art the cause, to do it justly: which will be, if both in thy resolution and in thy action thou have no further end, than to do good unto others, as being that, which by thy natural constitution, as a man, thou art bound unto.
Read in contextAbrahamic Traditions
Ecclesiasticus (Sirach)34:25
The bread of the needy, is the life of the poor: he that defraudeth them thereof, is a man of blood.
Read in contextAbrahamic Traditions
Book of Mormon3 Nephi 17:7
Have ye any that are sick among you? Bring them hither. Have ye any that are lame, or blind, or halt, or maimed, or leprous, or that are withered, or that are deaf, or that are afflicted in any manner? Bring them hither and I will heal them, for I have compassion upon you; my bowels are filled with mercy.
Read in contextAbrahamic Traditions
Doctrine and Covenants109:43
O Lord, we delight not in the destruction of our fellow men; their souls are precious before thee;
Read in contextAbrahamic Traditions
King James Version (KJV)Luke 6:36
Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.
Read in contextAbrahamic Traditions
The Koran28:77
But seek, by means of what God hath given thee, to attain the future Mansion; and neglect not thy part in this world, but be bounteous to others as God hath been bounteous to thee, and seek not to commit excesses on the earth; for God loveth not those who commit excesses."
Read in contextGreco-Roman
MeditationsMeditations 5:6
Such there be, who when they have done a good turn to any, are ready to set them on the score for it, and to require retaliation. Others there be, who though they stand not upon retaliation, to require any, yet they think with themselves nevertheless, that such a one is their debtor, and they know as their word is what they have done. Others again there be, who when they have done any such thing, do not so much as know what they have done; but are like unto the vine, which beareth her grapes, and when once she hath borne her own proper fruit, is contented and seeks for no further recompense. As a horse after a race, and a hunting dog when he hath hunted, and a bee when she hath made her honey, look not for applause and commendation; so neither doth that man that rightly doth understand his own nature when he hath done a good turn: but from one doth proceed to do another, even as the vine after she hath once borne fruit in her own proper season, is ready for another time. Thou therefore must be one of them, who what they do, barely do it without any further thought, and are in a manner insensible of what they do. 'Nay but,' will some reply perchance, 'this very thing a rational man is bound unto, to understand what it is, that he doeth.' For it is the property, say they, of one that is naturally sociable, to be sensible, that he doth operate sociably: nay, and to desire, that the party him self that is sociably dealt with, should be sensible of it too. I answer, That which thou sayest is true indeed, but the true meaning of that which is said, thou dost not understand. And therefore art thou one of those first, whom I mentioned. For they also are led by a probable appearance of reason. But if thou dost desire to understand truly what it is that is said, fear not that thou shalt therefore give over any sociable action.
Read in contextAbrahamic Traditions
Ecclesiasticus (Sirach)4:36
Let not thy hand be stretched out to receive, and shut when thou shouldst give.
Read in contextAbrahamic Traditions
Book of MormonMormon 8:37
For behold, ye do love money, and your substance, and your fine apparel, and the adorning of your churches, more than ye love the poor and the needy, the sick and the afflicted.
Read in contextAbrahamic Traditions
Doctrine and Covenants38:25
And again I say unto you, let every man esteem his brother as himself.
Read in context