Saving Simon Quotes

“Our task, wrote Einstein, is to liberate ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.”
― Jon Katz, Saving Simon: How a Rescue Donkey Taught Me the Meaning of Compassion

“The more you open to connection, the more you get. The more you believe you are worthy of connection, the more connection appears in your life.”
― Jon Katz, Saving Simon: How a Rescue Donkey Taught Me the Meaning of Compassion

“Because of them, I met all kinds of people. I was herding sheep again, greeting visitors in the barn, sharing images of them with people all over the world. This was a powerful triangle, and I was right in the middle of it. In the following weeks and months I would come to see clearly that these three animals were, in fact, connected to one another, and all three of them were connected to me.”
― Jon Katz, Saving Simon: How a Rescue Donkey Taught Me the Meaning of Compassion

“Is a connected medium the same as a compassionate one? I don’t think so.”
― Jon Katz, Saving Simon: How a Rescue Donkey Taught Me the Meaning of Compassion

“Merton’s idea—the interdependence of all things—was something I found in Saint Francis, Einstein, and in almost all of the great writings about compassion. “In the first step toward a compassionate heart,” wrote the Dalai Lama, “we must develop our empathy or closeness to others.… The closer we are to a person, the more unbearable we find that person’s suffering.” It is not, says the Dalai Lama, a question of physical proximity; it is a feeling of responsibility.”
― Jon Katz, Saving Simon: How a Rescue Donkey Taught Me the Meaning of Compassion

“Humans have a need for compassion, but they also have a lot of anger, envy, frustration, and resentment, all the enemies of compassion.”
― Jon Katz, Saving Simon: How a Rescue Donkey Taught Me the Meaning of Compassion

“It’s easy to talk about being merciful and compassionate,” I said to my donkey. “It’s not so easy to figure out how to live that way.”
― Jon Katz, Saving Simon: How a Rescue Donkey Taught Me the Meaning of Compassion

“It’s easy to avoid suffering and easier to feel disconnected from the people experiencing”
― Jon Katz, Saving Simon: How a Rescue Donkey Taught Me the Meaning of Compassion

“The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all part of one another and all involved in one another. —THOMAS MERTON”
― Jon Katz, Saving Simon: How a Rescue Donkey Taught Me the Meaning of Compassion

“they said, with some adoption papers if we decided to keep him. I think Simon decided”
― Jon Katz, Saving Simon: How a Rescue Donkey Taught Me the Meaning of Compassion