Extended excerpt: [Essay]

“A creature means “All for God.” Holiness is an unselfing of ourselves. To be a creature is to have a special intensified sonship, whose life and breath and being are nothing but the fervours of his filial love taking fire on his Father’s bosom in the pressure of his Father’s arms. The Sacred Humanity of the Eternal Son, beaming in the very central heart of the Ever-blessed Trinity, – this is the type, the meaning, the accomplishment, of the creature.” (p. 58) 

Source link: The Creator and the Creature or, The Wonders of Divine Love (1857) Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/TheCreatorAndTheCreature

Extended excerpt: [Essay]

“Kind thoughts are rarer than either kind words or kind deeds. They imply a great deal of thinking about others. This in itself is rare. But they also imply a great deal of thinking about others without the thoughts being criticisms. This is rarer still. Active-minded men are naturally the most given to criticize; and they are also the men whose thoughts are generally the most exuberant. Such men therefore must make kind thoughts a defence against self. By sweetening the fountain of their thoughts, they will destroy the bitterness of their judgments.” (p. 22)

Source link: Spiritual Conferences (1859) via Internet Archive: https://archive.org/stream/a580835700fabeuoft#page/n39/mode/2up

Extended excerpt: [Essay]

“Kind words are the music of the world. They have the power which seems to be beyond natural causes, as though they were some angel’s song, which had lost its way, and come to earth, and sang on undyingly, smiting the hearts of men with sweetest wounds, and putting for the while an angel’s nature into us.” (p. 32)

Extended excerpt: [Essay]

“Kindness has converted more sinners than zeal, eloquence or learning; and these three last have never converted any one, unless they were kind also. In short, kindness makes us as Gods to each other. Yet, while it lifts us so high, it sweetly keeps us low. For the continual sense, which a kind heart has, of its own need of kindness, keeps it humble. There are no hearts to which kindness is so indispensable, as those that are exuberantly kind themselves.” (pp. 6-7)

Source link: Spiritual Conferences (1859) via Internet Archive: https://archive.org/stream/a580835700fabeuoft#page/n23/mode/2up

Extended excerpt: [Church address]

“Devout people are, as a class, the least kind of all classes. This is a scandalous thing to say; but the scandal of the fact is so much greater than the scandal of acknowledging it, that I will brave this last, for the sake of a greater good. Religious people are an unkindly lot. Poor human nature cannot do everything; and kindness is too often left uncultivated, because men do not sufficiently understand its value. Men may be charitable, yet not kind; merciful, yet not kind; self-denying, yet not kind. If they would add a little common kindness to their uncommon graces, they would convert ten where they now only abate the prejudices of one. There is a sort of spiritual selfishness in devotion, which is rather to be regretted than condemned. I should not like to think it is unavoidable. Certainly its interfering with kindness is not unavoidable. It is only a little difficult, and calls for watchfulness. Kindness, as a grace, is certainly not sufficiently cultivated, while the self-gravitating, self-contemplating, self-inspecting parts of the spiritual life are cultivated too exclusively.” (p. 17)

Extended excerpt [Church address]:

“Now kindness has all the virtues of praise without its vices. It is equally medicinal without having the poisonous qualities. When we are praised, we are praised at some expense, and at our own expense. Kindness puts us to no expense, while it enriches those who are kind to us. Praise always implies some degree of condescension; and condescension is a thing intrinsically ungraceful, whereas kindness it the most graceful attitude one man can assume towards another.” (p. 12)

Source link: Spiritual Conferences (1859) via Internet Archive: https://archive.org/stream/a580835700fabeuoft#page/n29/mode/2up

Extended excerpt [Church address]:

“Let us then think, first of all, of the power of kind words. In truth there is hardly a power on earth equal to them. It seems as if they could almost do what in reality God alone can do, namely, soften the hard and angry hearts of men. Many a friendship long, loyal and self-sacrificing, rested at first on no thicker a foundation than a kind word.” (p. 32)

Extended excerpt [Church address]:

“But in general the rule is that kindness makes men kind. As we become kinder ourselves by practicing kindness, so the objects of our kindness, if they were kind before, learn now to be kinder, and to be kind now if they were never so before. Thus does kindness propagate itself on all sides. Perhaps an act of kindness never dies, but extends the invisible undulations of its influence over the breadth of centuries.” (p. 13)

Source link: Spiritual Conferences (1859) via Internet Archive: https://archive.org/stream/a580835700fabeuoft#page/n29/mode/2up

Misattribution notes: Frederick Faber’s “On Kindness in General” address was frequently re-quoted – and often repackaged without correctly acknowledging his authorship – by several sources in the early 1900s.

One example comes from a popular newspaper essay feature in The Pittsburgh Post by Reverend Morgan M. Sheedy. Sheedy rehashed a close paraphrasing of Faber’s words in two separate essays printed in 1908 and 1910:

“A single act of kindness throws out roots in every direction and the roots spring up and make fresh flowers. This fertility is not confined to ourselves. It is chiefly to be found in the person whom we have benefited. The kindest people, as we know, and generally those who have received the greatest number of kindnesses.”

[Requote sources: 1908 – Morgan M. Sheedy, “An Act of Kindness Never Dies but Extends the Waves of Its Influence Over Breadth of Centurers” (19 July 1908) The Pittsburgh Post, Vol. LXVI, No. 314, Pittsburgh, PA: Post Publishing Co., p. 2, column 4; online via Newspapers.com [subscription service] www.newspapers.com]

1910 – Morgan M. Sheedy, “Thoughtfulness for Fellow Man Fills the World with Melody” (18 September 1910) The Pittsburgh Post, Vol.. LXIX, No. 9, Pittsburgh, PA: Post Publishing Co., p. 6, column 5; online via Newspapers.com [subscription service] www.newspapers.com]

“Kindness is infectious. One kind action leads to another. Our example is followed. This is the greatest work which kindness does to others – that it makes them kind themselves.” (p. 66)

[Requote source: Frances Xavier Lasance, “Thoughts from Father Faber on Kindness” (19 September 1908) Part I, My Prayer Book: Happiness in Goodness, New York: Benziger Bros., p. 66; online via Google Books, books.google.com]

Aviator Amelia Earhart (1897-1937) is also credited by some modern sources as being the origin of the quote. Many Internet sources (and the unfortunate souls who cite from them) attribute Earhart’s words to a June 2005 article in the Magic City Morning Star newspaper. We’re certain that the phrase did not originate with Earhart, however — even the paraphrased versions of Faber’s quote were in wide circulation when Earhart was just a teenager.

Extended excerpt [Church address]:

“The single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make fresh tress, and the rapidity of the growth is equal to its extent. But this fertility is not confined to ourselves, or to others who may be kind to the same person to whom we have been kind. It is chiefly to be found in the person himself whom we have benefited. This is the greatest work which kindness does to others, that it makes them kind themselves. The kindest men are generally those who have received the greatest number of kindnesses.” (p. 12)

Source link [Featured – Original Faber quote]: Spiritual Conferences (1859) via Internet Archive: https://archive.org/stream/a580835700fabeuoft#page/n29/mode/2up

Source link [1908 Sheedy requote]: “An Act of Kindness Never Dies but Extends the Waves of Its Influence Over Breadth of Centurers” (19 July 1908) The Pittsburgh Post via Newspapers.com [subscription service]: https://www.newspapers.com/image/86544515

Source link [1910 Sheedy requote]: “Thoughtfulness for Fellow Man Fills the World with Melody” (18 September 1910) The Pittsburgh Post via Newspapers.com [subscription service]: https://www.newspapers.com/image/87638473

Source link [1908 Lasance paraphrase]: My Prayer Book: Happiness in Goodness (1908) online via Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=GgJFAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA66&lpg=PA66&dq=Kindness+is+infectious.+One+kind+action+leads+to+another.+Our+example+is+followed.+This+is+the+greatest+work+which+kindness+does+to+others