compassion

I largely regard compassion as a different wording for “unconditional love”: it is much more than “just” a feeling or understanding (which I would call empathy or sympathy), it is a strong motive force urging you to help others.

My “Pocket Oxford Dictionary” (1966 ed.) says compassion is “pity inclining one to … help”. There is an online definition here.

Compassion, Universal Goodwill, Unconditional Love: they are all a combination of desire to help and taking action to help. Empathy (i.e., understanding of others’ feelings or circumstances; see here) is often an important part of compassion.Sympathy is similar to compassion.

As of the time this definition was written, I’ve touched on this idea in the following posts:

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