If people were to mutually love one another, charity would be practiced more perfectly; however, for this to happen, you would have to  make an effort to  free yourselves  of that breastplate covering your hearts so that you may be more sensitive to those who suffer. Hardness kills good sentiments; Christ never rebuffed anyone; all those who came to him, no matter who, were never rejected: the adulterous woman and the criminal were both helped by him; he never feared that his own reputation would suffer because of it. So, when will you take him as the model for all your actions? If charity  were to reign on earth, evil would no longer have predominance; it would flee in shame; it would hide itself because everywhere it would find itself out-of-place. That is when evil would disappear – you can be sure of it.

Start by making an example of yourselves;  be charitable toward everybody indiscriminately;  make an effort not to pay any attention to those who regard you with disdain, and leave to God the burden of all justice, because each day in his kingdom he separates the wheat from the tares.

Selfishness is the negation of charity; now, without charity there will be no peace for society; I would state further that there will be no safety. With selfishness and pride – which walk hand in hand – life will always be a pathway for the shrewdest, a conflict of interests in which the holiest affections are trampled on, where not even the sacred ties of family are respected.

Pascal (Sens, 1862)