The above quotation comes from the insightful mind of the incomparable Kahlil Gibran, and is inspired by Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. For a certainty, this world would be in a whole lot better shape, if in our interactions, we demonstrated more often mercy, compassion, understanding, patience, and forgiveness with one another, as opposed to being judgmental, vengeful, impatient, hateful, and violent, instead. In the scheme of things, a significant portion of humankind is confused about who they really are, in essence, and because they do not know who and what they really are, or even where they should be going, their decision making and therefore their communications with one another, is going to suffer from that confusion, that thus reigns within their being.
To be merciful, is a quality that typically comes forth from those that have obtained wisdom; for those that are wise, do not strike out wantonly against others that simply do not know what they are really doing -- because those others having not properly comprehended that each one of us has been equally created by the very same hand of God, thus naturally lack proper discernment. Certainly, each one of us is capable of getting far off of the course that we should be on, and many of us are quite capable of erroneous decisions, bad actions, and meanness – but that doesn’t signify that the best way to resolve such bad behavior is forceful retribution; for rather, a more sensible approach to such consists of a mixture of empathy, fairness, justice properly applied, and mercy.
So too, we have an obligation to those of our brothers and sisters that are errant in their ways, of doing our part to help them to thus correct their mindset. Further to the point, those then that come from bad circumstances, of which they have been effectively treated rather poorly and of which their life experiences are often one of a struggle to find some degree of self-respect and worth, dearly need the helping hand that will thus serve to redirect their minds to that which is beneficial and useful, instead. Of course, change does not often happen overnight, but we have an inherent duty to do our good part to help where we can so help, by exhibiting ourselves the mercy as our response to those in need, as opposed to the harshness so often effected by society, in its stead.
Also, it is fair to recognize that who and what we really are by our deeds, good or bad, is reflected in the portion of the goodness that we so receive as our compensation, so of. Therefore, those that exhibit to others the narrowest of minds, and the harshest of their being as their persona, as a reflection of what they believe justice should be, are going to receive in return, a portion of that same justice, for themselves. On the other hand, those that are merciful, will find that though they undoubtedly have faults and have also made their fair share of mistakes, that they will receive in return, a portion of that mercy, which they so richly deserve as their fair compensation.