"Generally speaking, compassion is the wish that others should be free of suffering, but if we look into it more closely, compassion has two levels. In one case it may exist simply at the level of a wish - just wishing the other to be free of suffering - but it can also exist on a higher level, where the emotion goes beyond a mere wish to include the added dimension of actually wanting to do something about the suffering of others."

~Dalai Lama's Book of Transformation