Morality is often regarded as a creation of reason, an affair of concepts and principles; but it may be that the imagination is a more necessary foundation for morality than reason, because the injustices that we are asked to relieve and to abolish are most often injustices that we ourselves have not known. The narrowness of experience is one of the primary impediments to compassion. We will never give help if we cannot picture need. 

From The Syrian refugees and us,  by Leon Wieseltier

We are like islands in the sea, separated on the surface but connected in the deep, said 19th century philosopher, William James.

One could also say the sea that separates us is sometimes angry, hurling tsunamis of the overwhelming grief and heartache of war, terrorism, poverty, disease and madness, against our isolated shores.  But it is not the world that generates those metaphorical waves, it is we humans who inhabit it,  and we also have the power to calm the sea.

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