The real cleverness here lies in that second sentence—it's not sentimental permission to be kind when you feel like it, but a quiet insistence that you're never actually without choice. The Dalai Lama is suggesting that our claims of circumstance ("I was too tired," "they didn't deserve it," "the situation was impossible") are habits, not facts. When you're standing in line at the grocery store and the cashier's slowness makes your jaw clench, you discover he's right: kindness *is* available to you in that moment, even if frustration feels more natural. The quote matters because it moves kindness from the realm of virtue into the realm of practical possibility—something you can do right now, not someday when conditions improve.