This study critically examines the Personality Education Promotion Act from the viewpoint of literature education, redefines the concept of personality and personality education philosophically and educationally, and makes suggestions for the content of literature education related to the “moral feeling” of “compassion.” This study focuses on compassion because compassion has practical value in preserving human capabilities and contributes to the improvement of public life. In this study, the concept of “compassion” is based on the definition and use of the term by Nussbaum: “painful emotions caused by the perception that others are unfairly unhappy.” Nussbaum believes that compassion has a cognitive basis in such considerations as “judge seriousness,” “judge responsibility,” and “judge the extent of self-happiness.” In this study, the cultivation of compassion should be directed in accordance with the cognitive basis of compassion, and literature education is identified as the best subject for compassion education.