Quotes About Compassion

Because at the end of the day, love wins.

It's no surprise that as I heal inside, I'm also becoming more adept at healing others.

One woman said to her husband, "You know what three words are even more romantic to me than 'I love you'?" "You look beautiful?" he tried. "No," his wife said. "I understand you.")

There's no hierarchy of pain. Suffering shouldn't be ranked, because pain is not a contest. Spouses often forget this, upping the ante on their suffering—I had the kids all day. My job is more demanding than yours. I'm lonelier than you are. Whose pain wins—or loses? But

because she wished most of all that her son's life could be easier for his sake, that he could live a fulfilling life,

Sitting-with-you-in-your-pain is one of the rare experiences that people get in the protected space of a therapy room, but it's very hard to give or get outside of it—

A therapist will hold up the mirror in the most compassionate way possible, but it's up to the patient to take a good look at that reflection, to stare back at it and say, "Oh, isn't that interesting! Now what?" instead of turning away.

Before diagnosing people with depression, make sure they're not surrounded by assholes"), his

Hell is other people.It´s true - the world is filled with diffucult people...but sometimes - more often - than we tend to realize - those diffucult peopel are us.

I worry about them", she says. "I worry all the time." "Maybe", I say, "instead of worrying about them, you can love them.

In the early sessions, it's always more important for patients to feel heard and understood than it is for them to gain any insight or make any changes.

In this room, I'm going to see you, and you'll try to hide, but I'll still see you, and it's going to be okay when I do.

But too often people feel pressured to forgive and then end up believing that something's wrong with them if they can't quite get there—that they aren't enlightened enough or strong enough or compassionate enough. So what I say is this: You can have compassion without forgiving. There are many ways to move on, and pretending to feel a certain way isn't one of them.

it's okay to hold one person in your heart and fall in love with another, that our capacity for love is big enough for both.

Years later, when I've done thousands of first sessions, and information-gathering has become second nature, I'll use a different barometer to judge how it went: Did the patient feel understood?

regularly made an effort to remember one of the most important lessons from my training: There's no hierarchy of pain. Suffering shouldn't be ranked, because pain is not a contest. Spouses often forget this, upping the ante on their suffering—I had the kids all day. My job is more demanding than yours. I'm lonelier than you are. Whose pain wins—or loses? But pain is pain.

It takes a while to hear a person's story and for that person to tell it, and like most stories—including mine—it bounces all over the place before you know what the plot really is.

It's impossible to get to know people deeply and not come to like them. We should take the world's enemies, get them in a room to share their histories and formative experiences, their fears and their struggles, and global adversaries would suddenly get along.

Sitting-with-you-in-your-pain is one of the rare experiences that people get in the protected space of a therapy room, but it's very hard to give or get outside of it—even for Jen,

You seem like you're enjoying the experience of suffering, so I thought I'd help you out with that." "What?" "There's a difference between pain and suffering," Wendell says. "You're going to have to feel pain - everyone feels pain at times - but you don't have to suffer so much. You're not choosing the pain, but you're choosing the suffering."p62

Suffering shouldn't be ranked, because pain is not a contest. Spouses often forget this, upping the ante on their suffering—I had the kids all day. My job is more demanding than yours. I'm lonelier than you are. Whose pain wins—or loses? But pain is pain.

How easy it is, I thought, to break someone's heart, even when you take great care not to.

the most important lessons from my training: There's no hierarchy of pain. Suffering shouldn't be ranked, because pain is not a contest. Spouses often forget this, upping the ante on their suffering—I had the kids all day. My job is more demanding than yours. I'm lonelier than you are. Whose pain wins—or loses?

You can't get through your pain by diminishing it, he reminded me. You get through your pain by accepting it and figuring out what to do with it.