Quotes About Empathy

What makes a Samaritan good is the possibility of the lunge.

But I shook my head. I just couldn't go with him. Nor could I tell him it wasn't his public mistreatment that stole my breath and blocked my tongue; it was something too mean to explain. It was the fact that Chester the Fester, the worst man I'd ever seen, even worse in his way than Israel Finch, got a whole new face to look out of and didn't even know to be grateful; while I, my father's son, had to be still and resolute and breathe steam to stay alive.

Of course vindictiveness is an ugly trait and, yes, I do mean to forgive all these nice deserters; I mean, eventually, to say, to their ghosts if not their living faces, It's all right. I understand. I might've done the same. Not yet, though. Let me bear witness first. Two

I'd lived years without a woman to tell me small things. Her work went well and she wanted to say so, and I was the man who was listening. That fact swung open and light came in.

I sighed. Don't let anyone tell you that looking out for your vulnerable is less than a full-time deal.

And now, because a story is told for all, an admonition to the mindsick: Be careful whom you choose to hate. The small and the vulnerable own a protection great enough, if you could but see it, to melt you into jelly. Beware those who reside beneath the shadow of the Wings.

It's one thing to be sick of your own infirmities, and another to understand that the people you love most are sick of them also. You are very near then to being friendless in this world.

Small talk is about putting people at ease. Your unspoken answer to their unspoken question, How do you like me so far? must be, Wow! I really like you.

the more eye contact, the more positive feelings.

I always try to turn the spotlight on the other person. Truly confident people often do this. They know they grow more by listening than talking.

Never be left speechless again. Like a parrot, simply repeat the last few words your conversation partner says. That puts the ball right back in his or her court, and then all you need to do is listen.

It's not all what you say, it's how you say it.

The human brain, instinctively, and unfailingly translates everything into terms of How does that affect ME? Start every appropriate sentence with you.

All folks have a Big Ben in their brain that determines how receptive they are going to be to you and your ideas. When you mess with their internal clock, they won't listen to you. No matter how interesting your information, or how pleasant your call, bad timing means bad results for you.

Control yourself, it is not worth it. You will regret your rudeness afterwards, your sensitive nature will be troubled

Liberals can understand everything but people who don't understand them.

I learned that it is the weak who are cruel, and that gentleness is to be expected only from the strong.

Anybody who hates dogs and babies can't be all bad.

You can understand and relate to most people better if you look at them - no matter how old or impressive they may be - as if they are children. For most of us never really grow up or mature all that much - we simply grow taller. O, to be sure, we laugh less and play less and wear uncomfortable disguises like adults, but beneath the costume is the child we always are, whose needs are simple, whose daily life is still best described by fairy tales.

A writer writes not because he is educated but because he is driven by the need to communicate. Behind the need to communicate is the need to share. Behind the need to share is the need to be understood.

It was at this point, visualizing too vividly another Mr. Kaplan in the class, that anxious little lines had crept around Mr. Parkhill´s eyes.

Why does the benefactor love the recipient more than the recipient loves the benefactor? Because the benefactor lives in the recipient, the way in which the poet lives in the poem.

Le persone che riescono a tenere tra le mani una vita nascente con freddezza e senza timore reverenziale hanno ucciso qualcosa nella propria anima.

Poiché non conosciamo davvero la loro vita interiore - cosa provano e percepiscono - corriamo il rischio di privarle della loro dignità trattandole come se non ne avessero. Il solo fatto che noi non vorremmo mai essere al loro posto non significa che in loro non sia rimasto niente che meriti rispetto.