Quotes About Empathy

He has not despised or disdained the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help. PSALM 22:24

But God loved Hagar. He loves those who just can't take it anymore and who run away. In fact, the Bible is filled with stories of His love for those like Hagar.

Ask Him to fill your life until you overflow with His love — even for those you don't like!

Heroic origin stories and polemical counterstories may give us momentary emotional satisfaction by inviting us to despise cartoonish renderings of our perceived rivals and enemies. The price we all pay, though, is tunnel vision, mutual recrimination, and stalemate. For the sake not just of the science but of all the suffering people whom the science should be serving, it is time for us all to learn and to tell better, more honest stories.

We assume that we've come so far as compassionate citizens of the world if we do choose to read the news, yet the attitude towards life can be one where we put blinders on and forget that there are civil wars going on. It's easy to forget that there are so many people starving to death every single day.

And his eyes frighten me, too. They're the eyes of an old man, an old man who's seen so much in life that he no longer cares to go on living. They're not even desperate... just quiet and expectant, and very, very lonely, as if he were quite alone of his own free choice.

Johannes had once said that violence and cruelty were just a stupid person's way of making himself felt, because it was easer to use your hands to strike a blow than to use your brain to find a logical and just solution to the problem.

But Johannes had said, "Politeness is something you owe other people, because when you show a little courtesy, everything becomes easier and better. But first and foremost, it's something you owe yourself. You are David.

Violence and cruelty were just a stupid person's way of making himself felt, because it was easier to use your hands to strike a blow then to use your brain to find a logical and just solution to a problem.

Violence and cruelty were just a stupid person's way of making himself felt, because it was easier to use your hands to strike a blow than use your brain to find a logical and just solution to a problem.

For a moment David was tempted to think that perhaps there were no good people at all outside concentration camps, but then he reminded himself of the sailor and Angelo and the English people who might have been ignorant but were certainly not bad.

The strange boy looked astonished. "Why don't you fight then?" He asked crossly. "Because if I hit you back, I'd be no better than you are. I'd be just as rotten and worthless and I'd have no right to be free!

Newborns can discriminate between their own cries and those of other babies. They get upset when they hear other babies cry, which is probably why, when one baby cries in a maternity ward, the others inevitably follow. It's always assumed that they're simply copying each other, but they're probably also pained by the sounds of distress. Human empathy develops early, and it's expressed vocally.

Some people won't go the extra mile, and then on their birthday, when no one makes a fuss, they feel neglected and bitter.

Forgiveness means it finally becomes unimportant that you hit back. You're done. It doesn't necessarily mean that you want to have lunch with the person. If you keep hitting back, you stay trapped in the nightmare...

When we're dealing with the people in our family - no matter how annoying or gross they may be, no matter how self-inflicted their suffering may appear, no matter how afflicted they are with ignorance, prejudice or nose hairs - we give from the deepest parts of ourselves.

You can safely assume that you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.

You can safely assume you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.

most people would not trust a drunken prostitute like Daise. Would you have two weeks ago?' She blinked at him. 'I don't know.' She hadn't even thought about prostitutes, drunken or not, two weeks ago. 'That could be me on the corner were things different.' She swallowed. 'Or if they go differently, it still could. I would want someone to believe me.

Make no judgements where you have no compassion.

Make no judgments where you have no compassion.

I have a shelf of comfort books, which I read when the world closes in on me or something untoward happens.

I see that I must give what I most need.

Long after you've forgotten someone's voice, you can still remember the sound of their happiness or their sadness. You can feel it in your body.