Quotes About Empathy

One of the hardest lessons I have to learn is how not to be judgmental about people who are judgmental. When I see how wrong somebody is—how shallow it is to look at the Resurrection as a mere, explainable fact—when I see only the mistakenness of others, then I am blinded to their being children of God, who are just as valued and treasured as are those who more nearly agree with me.

An I Q cannot measure artistic ability. A potential Picasso may be a flop at objective vocabulary or number tests. An I Q does not measure a capacity for love...How do we teach a child - our own, or those in a classroom to have compassion: to allow people to be different; to understand that like is not equal; to experiment; to laugh: to love.

The author & the reader know each other: they meet on the bridge of words

The refusal to love is the only unbearable thing.

I heard a doctor say that the living tend to withdraw emotionally from the dying, thereby driving them deeper into isolation. Not to withdraw takes tremendous strength. To pull back is a temptation; it doesn't hurt nearly as much as remaining open.

Love isn't what you feel. It's what you do.

If you're going to care about the fall of the sparrow you can't pick and choose who's going to be the sparrow. It's everybody, and you're stuck with it.

That was surely the purest kind of kything. Mr. Jenkins had never had that kind of communion with another human being, a communion so rich and full that silence speaks more powerfully than words.

He said, "There's a sermon of John Donne's I have often had cause to remember during my lifetime. He says, Other men's crosses are not my crosses. We all have our own cross to carry, and one is all most of us are able to bear. How much do you owe him, Vicky?

Papa's always had the ability to remember the good things and let the bad ones go. Not a bad ability. ... I'm not sure. I think we have to remember it all before we can forgive it.

The most memorable books from our childhoods are those that make us feel less alone

We are all broken, we human creatures, and to pretend we're not is to inhibit healing.

To love anyone is to hope in him always. From the moment at which we begin to judge anyone, to limit our confidence in him, from the moment at which we identify [pigeonhole] him, and so reduce him to that, we cease to love him, and he ceases to be able to become better. We must dare to love in a world that does not know how to love.

Detachment and involvement: the artist must have both. The link between them is compassion.

Compassion means to suffer with, but it doesn't mean to get lost in the suffering, so that it becomes exclusively one's own. I tend to do this, to replace the person for whom I am feeling compassion with myself.

Children are less easily frightened than we are.... they all understand princesses, of course. Haven't they all been badly bruised by peas?

Why is it, she wondered, that things that hurt people make them deeper and more understanding?

We want nothing from you that you do without grace," Mrs Whatsit said, "or that you do without understanding.

we would, all of us, be less than we are if it weren't for those we love and who've loved us who have died.

How do we teach a child--our own, or those in a classroom--to have compassion: to allow people to be different; to understand that like is not equal; to experiment; to laugh; to love; to accept the fact that the most important questions a human being can ask do not have--or need--answers.

I can't do it for love of God, like Tom Tallis, or for heaven's sake, as Mr. Frost said. But because I love people I have to act according to it—to the fact that I love them.

If someone knows who he is, really knows, then he doesn't need to hate.

That's it, isn't it?" Mimi asked. "Someone to talk with. Someone who can talk about the things in our own concerns.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' For our sakes Jesus went through all the suffering we may ever have to endure, and because he cried out those words we may cry them out, too.