Quotes About Empathy

When a man has done thee any wrong, immediately consider with what opinion about good or evil he has done wrong. For when thou hast seen this, thou wilt pity him, and wilt neither wonder nor be angry. For either thou thyself thinkest the same thing to be good that he does, or another thing of the same kind. It is thy duty then to pardon him. But if thou dost not think such things to be good or evil, thou wilt more readily be well disposed to him who is in error.

Look at who they really are, the people whose approval you long for, and what their minds are really like. Then you won't blame the ones who make mistakes they can't help, and you won't feel a need for their approval. You will have seen the sources of both—their judgments and their actions.

61. To enter others' minds and let them enter yours.

When thou art offended with any man's shameless conduct, immediately ask thyself, Is it possible then that such men should not be in the world? It is not possible. Do not then require what is impossible. ... For at the same time that thou dost remind thyself that it is impossible that such kind of men should not exist, thou wilt become more kindly disposed towards every one individually.

What is the best way to avenge a wrong? If you retaliate in kind, returning evil for evil, your attacker succeeds in dragging you down to their level. Instead, take the insult or injury and transform it into a means of becoming a better person. This is the only true vengeance.

20. In a sense, people are our proper occupation. Our job is to do them good and put up with them. But when they obstruct our proper tasks, they become irrelevant to us—like sun, wind, animals. Our actions may be impeded by them, but there can be no impeding our intentions or our dispositions. Because we can accommodate and adapt. The mind adapts and converts to its own purposes the obstacle to our acting. The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.

Marcus sought by-laws to protect the weak, to make the lot of the slaves less hard, to stand in place of father to the fatherless.

De beste manier om je op iemand te wreken, is niet te worden zoals hij.

Not to contemn any friend's expostulation, though unjust, but to strive to reduce him to his former disposition

Nothing that goes on in anyone else's mind can harm you.

If he is going wrong, teach him kindly and show him what he has failed to see. If you can't do that, blame yourself – or perhaps not even yourself.

Don't be irritated at people's smell or bad breath. What's the point? With that mouth, with those armpits, they're going to produce that odor. —But they have a brain! Can't they figure it out? Can't they recognize the problem? So you have a brain as well. Good for you. Then use your logic to awaken his. Show him. Make him realize it. If he'll listen, then you'll have solved the problem. Without anger. 28a.

That no one could ever have felt patronized by him—or in a position to patronize him.

In our relationships with others we must work for their collective good, while treating them justly and fairly as individuals.

13. Someone despises me. That's their problem. Mine: not to do or say anything despicable. Someone hates me. Their problem. Mine: to be patient and cheerful with everyone, including them. Ready to show them their mistake. Not spitefully, or to show off my own self-control, but in an honest, upright way.

53. Practice really hearing what people say. Do your best to get inside their minds.

What is divine deserves our respect because it is good; what is human deserves our affection because it is like us. And our pity too, sometimes, for its inability to tell good from bad- as terrible a blindness as the kind that can't tell white from black.

27. How cruel—to forbid people to want what they think is good for them. And yet that's just what you won't let them do when you get angry at their misbehavior. They're drawn toward what they think is good for them. —But it's not good for them. Then show them that. Prove it to them. Instead of losing your temper.

The people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous, and surly. They are like this because they can't tell good from evil. But I have seen the beauty of good, and the ugliness of evil, and have recognized that the wrongdoer has a nature related to my own—not of the same blood or birth, but the same mind, and possessing a share of the divine. And so none of them can hurt me.

El mejor procedimiento para vengarse de los malos es procurar no asemejarse a ellos.

Let this be thy only joy, and thy only comfort, from one sociable kind action without intermission to pass unto another

All men are made one for another: either then teach them better, or bear with them.

Hay que reflexionar continuamente en cuántos médicos han muerto tras haber fruncido el entrecejo muchas veces por sus enfermos

When faced with people's bad behavior, turn around and ask when you have acted like that. When you saw money as a good, or pleasure, or social position. Your anger will subside as soon as you recognize that they acted under compulsion (what else could they do?)