Quotes About Empathy

The mere fact that her children were children, condemned for years to feel powerless and bewildered and confined, filled her with such pity that to add any further hardship to their lives seemed unthinkable. She could excuse anything in them, forgive them everything. She would have made a better mother, perhaps, if she hadn't remembered so well how it felt to be a child.

He didn't talk about Derek at all and he avoided any contact with Willa or his brother, instead spending his evenings shut away in his room twiddling tunelessly on his guitar. Sean was the opposite: he followed Willa around pestering her for every detail of his father's death.

You belong," he told her. "You belong just as much as I do, or, who, or Bitsy or Ã¢â'¬Â¦ It's just like Christmas. We all think the others belong more.

I believe that most people who seem scary are just sad.

understand." Allie said, "Well, I don't know that we would need to go that far." He relaxed his grip on the phone. The two young girls just behind him could not stop laughing. They kept dissolving in cascades of giggles, sputtering and squeaking. What did girls that age find so

What nobody understood about David, with the possible exception of Greta, was that he had suffered a very serious loss in his life. Two losses, in fact. Two very dear children: Emily and Nicholas. It was true that these days there happened to be two very dear grown-ups who were also named Emily and Nicholas, but they weren't the same people. It was just as if those children had died. He'd been in mourning ever since.

I read so I can live more than one life in more than one place !

So, this is how it works," she said. "This is what families do for each other—hide a few uncomfortable truths, allow a few self-deceptions. Little kindnesses.

She would have made a better mother, perhaps, if she hadn't remembered so well how it felt to be a child.

these people are a family. See? They want to learn how families work and that's what they think these customers are. Get it?" "Got it," Willa said.

And most of all, most emphatically of all, they hated how her favorite means of connecting was commiseration. "Oh, poor you!" she would say. "You're looking so tired!" Or "You must be feeling so lonely!" Other people showed love by offering compliments; Abby offered pity. It was not an attractive quality, in her children's opinion.

Who said, 'You're only ever as happy as your least happy child?' Ã¢â'¬Â she'd asked Ree in last week's pottery class. "Socrates," Ree answered promptly. "Really? I was thinking more along the lines of Michelle Obama.

Oh, my. I guess it's true what they say about how you have to skip a generation to appreciate some of your relatives.

Thinking back on that conversation now, he began to believe that people could, in fact, be used up—could use each other up, could be of no further help to each other and maybe even do harm to each other. He began to think that who you are when you're with somebody may matter more than whether you love her. (P. 362)

It came to her so clearly now: the stiff-armed reach out to her side with her palm facing backward, the confident expectation of some trusting little hand grabbing hers.

Other people showed love by offering compliments; Abby offered pity. It was not an attractive quality, in her children's opinion.

Pauline believed that marriage was an interweaving of souls, while Michael viewed it as two people traveling side by side but separately. "What are you thinking about?" she liked to say, and "Tell me what you honestly feel.

God," he said. "I come here to say I feel bad about your husband, and listen to me, yakking about my own little troubles." "I wouldn't call divorce a little trouble," Willa said.

About your son, she seemed to be saying: Just put your hand here. I'm scared, too. We're all scared. You're not the only one.

Who said, 'You're only ever as happy as your least happy child?

I'm just saying a person can be too understanding," he said. "Too sympathizing and pitying, like. Getting into a kid's private brain." "There is no such thing as 'too understanding.' Ã¢â'¬Â "Well, count on a social worker to think that.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a story is worth a thousand assurances.

When studying tools of influence, people always ask the question, "How can I make them listen to me?" They ask because that is what they think they want to learn. Unfortunately, this can never be learned because it can't be done. You can't make someone listen. You can entice, inspire, cajole, stimulate, or fascinate but you cannot make anyone listen to anything. Embracing this fact up-front lets us focus on what we can do.

There are six types of stories that will serve you well in your efforts to influence others. 1. "Who I Am" Stories 2. "Why I Am Here" Stories 3. "The Vision" Story 4. "Teaching" Stories 5. "Values-in-Action" Stories 6. "I Know What You Are Thinking