Quotes About Empathy

You cannot be a good doctor without pity.

As a reader, I could put on someone else's shoes and live through his adventures, borrow his individuality and make choices that I didn't have at home.

I'm sure there are people who survive tragedy without humor, but I've never met any of them. Nor would I be particularly interested in writing about them if I did meet them.

There are times as a parent when you realize that your job is not to be the parent you always imagined you'd be, the parent you always wished you had. Your job is to be the parent your child needs, given the particulars of his or her own life and nature.

Wealthy men can't live in an island that is encircled by poverty. We all breathe the same air. We must give a chance to everyone, at least a basic chance.

If we divide into two camps--even into violent and the nonviolent--and stand in one camp while attacking the other, the world will never have peace. We will always blame and condemn those we feel are responsible for wars and social injustice, without recognizing the degree of violence within ourselves. We must work on ourselves and also with those we condemn if we want to have a real impact.

The missing link can only come through the practice of loving-kindness toward ourselves, in spite of everything we know about ourselves. Only then, in fact, will we be able to love others, without criticism or judgment.

It's only when the heart that we get the response that the heart of others can give.

when the words we speak or write come from inner experience and are heartfelt, they are always imbued with "trembling for the welfare of beings.

A novel is not an allegory.... It is the sensual experience of another world. If you don't enter that world, hold your breath with the characters and become involved in their destiny, you won't be able to empathize, and empathy is at the heart of the novel. This is how you read a novel: you inhale the experience. So start breathing.

Empathy lies at the heart of Gatsby , like so many other great novels--the biggest sin is to be blind to others' problems and pains. Not seeing them means denying their existence.

It is only through literature that one can put oneself in someone else's shoes and understand the other's different and contradictory sides and refrain from becoming too ruthless. Outside the sphere of literature only one aspect of individuals is revealed. But if you understand their different dimensions you cannot easily murder them. . .

Art is as useful as bread.

There is little consolation in the fact that millions of people are unhappier than we are. Why should other people's misery make us happier or more content?

A good novel is one that shows the complexity of individuals, and creates enough space for all these characters to have a voice; in this way a novel is called democratic - not that it advocates democracy but that by nature it is so. Empathy lies at the heart of Gatsby, like so many other great novels - the biggest sin is to be blind to others' problems and pains. Not seeing them means denying their existence.

The revolution taught me not to be consoled by other people's miseries, not to feel thankful because so many others had suffered more. Pain and loss, like love and joy, are unique and personal; they cannot be modified by comparison to others.

A novel is not an allegory, I said as the period was about to come to an end. It is the sensual experience of another world. If you don't enter that world, hold your breath with the characters and become involved in their destiny, you won't be able to empathize, and empathy is at the heart of the novel. This is how you read a novel: you inhale the experience. So start breathing.

The more you give of yourself, the more you find of yourself.

Sen benim keyfimin kâhyas? m?s?n? Ä°ster aÄŸlar?m, ister gene aÄŸlar?m.

Bu vicdan azab? denilen ÅŸeyi hiçkimse kendisi hat?rlam?yor. Herkes, baÅŸkalar?n?n çekmeleri gereken vicdan azab?n? biliyor.

A book is a friend a good book is a good friend. It will talk to you when you want it to talk, and it will keep still when you want it to keep still and there are not many friends who know enough to do that.

My friend, if I could give you one thing, I would wish for you the ability to see yourself as others see you. Then you would realize what a truly special person you are.

The unhappiest moment I could never tell you. All our fights blend into each other and are in fact re-enactments of the same fight, in which we punish each other – I with words, Hugh with silence – for being each other.

Mahatma is one whose soul doesn't rest in peace while there are tears even in a single eye.