Quotes About Empathy

Perhaps we are no longer a kind people. More and more, we seem to have become numb to the suffering of others and ashamed of our own suffering. Yet suffering is one of the universal conditions of being alive. We all suffer. We have become terribly vulnerable, not because we suffer but because we have separated ourselves from each other.

We burn out not because we don't care but because we don't grieve. We burn out because we have allowed our hearts to become so filled with loss that we have no room left to care.

When I have forgiven myself and remembered who I am, I will bless everyone and everything I see." The way to freedom often lies through the open heart.

Sometimes just being in someone's presence is strong medicine.

Before every session, I take a moment to remember my humanity. There is no experience that this man has that I cannot share with him, no fear that I cannot understand, no suffering that I cannot care about, because I too am human. No matter how deep his wound, he does not need to be ashamed in front of me. I too am vulnerable. And because of this, I am enough.

I suspect that the most basic and powerful way to connect with another person is to listen. Just listen. Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention. And especially if it's from the heart. When people are talking, there's no need to do anything but receive them. Just take them in. Listen to what they're saying. Care about it. Most times caring about it is even more important than understanding it.

I am no longer as inspired by expertise as I once was. Perhaps the worth of any lifetime is measured more in kindness than in competency.

When we recognize the spark of God in others, we blow on it with our attention and strengthen it. No matter how deeply it has been buried or for how long .... When we bless someone, we touch the unborn goodness in them and wish it well.

As a human being, I know I can never hope to have the depth and breadth of perspective to know whether any of my actions will ultimately harm or heal.

Understanding the suffering is beyond me. Understanding the healing is, too. But in this moment, I am here. Use me.

We are all here for a single purpose: to grow in wisdom and to learn to love better.

No matter what means we use, service is always a work of the heart. There are times when the power of science is so seductive that we may come to feel that all that is required to serve others is to get our science right, our diagnosis, our treatment. But science can never serve unless it is first translated by people into a work of the heart.

Medicine is as close to love as it is to science, and its relationships matter even at the edge of life itself.

We've all got our issues, our baggage experiences, our pet peeves, our weaknesses, our harebrained ideas, our nutty hang-ups and quirks, and areas of our character that God is still working on. That's just the way it is on this side of eternity. So we have to be willing to freely give and receive grace and to give and receive help. Because when we don't, people wind up isolated, hurting, and wondering if it's worth the risk to connect with others.

Love is infinitely more powerful than hate,

I'm thankful I grew up the way I did. It made me a hard worker and insightful to other people's lives.

These are the hands of Rachel Joy Scott and one day, will touch millions of people's hearts.

Adolescents, especially girls, are most resilient when they are connected to others.

Silence made space for other people's words, which was important for those who needed to be listened to.

Maybe we are all Beths, boarding other people's life journeys, or letting them hop aboard ours. For a while we ride together. A few minutes, a few miles. Companions on the road, sharing our air and our view, our feet swaying to the same beat. Then you get off at your stop, or I get off at mine. Unless we decide to stay on longer together. p 251

When change happened to an individual, it happened to everyone around her - sometimes in ways she wished for, though sometimes in ways she wished against" Lynnie p 228-229

So you never know when you can get through. p 179 Jack the Bus Driver talking about helping a woman on the bus who was an alcoholic

I realize, as the tightness yields in my shoulders and hips and feet, that Beth might well have wanted me to meet her drivers because I needed them, too." p 167

You don't have to be friends with everybody, you just can't be unkind to anybody.