Quotes About Empathy

As a doctor I constantly have to ask myself what kind of message the patient is bringing me. What does he mean to me? If he means nothing, I have no point of attack. The doctor is effective only when he himself is affected. 'Only the wounded physician heals.' But when the doctor wears his personality like a coat of armor, he has no effect.

But he (Nietzsche) never would be able to realize that he is like ordinary people and he should realize that too. For instance, if he were really a sage, he would say to himself "Go out into the street, go to the little people, be one of them and see how you like it, how much you enjoy being such a small thing. That is yourself." And so he would learn that he was not his own greatness.

It is particularly in contacts with people of the same sex that one stumbles over both one's own shadow and those of other people. Although we do see the shadow in a person of the opposite sex, we are usually much less annoyed by it and can more easily pardon it.

I am the oppressor of the person I condemn, not his friend and fellow-sufferer.

I do not in the least mean to say that we must never pass judgement in the cases of persons whom we desire to help and improve. But if the doctor wishes to help a human being he must be able to accept him as he is. And he can do this in reality only when he has already seen and accepted himself as he

In the first case the object works like a magnet upon the tendencies of the subject; it determines the subject to a large extent and even alienates him from himself.

Lo peor que le puede ocurrir a cualquiera es que se le comprenda por completo.

But whoever always wants only fortune of others is ugly, since he cripples himself. A murderer is one who wants to force others to blessedness, since he kills his own growth.

But it also happens at times that dreams genuinely tell us something about other people. In this way, the unconscious plays a role that is far from being fully understood. Like all the higher forms of life, man is in tune with the living beings around him to a remarkable degree. He perceives their sufferings and problems, their positive and negative attributes and values, instinctively-quite independently of his conscious thoughts about other people.

We can get in touch with another person only by an attitude of unprejudiced objectivity.

Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses.

I do not in the least mean to say that we must never pass judgement in the cases of persons whom we desire to help and improve. But if the doctor wishes to help a human being he must be able to accept him as he is. And he can do this in reality only when he has already seen and accepted himself as he is.

we can form an objective judgment of the nation, race, or continent to which we belong only when we have lived for a time in a foreign country and so are able to look at our own country from without. How

A magányosság nem úgy jön létre, hogy senki nincs körülöttünk, hanem sokkal inkább azáltal, hogy senkivel nem lehet megbeszélni olyan dolgokat, amelyeket fontosnak érzünk, vagy hogy az ember érvényesnek tekint olyan gondolatokat, amelyeket a többiek valószín?tlennek tartanak.

When the neurotic complains that the world does not understand him, he is telling us in a word that he wants his mother.

The important thing is what he talks about, not whether he agrees with it or not.

Children were not pets, not furniture, not items put on earth to bring pleasure to people who owned them, she raged to herself.

Like most men, he had a tough time believing that his wife had had any kind of interesting life before she met him. Which was ridiculous on its face.

I've come to realize something that for three weeks in my life I'd begun to doubt: There are good people in the world. Good people, kind people. xxx They all could have chosen to be cold, cruel, indifferent. That would have been easy. Brutality, I think, comes naturally to human beings. But they chose to be good, even if what they did could be questioned within the strict confines of the law.

sometimes we see things in animals that aren't really there. It's called transference, if that makes any sense. ...I think there are a lot of people who say they do things for animals when they're really doing it for themselves. They see things in animals that might not really be there. I think sometimes that hurts the animals in the end, and it hurts other people, too. ...There are people on both sides of the issue who think animals are more valuable than people are...

Cassie tried to make her voice professional, to jolt Jenny out of her pique.

Joe said, "I think I know. Too bad you can't just coexist with them.

Cody nodded as if Larry could see him. He could hear Larry shuffling papers.

No," Justin said, shaking his head. "They were fine with it. They're not like that. You should know them better than that." "Well, I don't," Cody said. "I met them that one time and we didn't exactly have a get-to-know-you chat. Gracie was all right, but her sister—" "Her sister what?" Justin asked, his voice cracking. "She just seemed kind of, well, unserious." Cody said.