Quotes About Empathy

They may be complete strangers, with different lives and different problems, but there in that examination room they are measuring sadness the same way. They are measuring it in loss.

Ojalá pudiera abrazarla y darle las gracias por adelantarse siempre a lo que necesito.

I only need a second. So I can show her that I'm here. That someone's still here.

Except Allyson doesn't know about Saba (yet) or about kishkes (officially speaking, though she knows what they are and how to listen to them and she will never ever stop doing this). And she doesn't have the words to tell Willem what she needs to tell him. So she doesn't use words. She licks her thumb and rubs it against he wrist. Stained. Willem grabs her wrist, rubs his own thumb against it. Does the same to his own wrist, just to make it clear. Stained.

The feelings pile up, threatening to crack-up my chest wide-open ..

Maybe making friends is a specific skill, and I missed the lesson.

Your presence can be soothing so long as what you say is soothing

How would the tragedy changes us? How would WE change us ?

Everyone has hardship in their life. Everyone has pain.

You need people who will give you the food from their plate because they feel your hunger, who will refuse to let you wander off alone no matter how many times you say it's all good.

Esta noche no la besaré. O tocaré. O la veré de cerca. Esta noche escucharé. Y eso será suficiente

Me di cuenta entonces que no es suficiente saber cómo se llama alguien. Tienes que saber quiénes son.

Just as, she now understands, Nathaniel's loss has somehow merged with her own. It sounds like a burden, to take this on, but really, it's the opposite. To be the holder of other people's loss is to be the keeper of their love. To share your loss with people is another way of giving your love.

During all the time we were together, I don't think I ever found out. But once I was with her, I didn't need to. We were both music-obsessed, each in our own way. If we didn't entirely understand the other person's obsession, it didn't matter, because we understood our own.

Creo que eres el tipo de persona que encuentra dinero en el suelo y lo mueve en el aire y pregunta si alguien lo ha perdido. Creo que lloras en películas que ni siquiera son tristes porque tienes un corazón tierno, aunque no lo muestras. Creo que haces cosas que te asustan, y eso te hace más valiente que esos adictos a la adrenalina que hacen saltos en bungee desde los puentes.

I'm not crying because of how much I hurt. I'm crying because of how much I feel.

And they seem to forget that you are a mere mortal; flesh and bone, bruisable and scare-able.

Because the hard part of falling down is not the falling down, or the getting back up. It's seeing what happens to the people you fall on. You get bruised; they get flattened.

Why wasn't I nicer to Alice? When she has been nothing but sweet to me? When I actually like her? I know I should say something to her, but before I can find the words, she's tooting her horn and disappearing down the street. I wave until she turns the corner. And as I watch another person drive out of here to some better place, I understand exactly why I wasn't nicer.

I continue reading, remembering why I used to love books. Because they show us, in so many words, and so many worlds, that we are not alone.

When I open the door in front of the bus station, he says, "Take care, Cody," in a quiet voice. ...As much as I want to put miles between me and Ben McCallister, now that I'm doing just that, I understand what a relief it's been to share this weight with someone. "Yeah. You too," I tell him. "Have a good life." It's not what I meant to say. It sounds too flippant. But maybe it's the most you can hope for someone.

I've never seen anyone cry like this. Quiet but gushing, a faucet behind his eyes mysteriously turned on.

cloying your-best-friend's-dead sympathy that will drive

I know what I did to you was so wrong, but at the time it also felt so necessary to my survival.