Quotes About Empathy

She worried about Shana and Roy. She always told me she never worried about me. She never held any of my past behavior against me; she never passed judgment—she was always ready with new unconditional love.

Men can give us a hug or pat us on the back, but only a girl will get another girl off her feet to face the rain.

Often we think we are showing up for someone, when really all we're doing is showing everyone how great we are at showing up. Lack of empathy. That hit me over the head. I have no empathy. Yes! That's right!

COLD WORDS FREEZE PEOPLE, AND HOT WORDS SCORCH THEM, AND BITTER WORDS MAKE THEM BITTER, AND WRATHFUL WORDS MAKE THEM WRATHFUL. KIND WORDS . . . SOOTHE, QUIET, AND COMFORT THE HEARER. Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)

People start to heal the moment they feel heard.

Treat people with kindness because behind every face is a story that could use a little more love.

Forgiving doesn't make the person who hurt you feel better, it makes you feel better.

but I guess it's better for people to shut up rather than rather than say something nasty. -ONE NIGHT @ THE CALL CENTER Chapter 1 page 22

People from different parts of the world can respond to the same story if it says something to them about their own history and their own experience.

The triumph of the written word is often attained when the writer achieves union and trust with the reader, who then becomes ready to be drawn into unfamiliar territory, walking in borrowed literary shoes so to speak, toward a deeper understanding of self or society, or of foreign peoples, cultures, and situations.

I tell my students, it's not difficult to identify with somebody like yourself, somebody next door who looks like you. What's more difficult is to identify with someone you don't see, who's very far away, who's a different colour, who eats a different kind of food. When you begin to do that then literature is really performing its wonders.

Our humanity is contingent on the humanity of our fellows. No person or group can be human alone. We rise above the animal together, or not at all. If we learned that lesson even this late in the day, we would have taken a truly millennial step forward.

Once you allow yourself to identify with the people in a story, then you might begin to see yourself in that story even if on the surface it's far removed from your situation. This is what I try to tell my students: this is one great thing that literature can do - it can make us identify with situations and people far away.

But let the slave who sees another cast into a shallow grave know that he will be buried in the same way when his day comes.

As she stood gazing at the circular darkness which has swallowed them, tears gushed from her eyes, and she swore within her that if she heard Ezinma cry she would rush into the cave to defend her against all the gods in the world. She would die with her.

The poor of the world may be guilty of this and that particular fault or foolishness, but if we are fair we will admit that nothing they have done or left undone quite explains all the odds we see stacked up against them. We are sometimes tempted to look upon the poor as so many ne'er-do-wells we can simply ignore. But they will return to haunt our peace, because they are greater than their badge of suffering, because they are human.

When a man blasphemes, what do we do? Do we go and stop his mouth? No. We put our fingers into our ears to stop us hearing. That is a wise action.

It is appropriate that we celebrate Martin Luther King, a man who struggled so valiantly to restore humanity to the oppressed and the oppressor.

The triumph of the written word is often attained when the writer achieves union and trust with the reader, who then becomes ready to be drawn deep into unfamiliar territory, walking in borrowed literary shoes so to speak, toward a deeper understanding of self or society, or of foreign peoples, cultures, and situations.

If we put ourselves between the god and his victim we may receive blows intended for the offender. When a man blasphemes, what do we do? Do we go and stop his mouth? No. We put our fingers into our ears to stop us hearing. That is a wise action.

Did not our elders tell us that as soon as we shake hands with a leper he will want an embrace?

Travelers with closed minds can tell us little except about themselves.

Even when there was strong disagreement, one had to remember to be discordant with respect.

For whom is it well, for whom is it well. There is no one for whom it is well.