Quotes About Empathy

We chose too small a word in the decade of my birth—tolerance—to make the world we want to live in now. We opened to the racial difference that had been there all along, separate but equal, and to a new infusion of religions, ethnicities, and values. But tolerance doesn't welcome. It allows, endures, indulges. In the medical lexicon, it is about the limits of thriving in an unfavorable environment.

Listening is about being present, not just about being quiet. I meet others with the life I've lived, not just with my questions.

The more personal you are willing to be and the more intimate you are willing to be about the details of your own life, the more universal you are.

we will continue to despise people until we have recognized, loved, and accepted what is despicable in ourselves.

It's not about healing the world by making a huge difference. It's about healing the world that touches you, that's around you.

the question isn't whether we're going to have to do hard, awful things, because we are. We all are. The question is whether we have to do them alone.

W. H. Auden, "We must love one another or die." That is, I think, where we are at the beginning of the 21st century. And since we really can love one another, I have a great deal of hope.

And it is in the whole educational system, that we must educate people to become capable and to take their place in society. That has value, obviously. But it's not quite the same thing as to educate people to relate, to listen, to help people to become themselves.

there are "near enemies" to every great virtue—reactions that come from a place of care in us, and which feel right and good, but which subtly take us down an ineffectual path.

We now know that doing good to others, having a network of strong and supportive relationships, and having a sense that one's life is worthwhile are the three greatest determinants of happiness.

Wonderment in the face of the other is also so beautifully exacting a progression from mere tolerance.

When an eighty-five pound mammal licks your tears away, then tries to sit on your lap, it's hard to feel sad.

Maybe love isn't just a bouquet of roses once in a whole. Maybe it's just sticking it out, when it's hard, when you're mad, when you're tired.

But they're family, and you forgive them, even if they are human equivalent of hyenas. Because that's what you do, Posey. Forgive.

It's just that sometimes you love a kid just because they need it. Not because they deserve it, not because you really like them…just because they need love.

Don't be nice to me," she whispered, though she didn't move away. "I might cry if you are.

That moment when she'd crouched behind the tree…it did something to her, something that made her grow up and toughen up. But one question throbbed in her brain for a long, long time. Why? Why would Liam say something so hateful? How could he—who had tamed a stray and starving cat—be so cruel to a girl who had only ever wanted to be his friend?

When you're feeling sorry for yourself, do something nice for someone else.

My blood pressure surges. Folks, unless you've walked the walk, never tell a widow it's time she moved on.

Well, you always remember people who hurt your feelings.

I have to believe that Adam was not the intended recipient of that hideous, disgusting picture. How do gynecologists do it all day, look between the legs of their patients and not just…just throw up?

You'll be surprised at how kind most people are.

It's not you. The stupidest line in the history of lines.

All I can say is...she's been a good friend. And in her own special way, she's a ball of insecurities, but so aren't we all, right?