Quotes About Empathy

Smart is overrated. Most of the harm done in this world is done by people who fancy themselves smart. And they are—book smart. But most really smart people have no sense. They value their brains too highly. I'd rather have someone with sense. And a little heart.

After all, the only thing that hurts more than tears shed is tears unshed.

It's like, if you love somebody. When they hurt you or let you down, you let 'em know you still love them. That's called unconditional love. Anybody can love somebody when they're making you happy. That requires no special talent. That's also how most people do it. But when you get a little wiser, you know you got to love somebody with all their faults. So,

I can live through everything or I can answer for everything, but sometimes both is just too much for one day.

I just think it's odd how we parse out our empathy," he said. "Why we only have empathy for those who remind us most of ourselves. I'm not saying I don't understand it. Sure, it's easy to have empathy for someone who's just like us. It comes naturally. I just think it's a shame we can't take it a bit further. I can't help wondering what the world would be like if our empathy muscle were a bit more developed.

Never be afraid to look, Raymond. It's always better to look. Whatever you're afraid of, turn toward it, not away. Once you're willing to do that, it loses all its power over you. Trust me. I know this. I don't always do it. But I really, truly know.

I think I have something that belongs to you'. I held out my open hand, the stone resting in my palm. I expected her to take it. Instead she took the whole hand, and held it.

It flitted through her mind without actual words that skin is an odd thing for the world to make a fuss about, especially when, with your eyes closed, it all feels more or less the same.

Luis comes along and decides that his definition of a man is someone who is not afraid to be kind. That takes courage.

Every life matters. Even if it's "them.

My daughter was mentally ill," I said. "So I know. It's an illness, just like it says in the phrase. It's not a moral failing. It's funny how people have empathy for a physical illness. They see it as bad luck, and they never question whether you can help it.

I am not as unstable as people tend to think, but I allow them their margin for error because it allows me mine.

Maybe when you put tears away uncried, everything you cry about from that day on contains a little of those tears.

in a corral with the horses. They accepted me immediately. Unlike people, they don't judge much by your outsides. They knew I was one of them. Problem was, when one of the employees came around to ask what I was doing there, I was pretty caught up in being a horse, and I spooked. I felt my eyes widen, showing white all the way around,

I didn't want to pry. I felt like one of those typical white boys who didn't understand a thing. Who didn't even know, until a Japanese boy told me, that his family was not allowed citizenship. Maybe he wouldn't have minded my trying to learn. But I felt intimidated by my own ignorance, sure that every word out of my mouth would be a mistake.

When somebody holds a view that seems to make no sense, know that it makes sense to them, but for reasons you don't know anything about yet. And I guess in a lot of cases, you never will.

trying to model what it means to be a man, but they don't truly know. They think it means be tough, feel nothing, betray nothing. And then Luis comes along and decides that his definition of a man is someone who is not afraid to be kind. That takes courage. Don't you think?

I wonder sometimes why we're all so afraid of one another. Or... actually... no, I don't really wonder. I know why. But I reflect on it. And I think it's a shame.

You don't fall down to love, you climb up to it. There's hard work involved. That's why I believe you can't love someone you don't know. Loving someone is knowing them.

Never be afraid to look, Raymond. It's always better to look. Whatever you're afraid of, turn toward it, not away. Once you're willing to do that, it loses all its power over you.

if you meet someone you don't like, or who doesn't treat you right, try to reserve judgment, because you don't know what that person's going through,

But the problem was, I tried to get him to do things that would be the right things for me to do. But I don't think they were the right things for him. I was trying to help him the way I thought he should be helped, but he's not me.

I think about the time Mitch asked me why I was such a happy little guy. I was five years old. Pearl had been gone a few weeks. I thought really hard for an answer even though I think he'd gone about his business without expecting one. Then I said, "I think it's because my mother loves me so much." He gave me this look of utter pity, like I was the bravest kid in the world. He missed the point completely, you know?

What does it mean when someone loses the use of most of his brain, and it makes him more kind?