Quotes About Empathy

What the hell is wrong with people?

Is this person I'm supposed to be judging our tribe, or another tribe? If she's us, mistakes can be forgiven. Hell, everybody makes mistakes. The mistake becomes an anomaly, because it's us, and we're good people. If she's them, mistakes need to be punished, because that's just how they are.

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.

was something contagious. "I'm not sure what you're

this was his single greatest quality: he made everybody feel dear. And the sad truth of this world is that not many people feel that way, and not much of the time. I

Most people prefer to think that their resentment is entirely the fault of the person they resent, and that twisted logic seems to make sense in their minds. But it makes no sense to me at all. It's like saying it's your fault if I shoot you, because the gun is aiming at you. It completely disregards who's doing the aiming. But it's a popular point of view. Probably because it's so much easier. It relieves you of the burden of any and all self-examination.

I'm trying to learn to be a nicer person.

Shades of me, he thought. Did other people react so violently to the overwhelm of their emotion? News to him. He'd lived his life quite sure he was the only one. Billy

he slings me up to Yozzy's back. I ease gently down onto her. After all, it is her back. Not a motorcycle seat, or a bale of straw, but the fine vertebrae of a sentient being.

So if you run around putting a pillow under people to cushion their fall . . . well, I'm just not sure it's quite the favor we think it is." They stood quietly a moment,

But I've seen a lot of people walk a lot of roads. Some not so happy. And it makes them what they are. So if you run around putting a pillow under people to cushion their fall . . . well, I'm just not sure it's quite the favor we think it is.

It's like people who want to feel only happy but not sad," she said. "It never works. You either feel things or you don't. You don't get to pick and choose. At least, I don't think so." Billy

I don't read you." I guess I didn't really expect him to. Because I'd never told him the beginning of the conversation. I hoped that didn't mean I was getting to be more like my mom.

But some of my favorite parts of me are the parts you don't understand. I don't mean to be hurtful. I'm not saying it in an angry way. I wish we fit together better, too. But I'm not going to change the best of me just because you don't get it.

After all, you can't know what's happening inside a person while they stare. You can only imagine. And imagination can be a highly fear-based phenomenon.

Here the world is full of all these men 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.

The longer you live, the more you'll see that the inside of everybody is a lot like the inside of everybody else. If you're feeling something, more likely than not it's just what anyone would feel.

tea. "I think very often in life we do something important for someone else for no better reason than that they need us to. And really, when you think about it . . . what more reason is needed?

I think it makes not one bit of difference if those words came from the soul of Annaliese Schmidt or from the inside of my own brain.

this was his single greatest quality: he made everybody feel dear. And the sad truth of this world is that not many people feel that way, and not much of the time.

I watched her back and thought, Is that how you make a friend? They just sort of come up and attach themselves to you, and then there you are? It had been so long since I'd made a new friend, I really didn't remember.

People need help with perspective sometimes. If they're all alone in their own head, they can lose perspective.

it's silly to get mad at someone for letting you down when they're just being who they are. She said it's like getting mad at your dog for not being a cat.

Love explains a lot.