Quotes About Empathy

It's funny how strangers can pass in front of you every day and all you see is a flat shadow, a vague outline, not noticing any of the details. They move in a gray crowd, always looking the same and acting the same, simple caricatures of who they really are, but once you get to know them, you notice the specific, tiniest things, you pay attention to the intricacies of their personalities, their habits and particular ways of walking and talking, the subtle changes in their appearance and dress.

But if all things equally fall short of this dignity, one thing there is that is not beneath the dignity of God, and that is, to do good to him that needed it.

Her eye and my 'I': Her gazing Creates me.

If your gaze takes in the world, a person's a puny thing. If a person is all you see, the rest falls away and she becomes the world.

Just as Bob Dylan's true audience may be those who came before him, those he's trying not to dishonor when he sings their songs or makes those songs into new ones, it may be his true biography is his inhabiting of other lives.

When I'm struggling with the fear of my own death, or with grief over the death of someone I love, what comforts me most isn't philosophies or ideas. It's the presence of someone who loves me just sitting with me silently, letting me feel what I have to feel, not trying to fix it or make it go away but simply being with me while I feel

Laughter is more than just a pleasurable activity...When people laugh together, they tend to talk and touch more and to make eye contact more frequently.

Nothing,' wrote Tolstoy, 'can make our life, or the lives of other people, more beautiful than perpetual kindness.

I thought: to be tough is to be fragile; to be tender is to be truly fierce.

Like water, I have no skin...only surface tension.

Happiness is a by-product of an effort to make someone else happy.

It's exhausting, tiptoeing around someone who barges into your life with good intentions.

Melanie. From what I understand, you were

You are only as old as the woman you feel.

A man is only as old as the woman he feels.

No one is completely unhappy at the failure of his best friend.

If you find it hard to laugh at yourself, I would be happy to do it for you.

Years ago, I tried to top everybody, but I don't anymore. I realized it was killing conversation. When you're always trying for a topper you aren't really listening. It ruins communication

We don't need to be perfect to do good deeds in the world, but we need to be sincere in our efforts.

Dialogue still reigns supreme as a method for connection and conflict resolution.

The seeds of care and empathy are built into every human being and a variety of soils and fertilizers will allow those same seeds to grow and flourish.

Instead of railing against hate, we focus on love; instead of judging the angry, we offer them our peaceful presence; instead of warning against a dystopian future, we provide a hopeful vision.

I will not like everyone, not everyone will like me, and that is OK.

If you are able to show goodness to yourself, your family, friends, and maybe to some in your community, you are doing better than most. In fact, it can be harder to show goodness to those who stand close to you than to those who are in faraway places. If more people tended to their own gardens, all of society would flourish as a result.