Quotes About Empathy

The only certain happiness in life is to live for others.

In Varenka she saw that it was only necessary to forget oneself and to love others in order to be at peace, happy, and lovely. And such a person Kitty wished to be. Having now clearly understood what was most important, Kitty was not content merely to delight in it, but immediately with her whole should devoted herself to this newly-revealed life.

He saw that the inmost recesses of her soul, that had always hitherto lain open before him, were closed against him.

So long as people do not consider all men as their brothers and do not consider human life as the most sacred thing, which rather than destroy they must consider it their first and foremost duty to support; that is so long as people do not behave towards one another in a religious manner, they will always ruin one another's lives for the sake of personal gain.

He who knows only his wife and loves her understands all women better than if he had known a thousand

Il pensiero le tornava sempre a un punto: che non c'era nessuno capace d'intendere, neanche lontanamente, tutto quello che lei intendeva, tutto quello che c'era in lei.

The law of God is not to return evil for evil; indeed, if you try in this way to stamp out wickedness it will come upon you all the stronger. It is not difficult for you to kill the man, but his blood will surely stain your own soul. You may think you have killed a bad man--that you have gotten rid of evil--but you will soon find out that the seeds of still greater wickedness have been planted within you.

He felt for the first moment as a man feels when, having suddenly received a violent blow from behind, he turns round, angry and eager to avenge himself, to look for his antagonist, and finds that it is he himself who has accidentally struck himself, that there is no one to be angry with, and that he must put up with and try to soothe the pain.

She felt for him with her whole heart, the more because she was pitying him for suffering from the pain she had caused.

It seems that Pharisee must have been such a man as I am. I, too, apparently have thought only of myself,—how I might have my tea, be warm and comfortable, but never to think about my guest. He thought about himself, but there was not the least care taken of the guest. And who was his guest? The Lord Himself. If He had come to me, should I have done the same way?

It all lies in the fact that men think there are circumstances in which one may deal with human beings without love; and there are no such circumstances.

Only the people who are capable to love immensely can, also, feel immense pain: but that same need of love serves them as the cure against pain and it heals them. Because of that, mental nature is stronger than physical nature. Pain never kills.

For an instant he was offended, but immediately knew he could not be offended with her because she was himself.

he knew his own soul, it was dear to him, he protected it as the eyelid protects the eye, and did not let anyone into his soul without the key of love.

Did he suffer very much?" asked Pyotr Ivanovich. "Oh, awfully! For the last moments, hours indeed, he never left off screaming. For three days and nights in succession he screamed incessantly. It was insufferable. I can't understand how I bore it; one could hear it through three closed doors. Ah, what I suffered!

without having to consider to what class they belonged. They all belonged to human race which without his thinking about it, all appeared dear to Olenin and they all treated him in a friendly manner way.

Si hay tantas cabezas como maneras de pensar, hay tantos corazones como maneras de amar.

He suddenly felt that the very thing that was the source of his sufferings had become the source of his spiritual joy; that what had seemed insoluble while he was judging, blaming, and hating, had become clear and simple when he forgave and loved.

A saint prayed to God in the following way: "O God, please be kind to evil people as much as you are to kind people. Kind people already feel good, because they are kind." —MUSLIH-UD-DIN SAADI

if one loves anyone, one loves the whole person, just as they are and not as one would like them to be...

Anna Arkadyevna read and understood, but it was unpleasant for her to read, that is, to follow the reflection of other people's lives. She wanted too much to live herself.

The sense of human freedom, it seems to Tolstóy, is given only to those who have suffered. In

but she has such wonderful depth of feeling.

Levin felt that in his soul, in the very bottom of his soul, his brother Nikolai, despite the ugliness of his life, was not more in the wrong than those who despised him.