Quotes About Empathy

Dear Tess, she read. This is probably a silly gift for a girl. I never did know the right thing to buy you. I was trying to think of something that would help when you're feeling lost. I remember feeling lost. It was bloody awful. But I always had you. Hope you find your way, Love Dad.

Friendship is the only cure for hatred, the only guarantee of peace. —

nothing truly hurts until it happens to you. Most of all, to your child.

Samantha: That Harper is so up herself. Of course it could have happened at a private school. And Abigail's intentions were so noble! It's just that fourteen-year-old girls are stupid. Poor Madeline. She blamed Nathan and Bonnie, although I don't know if that was fair.

Dear Tess", she read. "This is probably a silly gift for a girl. I never did know the right thing to buy you. I was trying to think of something that would help when you are feeling lost. I remember feeling lost. It was bloody awful. But I always had you. Hope you find your way. Love, Dad." Tess felt something rise within her chest. I guess it's quite pretty, said Lucy, taking the compass and turning it this way and that.

I think perhaps we've all learned to be a little kinder to one another. And to document everything. Everything.

Sophie has always thought that the first time you get the hysterical giggles with a new female friend is like the first time you sleep with a boyfriend; it takes your relationship to a new, more intimate level. The two kookaburras are certainly taking their relationship to a new, more intimate level.

Teenagers!" said Hank. "All the parenting articles say, Talk to them, listen to them! But how can you when they seem to find it physically painful to even look at you?

When you're in a relationship you get stuck playing out your different parts.

The only recognition you got for surviving a night like that came from other mothers. Only they understood the epic nature of your trivial achievements.

I'm not going to ask you to carry this too, if you can't carry it.

there was something in your children that could bring out the child in yourself. Nothing and nobody could aggravate you the way your child could aggravate you.

Other people's problems always seemed so surmountable, and other people's children so much more biddable.

altruism without action, it didn't get better than that!

Cecilia did not know why her three slender daughters loved watching overweight people sweat and cry and starve.

Women always reveal their deepest secrets to each other.

She'd learned that with her daughters. Don't say a word. Don't ask a question. Give them enough time and they'll finally tell you what's on their minds. It was like fishing. It took silence and patience. (Or so she'd heard. Cecilia would rather hammer nails into her forehead than go fishing.) Silence didn't come naturally to her. Cecilia was a talker.

Jesus. She even knew Liam's name. How was that possible? She'd forgotten her very existence until thirty seconds ago. Liam looked over, aimed his stick straight at Cecilia and pulled the imaginary trigger. "Liam!" said Tess at the same time as Cecilia groaned, clutched her chest and buckled at the knees. She did it so well, for an awful moment Tess worried that she really was collapsing. Liam held the stick up to his mouth, blew on it and grinned, delighted.

Great. Now Renata would have even more reason to dislike her. Jane would have an enemy. The last time she had had anything close to an enemy, she was in primary school herself. It had never crossed her mind that sending your child to school would be like going back to school yourself.

Maybe if she hadn't grown up with a big brother, if she hadn't grown up with that tough Aussie tomboy mentality: if a boy hits you, you hit him right back! Perhaps if she'd wept softly and prettily the first time that Perry hit her, then maybe it wouldn't keep happening.

Clementine winced. "I'm sorry, yes, I know, I've been meaning to give you a call, it's just…" "It's just that you don't really want to have any contact with us because you don't want to think about that day and because you didn't really know us that well in the first place," said Tiffany. She was sick of the bullshit. "I get it. I do get it." Clementine flinched.

she couldn't seem to wrestle control of her feelings. She cried and cried.

No, no,' said Sam. 'Of course not. I've got a good friend who

you have children you think your life has changed forever, and it's true, to an extent, but it's nothing compared to how your life changes after you lose a child.