Quotes About Empathy

Cuando caes en la compasión del idiota, evitas agitar las aguas para no lastimar a otra persona, aunque las aguas necesiten ser agitadas y tu compasión acabe resultando más perjudicial que tu sinceridad.

Late-in-life love has the benefit of being especially forgiving, generous, sensitive — and urgent.

When working with couples on empathy, often I'll say, "Before you speak, ask yourself, What is this going to feel like to the person I'm speaking to? " I make a mental note to share this with John one day.

I'm sorry, I'm not laughing at you. Namast'ay in Bed . . . that's exactly how I feel!

Maybe you can let yourself cry too.

Sitting-with-you-in-your-pain is one of the rare experiences that people get in the protected space of a therapy room,

Because therapists know that at first, each patient is simply a snapshot, a person captured in a particular moment. It's like a photo of you taken from an unfortunate angle and with a sour expression on your face. There might also be a photo in which you're glowing, caught opening a present or mid-laugh with a lover. Both are you in that fraction of time, and neither is you in your entirety.

You will inevitably hurt your partner, your parents, your children, your closest friend—and they will hurt you—because if you sign up for intimacy, getting hurt is part of the deal.

You know, John," I'd said the week before as he texted away, "I'm curious if you have any reaction to my feeling dismissed when you do this." He held up a finger—Hang on—but continued to text. When he finished, he looked up at me. "Sorry, what was I saying?" I loved that. Not "What were you saying" but "What was I saying.

Therapists will be supportive, but our support is for your growth, not for your low opinion of your partner.

A hurtful act is the transference to others of the degradation which we bear in ourselves. —Simone Well

We do not want to comprehend that people may and do die of emotional pain, or to recognize the terror in ourselves when we cannot seem to help someone in despair -- when our words are empty.

As I listen to the stories about those who suffered and ended their lives it seems to me that it isn't as if they wanted to die, but more that they wished to feel better and didn't know how.

Just like children, emotions heal when they are heard and validated.

When we are being compassionate, we consider another's circumstance with love rather than judgement... To be compassionate is to move into the right here, right now with an open heart consciousness and a willingness to be supportive.

Most of us think of ourselves as thinking creatures that feel, but we are actually feeling creatures that think.

I know it can be very uncomfortable for a healthy person to try to communicate with someone who has had a stroke, but I needed my visitors to bring me their positive energy. Since conversation is obviously out of the question, I appreciated when people came in for just a few minutes, took my hands in theirs, and shared softly and slowly how they were doing, what they were thinking, and how they believed in my ability to recover.

Yelling louder does not help me understand you any better! Don't be afraid of me. Come closer to me. Bring me your gentle spirit. Speak more slowly. Enunciate more clearly. Again! Please, try again. S-l-o-w down. Be kind to me. Be a safe place for me. See that I am a wounded animal, not a stupid animal. I am vulnerable and confused. Whatever my age, whatever my credentials, reach for me. Respect me. I am in here. Come find me.

What good was beauty with no one to share it? Alone, beauty was almost cruel.

Therefore we feel it is important that our children be taught this simple tenet: Hate people on an individual basis only—you must actually get to know someone at least slightly before you can properly hate him or her.

Likewise, she will know that if I start watching reality TV, quoting Dr. Phil, riding roller coasters, and seem to have forsaken bacon in favor of anything soy—it's time to Get the Pillow. That's what—well, I can't tell you who but she's a nurse—says they all say when they've got a particularly cantankerous patient on their wing.

we must be tolerant with ourselves and allow ourselves some deviations from the straight line we set up to follow. Even more we must allow others the same prerogative.

One Half of the World does not know how the other Half lives," Franklin once wrote. His sister is his other Half.

The study of history requires investigation, imagination, empathy, and respect. Reverence just doesn't enter into it.