Quotes About Empathy

So ingrained, Gamache knew, was our training to be polite that even in the midst of a terrible personal loss people still smiled.

Clara saw what others couldn't. Like that little boy in The Sixth Sense, but instead of seeing ghosts, Clara saw good. Which was itself pretty scary. So much more comforting to see bad in others; gives us all sorts of excuses for our own bad behavior. But good? No, only really remarkable people see the good in others.

who would want to kill kindness.

And now here is my secret, a very simple secret. It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye. Armand wondered if Florence understood that line from The Little Prince. He hadn't, as a child.

explorer, Armand Gamache delved into what people thought, but mostly how they felt. Because that was where actions were conceived. Noble acts. And acts of the greatest cruelty.

everyone had strengths. And weaknesses. The important thing was to recognize them. And not expect something from someone who didn't have it to give.

It's too easy to feed the anger. Too cowardly to stoke the hate. You must look inside yourself and decide who you are and who you want to be. Character is not created in times like these. It's revealed. This is a trying time. A testing time. Be careful.

It was as though I wasn't human.' 'That's the necessary first step,' said Myrna. 'They dehumanise their victim. You've put it well.

They could stop being pillars and just be people.

Who is it, exactly, you have needed all these years to forgive,

You know, don't you," Armand said, "that almost every parent feels like you do at some stage. Wishes they could go back to a carefree life. I can't tell you how often Reine-Marie and I looked at Daniel and Annie throwing tantrums and wished they were someone else's children

the world is a cruel place, but it's also filled with more goodness than we ever realized. And you know what? Kindness beats cruelty. In the long run. It really does. Believe me.

Her voice changed slightly as she remembered, "But most he loved a happy human face.

She held Ruth's hand for the rest of the way, and wondered if maybe the key was not in being held, but in holding.

the line from Ruth's poem. Who hurt you once, so far beyond repair?

I have seen flowers come in stony places, And kind things done by men with ugly faces,' Gamache said,

But Clara knew why she wept. Not for Julia, not for Mrs. Morrow. She wept for all the Morrows, but mostly for parents who gave gifts and wrote "from." For parents who never lost children because they never had them.

no easy words of comfort. To do that would be to simply comfort themselves. What Monsieur Béliveau needed was to feel bad. And then he'd feel better. Now,

in her Montreal office the day a batch of rejection letters arrived, ripping them into pieces and dropping them on the floor for the hired help to clean up. 'This world is messed up, I tell you. People are cruel and insensitive, they're out to screw each other. There's no love or compassion. This', she sliced her book violently in the air like an ancient mythical hammer, heading for an unforgiving anvil, 'will teach

Those girls over there all think they have it bad.' 'But wait 'til menopause,' confirmed Myrna.

my experience people who have been hurt either pass it on and become abusive themselves or they develop a great kindness. You're

Now you will feel no rain / For each of you will be shelter for the other,

It became okay to stop the swaggering, to cease the bullying that was excused as an appropriate way to treat the populace.

Be careful," Gamache whispered. "You're making hurting a habit. Spreading it around won't lessen your pain, you know. Just the opposite.