Quotes About Empathy

And as we stood half circle in the bright school yard, we saw the lost and beautiful and hungry in each of us. We saw home.

If the worst thing in the world happened, would I help protect someone else? Would I let myself be a harbor for someone who needs it?' Then she said, 'I want each of you to say to the other: I will harbor you.' I will harbor you.

I think I'd rather have my heart broke than do the breaking. —Lena

But I don't want to read faster or older or any way else that might make the story disappear too quickly from where it's settling inside my brain, slowly becoming a part of me. A story I will remember long after I've read it for the second, third, tenth, hundredth time.

I just shrug, not knowing what to say. How can I explain to anyone that stories are like air to me, I breathe them in and let them out over and over again.

Stories can be windows, but also mirrors.

Who hasn't walked through a life of small tragedies? 'Sister Sonja often asked me, as though to understand the depth and breadth of human suffering would be enough to pull me outside of my own.

Every since he was a little boy, his father had always warned him about running in white neighborhoods. Once, when he was about ten, he had torn away from his father and taken off down Madison Avenue. When his father caught up to him, he grabbed Miah's shoulder. Don't you ever run in a white neighborhood, he'd whispered fiercely, tears in his eyes. Then he had pulled Miah toward him and held him. Ever.

No voting. No fighting. No cursing. No wars.

They're all inside of us,...past people and present people. And probably even the people we'll become.

What's the thing, I ask her, that would make people want to live together? People have to want it, that's all.

Jacqueline Woodson

And when we pressed our heads to each other's hearts how did we not hear Carmen McRae singing? In Angela's fisted hands, Billie Holiday staggered past us and we didn't know her name. Nina Simone told us how beautiful we were and we didn't hear her voice.

Even if you turn your back on the world you left, you're still pulled toward it, you're still turning around--always--to look behind you. To make sure everyone's okay.

When we meet characters in books, fall in love with them, cheer for them, we become more empathetic. More hopeful. More thoughtful about the bigger world.

Let's say it's rain--the people who got problems with us being together--let's call them and their problems rain." Ellie nodded. "Okay, they're rain." She smiled. "So now what?" "So it's not always raining, is it? But when it's not raining, we know the rain isn't gone forever.

People are so caught up in trying to force their own world onto everybody else's that they don't even get the fact that the other person doesn't care.

I wanted to climb into her world and live in it with her. She was beautiful and kind and funny and identified as "certified crazy." I learned that certified crazy meant nothing to lose, nothing to be afraid of, nothing to be self-conscious about.

Trust me, it takes talent to converse with a cat

He looked up abruptly, almost as though he had sensed her entering the room. She found herself suddenly afraid that he had the ability to do exactly that.

I am smart enough to realize that people are the most trying creatures on earth and we drain energy from one another in wasteful useless ways and that would make those who need that energy from you pay a price.

Do you think I should explore forgiveness more?" Why was she asking this of me, of all the beings in the known universe? In concept, it sounded like the absolute pinnacle of civilization, the best humanity could hope for. How would it work out in reality?

Au fond, ce qui serait honnête, ce serait de remplacer le mur de ciment par un mur de papier, de mots, de cahiers: les passants pourraient lire ou déchirer, et s'ils déchiraient mes pages, nous serions enfin face à face; écrire, c'est ma façon d'être silencieux.

Gerçekten de insanlar?n birbirine tahammül edebilmesi için belli bir eÄŸitim ÅŸart.