Quotes About Empathy

He paused now, considering. I loved this about him. No matter how many times I had asked, he answered me as if it were the first time.

I learned to sleep during the day so that I would not be tired when he returned; he always needed to talk then, to tell me down to the last detail about the faces and the wounds and the movements of men. And I wanted to be able to listen, to digest the bloody images, to paint them flat and unremarkable onto the vase of posterity. To release him from it and make him Achilles again.

In grief, men must help each other, though they are enemies.

This was the cruelty of adults. Do you understand?

His trust was a part of him, as much as his hands or his miraculous feet. And despite my hurt, I would not wish to see it gone, to see him as uneasy and fearful as the rest of us, for any price.

It was so simple. If you want it, I will do it. If it would make you happy, I will go with you. Is there a moment that a heart cracks? But a cracked heart was not enough, and I had grown wise enough to know it.

Two children he had had, and he had not seen either clearly. But perhaps no parent can truly see their child. When we look we see only the mirror of our own faults.

Less than a month we had spent together, yet he seemed to know me better than anyone who had ever walked the world.

But when I tried to speak them, I found I could not. His cheeks were flushed with shame, and the skin beneath his eyes was weary. His trust was a part of him, as much as his hands or his miraculous feet. And despite my hurt, I would not wish to see it gone, to see him as uneasy and fearful as the rest of us, for any price.

For sixteen years, I had been holding up the sky, and he had not noticed. I should have forced him to go with me to pick those plants that saved his life. I should have made him to stand over the stove while I spoke the words of power. He should understand all I had carried in silence, all that I had done for his safekeeping.

I did not see the worst of him. Even at his best he was not an easy man. But he was a friend to me in a time when I needed one." "It is strange to think of a goddess needing friends." "All creatures that are not mad need them.

I could have stopped them," he said. The skin of his face was very pale; his voice was hoarse. "I was close enough. I could have saved her." I shook my head. "You could not have known." He buried his face in his hands and did not speak. I held him and whispered all the bits of broken comfort I could find.

The beginning of hope. We have given each other wounds, but they are not mortal.

i had never thought of having children, but looking at him, for a moment i could imagine it

Each man or woman who passed, she knew their history and would tell it to me, for she said that you must understand people if you would rule them.

There is no one like you," I said, at last. He regarded me a moment, in silence. "So?" Something in the way he spoke it drained the last of my anger from me. I had minded, once. But who was I now, to begrudge such a thing? As if he heard me, he smiled, and his face was like the sun.

perhaps no parent can truly see their child. When we look we see only the mirror of our own faults.

Aucun homme ne vaut plus qu'un autre, d'où qu'il vienne

Sorry you were caught, I said. Sorry that you thought I was weak, but you were wrong.

Perhaps she thought I hated her. She did not know that I almost asked him, a hundred times, to be a little kinder to her. You do not have to humiliate her so thoroughly, I thought. But it was not kindness he lacked; it was interest.

If it were a man, I wondered if I would pity him. But it was not a man. When I passed back by the pen, his friends would stare at me with pleading faces. They moaned and squealed, and pressed their snouts to the earth. We are sorry, we are sorry. Sorry you were caught, I said. Sorry that you thought I was weak, but you were wrong

If they did not weep, I would not either.

To horses, dogs and cats, to birds in cages, to pigs in sties, to sheep in folds, to cattle in stalls—to them all he sang his song and danced his dance! When he was eating out-of-doors he would pay court to the nearest toad or frog or blind-worm. When he was sucking an orange before going to bed, he would make overtures to a spider.

It is hard to be impersonal in a cosmos that runs to personality.