Quotes About Empathy

We are here to help each other get through this thing, whatever it is.

I understand perfectly why some of my autistic patients scream and flap their arms--it's to frighten off extroverts

A world without prejudice, stigma, and discrimination against those who have or are thought to have mental illness would be a better one for everyone. What so-called normal people are doing when they define disease like manic depression or schizophrenia is reassuring themselves that they don't have a thought disorder or an affective disorder, that their thoughts and feelings make perfect sense.

Having two daughters changed my perspective on a lot of things, and I definitely have a newfound respect for women. And I think I finally became a good and real man when I had a daughter.

Why can't Spider-sense warn you when you're about to get dumped?

I know this is scary. You're hungry and cold and you want to give up! But you can't turn on each other! Not now! Show me how brave you can be by pulling together! Do it for each other! That's the trick! Because when you reach out--when you extend yourself for other people-- that's when you're without fear!

If I'm not 100% comfortable in her world and she's not 100% comfortable in mine...then we'll make our own world.

Always know your protagonists inside and out. As a writer, show us things about them we've never before considered; make us care about who they are and what they want, so much that it's gut-wrenching to see them roadblocked and exhilarating to see them triumph over obstacles. You have to live inside them, through them--inhabit them as an actor would and tell stories about things that matter immensely to the both of you.

America heals, but America is not the world.

It would go something like this: "When I see you so angry, I feel frightened and unsafe. It makes me want to run away. But I really want to be with you and not run away. Will you help me feel safer?" Or a Lion dealing with the avoidance of the Unicorn: "When you don't respond to me, I feel rejected. Please help me with my feelings of rejection.

You defined yourself by participating in other people's lives.

When we are well loved, we inevitably give love to those around us.

We often have very little empathy for our own thoughts and feelings and frequently try to suppress them by dismissing them as weaknesses.

The trick with women is knowing when to just let them talk.

To expose ourselves to another human's journey is to not only hear the ground truth but also to allow our hearts to soften and our minds to open so that we can access greater empathy, compassion, and trust. So that we can offer the same hospitality to others that we ourselves long to receive.

The transformation occurs in the space between one heart and another. To be heard by someone who is present, open, and caring is to be led into freedom.

Every act of love brings hope. Every act of love ushers the new world into the present. Every act of love bridges alienation, brings comfort to our fears, makes space for hope. We need stories to help us recall the things we've all forgotten: That we are intimately interrelated. That our home is in one another. That peace is found within one another.

How can you be kissing at a time like this? Have you no respect for the dead?

The question isn't, 'What do we want to know about people?', It's, 'What do people want to tell about themselves?

A squirrel dying in your front yard may be more relevant to your interests right now than people dying in Africa.

But it was not right that settlements were torched and destroyed when the inhabitants had nothing to do with the blinkered obsessions of some of my people.

In my life I've learned that true happiness comes from giving. Helping others along the way makes you evaluate who you are. I think that love is what we're all searching for. I haven't come across anyone who didn't become a better person through love.

The barriers between animal and human come down very easily. We belong to a single great family, and if we are lonely and unhappy we gladly accept the friendship of our distant relations.

Ich erinnere mich sehr gut, wie wenig Phantasie die meisten Menschen besaßen. Wahrscheinlich war das ein Glück für sie. Phantasie macht den Menschen überempfindlich, verletzbar und ausgeliefert. Vielleicht ist sie überhaupt eine Entartungserscheinung. Ich habe den Phantasielosen ihren Mangel nie angekreidet, manchmal habe ich sie sogar um ihn beneidet. Sie hatten ein leichteres und angenehmeres Leben als die anderen.