Quotes About Empathy

I knew there was one rule that held fast across the universe: if you wanted to get someone on your side what you really had to do was relieve their pain.

We don't have to play every game to know what winning feels like. We don't have to hear every piece of music in the world to understand music. We don't have to have tried every variety of grape from every vineyard to know the pleasure of wine. Love and laughter and fear and pain are universal currencies.

The way she accepted a glacier or a puffin or the breach of a whale. She imagined seeing herself as just another brilliant freak of nature. Just another sentient animal, trying their best. And in doing so, she imagined what it was like to be free.

Sometimes just to say you're truth out loud is enough to find others like you

silence   Humans fear silence. If you ever want to make one feel uncomfortable, stop in the middle of a conversation for no apparent reason. Then stare deep into their eyes.

As you're creating your story, think through where you'd want pauses. Try to put yourself in the listener's shoes–if you were the listener and you were being told your story, where would you want pauses?

Do not cross your arms across your chest because you will appear closed off, annoyed, and non-receptive to what the other person is saying

The listener will be able to hear your emotions in your voice, so

We've all heard stories that have been pointless but still kept us engaged and excited because of the person's body language and voice qualities. Afterward

For roughly the millionth time in his life he asked himself, Is there any way I can just ignore this and get on with my day? and he reflected that it was the minor slights that were the hardest to let pass.

When the thing standing between you and your heart's desire is another person with their own wants and needs, the answer is never as simple as just laying down the law. We all understand this when someone else tries to tell us what we can and can't do, but conveniently forget it when it's our turn to give orders. This blind spot is common to people on all parts of the political spectrum, which is one reason why I don't like arguing politics much.

But stories are like people, Atticus. Loving them doesn't make them perfect. You try to cherish their virtues and overlook their flaws. The flaws are still there, though. But you don't get mad.

Loosely translated Der schlechte Affe hasst seinen eigenen Geruch means that people are most deeply offended by moral failings that mirror their own.

Atticus tried not to care, telling himself paperbacks were meant to be abused, but it was hard, like watching friends get knocked around.

people are most deeply offended by moral failings that mirror their own.

You made love to a dream. Have I ever lied to you, George? Then remember what I told you: Whoever you love will be just like me. Any woman seen through love's eyes is as perfect as you thought me to be." "No," George said. "There's no one like you." "They're all like me, George, if you see with your heart. But some of them stay.

Sanders is a clear outlier in a generation that has forgotten what it means to be a public servant. The Times remarks upon his "grumpy demeanor." But Bernie is grumpy because he's thinking about vets who need surgeries, guest workers who've had their wages ripped off, kids without access to dentists or some other godforsaken problem that most of us normal people can care about for maybe a few minutes on a good day, but Bernie worries about more or less all the time.

As a professional misanthrope, I believe that if you are going to hate a person, you ought to do it properly. You should go and live in his shoes for a while, and see at the end of it how much you hate yourself.

And then they were left looking at each other like a husband and wife with very few secrets left between them.

If you want to be happier, if you want to live in a world that may be thick with problems but is at least a sunnier place where people are more decent to one another and more willing to cooperate and show kindness, just turn off the tube.

The same heart beats in every human breast.

No individual life can be truly prosperous, passed . . . in the midst of men who suffer.

If your God complex is one in which you seek only to gain and never to give, you'll always look at the success of others with resentment." "You

Humans are selfish creatures. But love is the selfless act we are all capable of.