Quotes About Empathy

Loving-kindness and compassion are the two faces of altruism. It is their object that distinguishes them: loving-kindness wants all beings to experience happiness, while compassion focuses on eradicating their suffering.

Paraphrasing Spinoza, Alexandre adds, "In pity, sadness comes first. I am sad that the other is suffering, but I don't really love him. In compassion, love comes first."23 The

Altruism is like rings in the water when you toss a pebble. At first the circles are very small, then they get larger, and finally they embrace the entire surface of the ocean. —ALEXANDRE JOLLIEN

Over the course of discussions with Tania and her collaborators, we noted that compassion and altruistic love were associated with positive emotions. So we arrived at the idea that burnout was in fact a kind of "empathy fatigue" and not "compassion fatigue.

Empathy is indeed needed to trigger the arising of compassion, but the space of that compassion should be vast enough so that empathy does not turn into uncontainable distress.

First we conceive the "I" and grasp onto it. Then we conceive the "mine" and cling to the material world. Like water trapped on the water wheel, we spin in circles, powerless. I praise the compassion that embraces all beings. – Chandrakirti

We define empathy here as the ability to enter into affective resonance with the other's feelings and to become cognitively aware of his situation. Empathy alerts us in particular to the nature and intensity of the sufferings experienced by the other. One could say that it catalyzes the transformation of altruistic love into compassion.

le rapport entre bonté et bien-être s'explique par le fait que l'homme est un « animal social » et que, de sa naissance à sa mort, son existence et sa survie dépendent étroitement de l'entraide et de la bienveillance dont il bénéficiera et dont il fera preuve à son tour à l'égard d'autrui.

It is also important to consider the cognitive aspect of compassion, in other words understanding the different levels of suffering and its manifest or latent causes. We will be able thus to place ourselves in the service of others by helping them effectively while still preserving our inner strength, our kindness, and our inner peace.

Quand vous aimez quelqu'un, vous ne pouvez espérer qu'il fasse ce qui vous plaît. Cela reviendrait à vous aimer vous-même4. »

altruism. It is their object that distinguishes them:

N'importe qui peut se mettre en colère. C'est facile. Mais se mettre en colère avec la bonne personne, au bon degré, au bon moment, pour la bonne raison et de la bonne façon Ã¢â'¬â€œ cela n'est pas facile11.

Dans la pitié, ce qui est premier c'est la tristesse. Je suis triste que l'autre souffre, mais je ne l'aime pas vraiment. Dans la compassion, ce qui est premier c'est l'amour79

No se tienen dos corazones, uno para los animales y otro para los humanos. Se tiene un corazón o no se tiene.»

la pitié sentimentale n'est en réalité que « l'impatience du cÅ"ur de se débarrasser au plus vite de la pénible émotion qui vous étreint devant la souffrance d'autrui, qui n'est pas du tout la compassion, mais un mouvement instinctif de défense de l'âme contre la souffrance étrangère.

l'amour de soi conduit à souhaiter son propre bien, tandis que l'amour égoïste conduit à ne souhaiter que celui-ci.

They are all doing their best; even when they are not, they wish they were, and that is worth something too.

I've got to stop thinking about myself so much--about how I look, how I'm impressing someone, whether I'm popular or not. I've got to start thinking about other people, all the people I meet.

it is an achievement, too: to be wholly understood by one person. [Édouard Manet]

How is it that strangers sometimes support you more than your friends? No, that is not wholly true--no one could be more loyal than Tonin. Maybe it is simply that you rely so heavily on old friends that their voices in your head begin to sound like your own, and when you hear a new friend's words, they fall like fresh rain. [Édouard Manet]

Stuart must have sensed my despair from the way I began lightly banging my forehead on the table.

CLOTHES SWITCH How would the story change if the characters were dressed differently—preppy, gangsta rapper-style? ETHNIC/RACE SWITCH What if the characters were given different ethnicities or races? How would that change the story? EMOTION SWITCH

A sense of belonging is a sine qua non of healthy psychological functioning everywhere. Such a sense, beginning in infancy and continuing throughout life, comes about by experiencing mutual empathy; by sensing oneself as part of a whole, which recognizes and accepts that one is a member.

Though the 'Thou' is not an 'It', it is also not "another 'I'". He who treats a person as "another 'I'" does not really see that person but only a projected image of himself. Such a relation, despite the warmest "personal" feeling is really 'I'-'It'.