Quotes About Empathy

Women found in me a man who could keep a love secret.

If ever I meet someone society has designated as an outcast, I invariably feel affection for him, an emotion which carries me away in melting tenderness.

I want to love everyone', I thought, almost tearfully. If you stare at the sky, it changes little by little. Gradually it turns bluish. [..] I had never seen anything as beautiful as the translucent leaves and grass. Gently, I reached out to the touch of the grass.

Such it is for those in the grips of misfortune: declarations of support and sympathy, rather than providing comfort, may merely increase the victim's pain.

Did you cry?" "No. I didn't cry ... I just kept thinking that when human beings get that way, they're no good for anything.

denote the miserable losers of the world, the vicious ones, but I feel as though I have been a "social outcast" from the moment I was born. If ever I meet someone society has designated as an outcast, I invariably feel affection for him, an emotion which carries me away in melting tenderness.

Long personal experience had taught me that when a woman suddenly bursts into hysterics, the way to restore her sprits is to give her something sweet.

A man crushed by reality puts on a show of endurance. If that's beyond your comprehension, dear reader, then you and I will never understand each other. Life's a farce, so we might as well make it a good one. But real life is a realm that I may never reach. The best that I can hope for is to loiter in the memory of these four days, so steeped with empathy. Four days that count more than five or ten years of my life. Four days that count more than a lifetime.

As a child I had absolutely no notion of what others, even members of my own family, might be suffering or what they were thinking. I was aware only of my own unspeakable fears and embarrassments. Before anyone realized it, I had become an accomplished clown, a child who never spoke a single truthful word.

Es doloroso ser la persona que espera? ¿O es más doloroso ser la persona que hace esperar a los demás? De cualquier manera, no hay necesidad de esperar más. Eso es lo más doloroso.

Long personal experience had taught me that when a woman suddenly bursts into hysterics, the way to restore her spirits is to give her something sweet.

Comprender los sentimientos de cualquier mujer es más complicado y desagradable que estudiar las emociones de una lombriz. Según mi experiencia, que viene de cuando era niño, cuando una mujer se pone a llorar de repente, lo mejor es ofrecerle algún dulce y enseguida mejora su humor.

It seems that when people are in a state of euphoria, they don't always notice the suffering of others.

I also like to take my glasses off and look at people. The faces around me, all of them, seem kind and pretty and smiling. What's more, when my glasses are off, I don't ever think about arguing with anyone at all, nor do I feel the need to make snide remarks. All I do is just blankly stare in silence.

Adults are thoroughly schooled in this way of seeing, which makes it quite easy for them to empathize with others. Each teardrop is a source of pride. Young people, it's true, will also sometimes indulge in this kind of trivial emotionality. But if adults acquire this ability only after making compromises with their lives, to put it generously, where do young people pick it up? From junk novels like this one?

Ojii-san's wen has been his only confidant, and he's conscious of a certain loneliness without it.

Each individual has his own way of living. Can we not learn to respect one another's chosen way? One makes every effort to live in a dignified and proper manner, without harming anyone else, yet people will carp and cavil and try to tear one down.

Jusque-là dans ma vie, le désir d'être tué m'était venu plus d'une fois, mais l'idée de tuer quelqu'un ne m'avait pas effleuré ; lorsque je me trouvais devant un adversaire terrible je ne pensais, au contraire, qu'à le rendre heureux.

That's because I deceived them. I was aware that everybody in the apartment house was friendly to me, but it was extremely difficult for me to explain to Shigeko how much I feared them all, and how I was cursed by the unhappy peculiarity that the more I feared people the more I was liked, and the more I was liked the more I feared them—a process which eventually compelled me to run away from everybody.

I have not the remotest clue what the nature or extent of my neighbor's woes can be.

La verdad es que no puedo comprender ni imaginar la índole o grado del sufrimiento de los demás. Quizá los sufrimientos de tipo práctico, que puedan mitigarse con una comida, tienen solución y por eso mismo sean los menos dolorosos. O puede tratarse de un infierno eterno en llamas que supere mi larga lista de sufrimientos; pero esto los hace todavía más incomprensibles para mí.

Yes, I know…I am always your friend.

My unhappiness was the unhappiness of a person who could not say no. I had been intimidated by the fear that if I declined something offered me, a yawning crevice would open between the other person's heart and myself which could never be mended through all eternity.

A vida humana está repleta desses exemplos, de seres humanos enganando uns aos outros sem sequer se magoar por isso, como se nem mesmo percebessem que estão se enganando mutuamente.