Quotes About Empathy

Get close enough to someone and his or her halo slips--not because they're bad, but because they're mortal.

When you help folks solve their problems, don't be surprised if you solve your own.

I want to see children curled up with books, finding an awareness of themselves as they discover other people's thoughts.

I did not have any magnificent jewels to give you, but I hoped you would understand that I would give you the world if I could.

Don't you dare cry. If you do, then I shall, and I refuse to allow it.

He said you were frigid?" She nodded. "Oh, honey, that word should be stricken from every dictionary in existence. There is no such thing. Just men who don't know what they're doing." He leaned toward her, kissed her throat, and said, "I'm not one of them.

his man" with his

mean that if you spend your time putting the love of your heart into what you do for those who are not your friends, you may often be disappointed and discouraged. But if you keep on trying you will find your happiness in loving, whether you are loved back or not.

Children who are not loved themselves often find it difficult to love others.

you get through terrible things trying to make them better for other people

It is better for children to love their parents than to be afraid of them,' she said. 'You see, if they're afraid and they do something wrong, they don't come out with it. It just piles up in side them and goes on getting worse.

I was a grown woman before I found out black folks aren't the only ones who have hard times. Everybody's got a struggle. Nobody gets through this life easy.

When most folks think about the problems of growing up in the hood, they think about what it must feel like to be poor, or hungry, or to have your lights cut off. The struggle nobody talk about is what it feel like to be invisible, or to know in your heart the nobody cares. Mama didn't want to be famous, she wanted to be seen.

The way you turn a sad story around, you should be a comedian! You're the funniest person I know.

I didn't want my exhaustion to burn through my empathy. How terrifying was this loss of electric power superimposed on the powerlessness of aging and disability? I could not fathom it and tried not to be judgmental about my parents' reactions. How did it feel not seeing well to begin with and then functioning by flashlight? How did it feel to depend on others for your heat, water, and food?

Friends can feel such things in times of peril, as if a long, thin string holds them carefully together, tugging at one another through the open space of a dangerous world. The

Some people are like that: they are made of goodness, their every look spreads tenderness, and from their hands caresses fall all the year round.

What gentle, loving, and patient creatures we ought to be, when we fully realize what grace does for us.

It's horrible being laughed at,' he said. 'People say you should be a good sport and get used to it, but the laughter never seems friendly and one never gets used to it. Or I don't.

I'm a hopeless conversationalist. I'd always rather listen.

We are so used to our own history, we do not see it as remarkable or out of the ordinary, whereas others might see it as horrendous. Further, we tend to minimize that which we feel shameful about.

My blood was boiling, which is not a good thing for a coldblood. Dracula was dead. Rex was dying or dead. Breakfast was dying. And I was caring about it all. Meanwhile, that blasted Gunnar did nothing but sit and stare at his teevee all day. He was the reason we were all here, the reason we were suffering and dying, and he barely noticed us. I hissed so hard it hurt.

Instead of walling off a conversation and saying you'd rather talk about something else, you bring in a deeper and more comprehensive level of analysis. This highlights your intelligence, but it also highlights your emotional engagement.

People don't enter conversations, work or social, with the same intentions. You must understand and cater to that.