Quotes About Empathy

there was nothing really more important other than treating animals and people with decency and respect—

Is it possible to love by simply not being an ass? I don't think so. But it goes a long way to clearing a space where love can happen.

Jack knew that what Lloyd meant was more than a warrior's creed, it was a reminder that we are entrusted with certain souls, and that we are beholden in a broader sense, as people, to take care of others.

When you kill do you also conjoin somehow? In some horrible communion you will never shake? Is that why soldiers come home and scream at night and kill themselves? Because they have become their targets?

People need people, more than any other being needs any other being, and Jack thought as he sifted the remnants of the nightmare that the need makes us particularly vulnerable.

Sometimes I catch myself being a person I wouldn't tolerate for five minutes at my own kitchen table. Being a thoughtless, self-centered jerk.

It occurred to me that the death of his grazing land hurt him more, incomparably more than the death of the human race. I liked him a lot better in that moment.

She and her family hadn't invited me in order to make a point about xenophobia, or anything like that. They knew that I was alone on the holiday, and i was their friend; nothing else mattered. They were simply big-hearted people and that was the best meal I ever had in China.

We sat there and I knew that this was how it felt to be totally accepted. You sit close to another person and are understood, everything is understood and nothing is judged and you are indispensable.

The fear for oneself, that one can do something about. Upon it one can turn the light of awareness. But when one is no longer worrying about oneself, then the fear comes for other people and, after that, for the world. There are no fearless people, only fearless moments.

There is one way to understand another culture. Living it. Move into it, ask to be tolerated as a guest, learn the language.

People lack the talent of listening. They miss the experience of a fascinating law of nature: The moment when a narrator is captivated by his own story.

I like him. I have a weakness for losers. Invalids, foreigners, the fat boy of the class, the ones nobody ever wants to dance with. My heart beats for them. Maybe because I've always known that in some way I will forever be one of them.

I like dogs. Dogs don't judge people.

Everyone you meet is fighting a battle of their own you know nothing about. Be kind to everyone.

Er war ein kluger Kopf, mit einem astronomisch hohen IQ. Aber ein hoher IQ macht einen nicht automatisch zu einem tollen Menschen, nicht einmal zu einem guten. Es bedeutet lediglich, dass man sich allen möglichen Scheiß ausdenken kann, zu dem andere nicht fähig sind.

All that is really necessary to hate someone is not to give a shit about what happens to him. And when we don't give a shit about what happens to a whole group of Americans because of the color of their skin, that is racism.

None of this is ever going to change until each of us changes. The change has to come from us, and the object of that change is us. We have to change our hearts. And we have to change our minds. We have to stop thinking in terms of stereotypes and deal with people as people. We have to stop thinking in terms of narrow self-interest and begin to reclaim the idea of the common good.

Trayvon Martin's killing touches on something universal. His death ought to make us look at ourselves and be honest: we need to realize that no one in America is safe until everyone is safe, that no one in America is a success until everyone is a success, that there is no more central a self-interest than the interests of all.

The way I see it, we're all either Trayvon Martin or we're George Zimmerman. The choice is ours. There's no in-between.

I must confess that we British Liaison Officers were slow to understand their point of view; as a nation we have always tended to assume that those who do not whole-heartedly support us in our wars have some sinister motive for not wishing to see the world a better place. This attitude made us particularly unsympathetic towards the Balli Kombëtar, although the latter was a thoroughly patriotic organization. The Balli

The Muslims have, as everyone else says, the right to practice their religion and they have the right to construct a mosque at ground zero if they wish. What I am saying, though, is that they should listen to public opinion, they should listen to the deep wounds and anguish that this is causing to so many good people.

It sounds so trite but in relationships, you have to communicate.

Love gives you eyes.