Quotes About Empathy

You're not going to do anything, to fix anything," Irene said as she drove me to the office. "You're just going to bear witness to his life. I think sometimes that's the greatest gift we can give one another.

Laughter helps us view frustrations and disappointments from new perspectives; it enables us to survive hard times, setbacks, and frustrations.

Because arguments require an expenditure of time and energy, we need to consider what is worth arguing about and what is not.

The further you move away from experiencing your emotions, the more distant you become from others, as well as from yourself.

The capacity to take conflict in stride and forgive easily is supported by our ability to manage stress, be emotionally honest and available, communicate nonverbally, and laugh easily.

He wanted to understand what she felt, as well as what she thought, and his approving interest and encouragement made her feel deeply known and valued.

I've been working on Barb for a while. I looked at her as a sort of every woman. She's incredibly strong she's incredibly generous. She's seemingly insane because she is in the situation of a polygamous relationship, but she had definite reasons to do it.

The more I see of men, the more I admire dogs.

When people kill themselves, they think they're ending the pain, but all they're doing is passing it on to those they leave behind.

You should never hate anyone, even your worst enemies. Everyone has something good about them. You have to find the redeeming quality and love the person for that.

Mom always said people worried too much about their children. Suffering when you're young is good for you, she said. It immunized your body and your soul, and that was why she ignored us kids when we cried. Fussing over children who cry only encouraged them, she told us. That's positive reinforcement for negative behavior.

Love's language is imprecise, fits more like mittens than gloves.

We do not judge the people we love.

I'm going to smile, and my smile will sink down into your pupils, and heaven knows what it will become.

we had long silences together over the line. I liked those moments. With my ear close to the receiver, I'd try to hear her breath, her breathing. When she broke the silence, her voice became more important.

To be grounded in an attitude of compassion is to be capable of receiving and welcoming the suffering, which the other is giving us. This does not mean that we suffer for them, but that we offer them possibility of going beyond the separate self in which suffering is harbored. (59)

The compassionate person does not require other people to be stupid, in order to be intelligent. Their intelligence is for everyone, so as to have a world in which there is less ignorance. (118)

The depth of our compassion is proportional to the depth of our living. (65)

It [speaking with words that bring about harmony] consists of speaking of what is good about people, instead of what is wrong with them. For some people this is an almost impossible exercise, for they have become totally habituated to speaking critically. We all seem to have a special talent for finding critical things to say about the world, about others, and about ourselves! (117)

People with deep faith and big hearts are concerned, as I am about the circumstance that Ms. Schiavo is in. I want them to know I will do what I can, but there are limits to what any particular person - irrespective of the title they currently hold - can do.

Only themselves understand themselves, and the like of themselves, As Souls only understand Souls.   Walt Whitman

Who we think we are can be stripped away forever," I make a poof gesture, "just like that. Right now, well fed, unthreatened, we have the luxury of pretending the Donners and the Nazis and the gang-bangers are someone else, but they're not. They're us; a veil's breadth away. There are no good guys and bad guys. People are people, all the same; only the circumstances change.

No, I don't know what it's like to be an amnesiac teenager. I do know what it's like to feel overwhelmed, or alone, or as if no one understands you or likes you. We've all been there. But the specifics of what a person feels at a certain point in their life is of course different. I just tried to use my imagination responsibly and respectfully.

I don't hate you. I don't know that I understand you yet. I may never. But I will try. But I'm not sure what my next step is.