Quotes About Empathy

And I knew a secret to caring for someone, had learned it just this moment. You took care of people by not letting them know how badly you wanted your life to be different.

Was this how trauma worked? she wondered. Those closest to it remained dumbfounded by the fact that those who weren't present could derive meaning from it?

She's got a way of making a man feel guilty for certain things he'd never feel bad about on his own, like watching someone shoot himself in the face.

You see, some things I can teach you. Some you learn from books. But there are things that, well, you have to see and feel.

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right doing, there is a field. I'll meet you there.

Perhaps this is just punishment for those who have been heartless, to understand only when nothing can be undone.

J'aurais dû être plus gentille—I should have been more kind. That is something a person will never regret. You will never say to yourself when you are old, Ah, I wish I was not good to that person. You will never think that.

The problem, of course, was that [he] saw the world in black and white. And he got to decide what was black and what was white. You can't love a person who lives that way without fearing him too. Maybe even hating him a little.

They tell me I must wade into waters, where I will soon drown. Before I march in, I leave this on the shore for you. I pray you find it, sister, so you will know what was in my heart as I went under.

It's wrong to hurt even bad people. Because they don't know any better, and because bad people sometimes become good.

I have lived a long time, and one thing I have come to see is that one is well served by a degree of both humility and charity when judging the inner workings of another person's heart

As far as I know, he never asked where she had been or why she had left and she never told. I guess some stories do not need telling.

I think that everything he did, feeding the poor, giving money to friends in need, it was all a way of redeeming himself. And that, I believe, is what true redemption is, Amir jan, when guilt leads to good.

Hassan couldn't read a first-grade textbook but he'd read me plenty. That was a little unsettling but also sort of comfortable to have someone who always knew what you needed.

And one more thing...You will never again refer to him as 'Hazara boy' in my presence. He has a name and it's Sohrab.

Hassan returned the smile. Except his didn't look forced. And that's the thing about people who mean everything they say. They think everyone else does too

She considers for a minute before saying, I should have been more kind. That is something a person will never regret. You will never say to yourself when you are old, Ah, I wish I was not good to that person. You will never think that. I should have been more kind.

She was an extraordinary woman, and I went to bed that night feeling like I was perhaps more than ordinary myself. This was the effect she had on me.

You say their stories, it is gift they give you.

True redemption is...when guilt leads to good.

You don't order someone to polish your shoes one day and call them 'sister' the next.

You will never say to yourself when you are old, Ah, I wish I was not good to that person.

I was like the patient who cannot explain to the doctor where it hurts, only that it does.

You see, some things I can teach you. Some you learn from books. But there are things that, well, you just have to see and feel.