Quotes About Empathy

It was thus an excellent reply that the woman made when she wanted to send a boatload of provisions to the exiled Gratilla;* for when someone said to her, 'Domitian will merely confiscate them,' she replied, 'Better that he should take them away than that I should fail to send them.

Remind yourself, "What upsets this person is their opinion of what has happened. Another in the same circumstance, taking a different perspective, would react quite differently."   Do not share these thoughts with the grieving person. Sympathize with them—even cry with them. Your tears will be outward, not inward.

Refuse to participate in gossip—tearing down, inflating, and judging other people.

Whenever someone helps or hinders you, or praises or criticizes you, remember that they see you only through the lens of their own impressions. If they act or speak from a warped perspective, they hurt themselves—not you. For if someone mistakes truth for falsehood, the truth is not harmed, but only the person deceived. Keeping this in mind, gently turn away any insult or injury. "It seems right to them, though they are mistaken.

Avoid talking often and excessively about your accomplishments and dangers, for however much you enjoy recounting your dangers, it's not so pleasant for others to hear about your affairs.

If a friend tells you that someone has criticized or insulted you, say, "They must not know about my other faults, or they would have pointed out those, too.

Which of us does not admire what Lycurgus the Spartan did? A young citizen had put out his eye, and been handed over to him by the people to be punished at his own discretion. Lycurgus abstained from all vengeance, but on the contrary instructed and made a good man of him. Producing him in public in the theatre, he said to the astonished Spartans: I received this young man at your hands full of violence and wanton insolence; I restore him to you in his right mind and fit to serve his country.

He abused me, he beat me, he defeated me, he robbed me—in those who harbor such thoughts hatred will never cease. He abused me, he beat me, he defeated me, he robbed me—in those who do not harbor such thoughts hatred will cease. For hatred does not cease by hatred at any time: hatred ceases by love—this is an old rule.

A college friend once explained that the difference Neil Young and Crazy Horse and Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band was that the former made you feel as if they were really no better than you are, while the latter somehow convinces you that you can be as great as they are.

Lincoln spoke of slaveholders not as reprobates and sinners but as men and women enmeshed in a system from which they could not disentangle themselves. "They are just what we would be in their situation

The remarkable thing is that we really love our neighbor as ourselves: we do unto others as we do unto ourselves. We hate others when we hate ourselves. We are tolerant toward others when we tolerate ourselves. We forgive others when we forgive ourselves. We are prone to sacrifice others when we are ready to sacrifice ourselves.

What monstrosities would walk the streets were some people's faces as unfinished as their minds.

There would be no society if living together depended upon understanding each other.

There is perhaps no surer way of infecting ourselves with virulent hatred toward a person than by doing him a grave injustice.

Compassion is the antitoxin of the soul: where there is compassion even the most poisonous impulses remain relatively harmless.

To wrong those we hate is to add fuel to our hatred. Conversely, to treat an enemy with magnanimity is to blunt our hatred for him

We probably have a greater love for those we support than for those who support us. Our vanity carries more weight than our self-interest.

How frighteningly few are the persons whose death would spoil our appetite and make the world seem empty.

Empathy, alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil proceeding within us.

No matter what our achievements might be, we think well of ourselves only in rare moments. We need people to bear witness against our inner judge, who keeps book on our shortcomings and transgressions. We need people to convince us that we are not as bad as we think we are.

Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind.

Most often in history it was the conquerors who learned willingly from the conquered.

Our preoccupation with other people - whether we aid or hinder them, love or hate them - is at bottom a means of getting away from ourselves. It is strange to contemplate that competition with others - the breathless race to get ahead of others - is basically a running away from ourselves

To wrong those we hate is to add fuel to our hatred. Conversely, to treat an enemy with magnanimity is to blunt our hatred for him. 71