Quotes About Empathy

Richard and I always called you the punisher. We never had to discipline you. Not like we did Hermione or Polly. Because you were so hard on yourself. If there's anything I want for you now, as a mother, even if I don't 'deserve' it is: I want you to be gentle. I want you to have compassion. For yourself and everyone. It's what every parent wants. If their any good. Which maybe I wasn't...

People say I'm not good at writing about men. My dad left when I was 16. Give me a break. I'm doing the best I can.

This is motherhood for you,' said my own mother. 'Going through life with your heart outside your body.

My mom and my stepdad are both therapists.

When dealing with men, every woman is a consummate actress.

The more uncertain I have felt about myself,' Jung said, 'the more there has grown up in me a feeling of kinship with all things.

Can you give to someone else what has been? That's the task of the poet.

In order to be a better writer and better reader, I need to believe in my own death and in the death of others.

It's also a story too about how if you love books, well, then I always think you have a layer of protection against the world, which sounds strange, but that is what I truly believe.

Now she knew that there were people -people everywhere- who cared about and loved books as much as she did.

Some'll rob you blind, some'll kick you when you're down, but you spread some good feeling and some warmth about, and people like that. Aye.

Reading is being in stuff." Ben squinted. "Like actually being there?" "Like actually being there. You plug straight into the writer's brain. It's just you and them. You experience what they experience.

But sometimes she felt the world wasn't built for people like her

and I was selfish and wrong not to ask about your family before. I was told I should, but I didn't listen. It's my fault." Marek shrugged. "Was not your fault. Was my privilege.

It's just . . . you know. I've been cheated on in the past, and it was so hard. It hurt so much. And I thought I knew you so well, and I panicked. But you can't . . . you can't ever know another person. Not through and through. People have their reasons for things. And you can choose to love them for who they are, and, well, that's the deal. That's how it is.

Poetry is good for people who are in strange lands," said Marek. "Yes

Ça ne sert à rien de devenir amère parce qu'il y a des connards sur terre. S'il n'y avait pas de connards, tu ne saurais pas repérer les gens bien.

Quando ficava triste, os livros eram seu consolo; quando se sentia só, eles eram seus amigos. Eram eles que cuidavam do seu coração partido e a encorajavam a manter a esperança quando estava na pior.

don't know why they say love means never having to say you're sorry," said Polly suddenly. "I think it means having to say you're sorry A LOT.

But when you read a book, you feel like you're in it.

People get up every day and walk about with smiles on their faces who have been through things you and I could never imagine.

How very strange that someone she had met so briefly, under such extraordinary circumstances, should turn out to be able to pinpoint exactly what she was feeling, and how. Or, rather, take what she was feeling and make her feel so very much better about it.

It had never occurred to her that other mothers, whatever their situations, might be feeling exactly the same way.

Taking what is not yours can never bring you or the ones you love any happiness.