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Empathy Quotes
"Inside us there is something that has no name, that something is what we are."
43
"People die from lack of shared empathy and affinity. By establishing social connectedness, we give hope a chance and the other can become heaven. ['Le ciel c'est l'autre']"
41
"You only know how you feel, and you can only guess how others feel."
40
"If a man is tongue-tied, don't laugh at him, but, rather, feel pity for him, as you would for a man with broken legs."
39
"The discoveries of how we can grow and the insights we need to have really come from the inside out. To have genuine empathy, not as a make-nice tool but as an understanding, is essential to the next step."
39
"You never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them."
38
"I think that if I ever have kids, and they are upset, I won't tell them that people are starving in China or anything like that because it wouldn't change the fact that they were upset. And even if somebody else has it much worse, that doesn't really change the fact that you have what you have."
37
"I just need to know that someone out there listens and understands and doesn't try to sleep with someone even if they could have. I need to know these people exist."
37
"But it's hard to explain, Mitch. Now that I'm suffering, I feel closer to people who suffer than I ever did before. The other night, on TV, I saw people in Bosnia running across the street, getting fired upon, killed, innocent victims... and I just started to cry. I feel their anguish as if it were my own. I don't know any of these people. But--how can I put this?--I'm almost... drawn to them."
37
"There's a gap somehow between empathy and activism. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke of 'soul force' - something that emanates from a deep truth inside of us and empowers us to act. Once you identify your inner genius, you will be able to take action, whether it's writing a check or digging a well."
36
"Feel pity for the person who judged you rudely. For they are selfish in their judgment, trying to make their life feel just a little bit better. It was never about you it was all about them."
36
"A woman who can't forgive should never have more than a nodding acquaintance with a man."
36
"Like officer Dave.He's never said much about his life, but I can tell he's scarred. And he knows I'm scarred too. The wounded always recognize the wounded. We can smell each other."
36
"To us post-moderns, empathy is a stranger in a strange land."
35
"We can never judge the lives of others, because each person knows only their own pain and renunciation. It's one thing to feel that you are on the right path, but it's another to think that yours is the only path."
34
"But she remembered having told Archer once that you could not measure love on a scale of degrees, and now she understood that it was the same with pain. Pain might escalate upward and, just when you thought you'd reached your limit, begin to spread sideways, and spill out, and touch other people, and mix with their pain. And grow larger, but somehow less oppressive. She had thought herself trapped in a place outside the ordinary feeling lives of people; she had not noticed how many people were trapped in that place with her."
33
"There's nothing wrong or evil about having a bad day. There's everything wrong with making others have to have it... with you."
32
"Men who are afraid to feel must keep women around to do their feeling for them while dismissing us for the same supposedly "inferior" capacity to feel deeply. But in this way also, men deny themselves their own essential humanity, becoming trapped in dependency and fear."
32
"Indeed, when I came to Italy, I expected to encounter a certain amount of resentment, but have received instead empathy from most Italians. In any reference to George Bush, people only nod to Berlusconi, saying","We understand how it is - we have one, too."
32
"It is unfortunate that many people today cannot realize the need around them."
30
"When we stake a claim to the needs and wants of our life, we may easily fail to live up to the standards of others. Empathy and connectedness, however, might bridge the gap, by stirring our consciousness of the sensitive queries and by assessing the intricate framework of our surroundings with their countless, prickly nitty-gritties. ['Absence of Desire']"
30
"Tears are a form of communication - like speech - and require a listener."
30
"There are not a few among the disciples of charity who require, in their vocation, scarcely less excitement than the votaries of pleasure in theirs."
29
"You shouldn't judge someone until you've walk a mile through an underground tunnel in her uncomfortable shoes."
29
"Cammie!' I'll never forget the tone of Macey's voice in that moment. 'Cam,' she said slowly, moving toward me, 'I know how it feels to be watched every second of every day. I know what it's like to trust fewer and fewer people until it seems like you are completely alone in the world. I know you think the only things that are left in your life are the bad things. I know what you're feeling, Cam.' Her hands were on my shoulders. Her blue eyes were staring into mine. 'I know."
29
"We can't help everyone, but everyone can help someone."
28
"Don't judge someone's choices without first knowing their reason."
27
"The tears of my eyes watered your heart but failed to evoke a response from the barren grounds of what beats in you. They will still come and I will welcome them because they contain you."
27
"When we see somebody in a difficult situation, we can understand them only if we had the same experience and had lived through it. Otherwise, we just think we know."
27
"When someone is crying, of course, the noble thing to do is to comfort them. But if someone is trying to hide their tears, it may also be noble to pretend you do not notice them."
26
"I have a few friends who are confined to wheelchairs for access and mobility. I don't want to always be looking down at them while they are looking up at me. To enjoy a meaningful conversation, I'm quick to kneel beside them or pull up a chair to talk at the same height. Begin to recognize the orientation of other people and align yourself with their body position and physical needs so that you may connect on a more balanced and effective level."
26
"He came up straight to her father, whose hands he took and wrung without a word - holding them in his for a minute or two, during which time his face, his eyes, his look, told of more sympathy than could be put into words."
23
"You decide. You be the judge. It says You are welcome regardless of severity. Severity is in the eye of the sufferer, it says. Pain is pain."
22
"Success-minded people know that first and foremost, in all we do, we must think of others first. By thinking of others, how they feel and what they need, will not cost you a thing nor will it lessen what you have to say."
22
"Mirroring provides social cues through body language and behavior which enable us to develop more empathy and understanding for others."
22
"Everyone is doing the best they can with what they know, and we are all here to learn and grow."
21
"Empathize with others. You may easily get into a situation where you need the understanding of others."
21
"Understanding begets empathy and compassion even for the meanest beggar - Oromis."
21
"Still, this was on the order of a minor miracle, running across someone to whom you can express your feeling so clearly, so completely. Most people go their entire lives without meeting a person like that. It would have been mistake to label this "love". It was more like total empathy."
21
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