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Empathy Quotes
"When we become acquainted with any person on a human level, even a great enemy, we begin to see that no person is really so different from ourselves."
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"Learn to see in another's calamity the ills which you should avoid."
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"Dogs are how people would be if the important stuff is all that mattered to us."
16
"We can learn the art of fierce compassion - redefining strength, deconstructing isolation and renewing a sense of community, practicing letting go of rigid us-vs.-them thinking - while cultivating power and clarity in response to difficult situations."
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"[T]he unsympathetic assessments we make of others are usually the result of nothing more sinister than our habit of looking at them in the wrong way, through lenses clouded by distraction, exhaustion and fear, which blind us to the fact that they are really, despite a thousand differences, just altered versions of ourselves: fellow fragile, uncertain, flawed beings likewise craving love and in urgent need of forgiveness."
16
"Don't talk, just listen, and feel with all your heart."
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"When someone is cruel, harsh, mean, to not take their words personally is one thing, but to hear the silent cry within those words is another. This sort of perspective can not only liberate us from crippling self-doubt in the face of criticism, it can also liberate us from automatically becoming blind participants in the interaction patterns that the cruel person has become accustomed to-a favour we do for the other person as much as for ourselves."
16
"We do not know the worth of one single drop of blood, one single tear."
16
"In return, Giovanni told me that empathizing Italians say L'ho provato sulla mia pelle, which means 'I have experienced that on my own skin.' Meaning, I have also been burned or scarred in this way, and I know exactly what you're going through."
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"Then I give her a grim shake of my head and say aloud, 'This blows ass.' She nods sympathetically. She doesn't understand, but of course, in her way she understands completely."
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"Make a difference about something other than yourselves."
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"We must be able to love other people or forever endure the stain of disgraceful loneliness. By recognizing and expressing empathy for other people, we come to accept our own fallibility."
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"Whenever you feel like criticizing any one...just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had."
16
"I couldn't think of anyone I'd ever felt sorry for. There were plenty of kids I was envious of. There were others I achingly admired, but that might simply be another form of jealousy. Then there were those I feared, dreaded. And the worst of them, the man who shamed me. I could see my father's angry features looming over my mother. I could clearly picture her beside him in his truck, cowering against the door while he belittled and assaulted her. I guess I did know someone I felt sorry for."
16
"When you see someone smile, does it naturally make you want to smile back? When you are irritable, do you find that people mirror your irritability? When someone yawns around you, do automatically do the same? When you hear someone celebrating, do you feel inclined to join in and celebrate too? Your responses are not forced, but instinctual and empathetic."
15
"When someone is suffering, there is a deep, visceral reaction in the core of our being, a flood of empathy and a frightfully desperate compulsion to give aid."
15
"If you see a person who is suffering from misery and sadness, wash it away with your compassion and kindness."
15
"If you can't see some part of yourself in every single person you encounter, then you're not looking closely enough, at the person or at yourself."
15
"Everyone is overcoming something, be gentle."
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"We must recognize that the suffering of one person or one nation is the suffering of humanity."
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"If you want something, then you also want everything that comes with it. If you don't want what comes with it; then guess what?! You really didn't want it in the first place!"
15
"No, I mean really listen. Here's a story, and you don't have to visit manyhouses to find it. One person is talking,the other one is not really listening.someone can look like they are but they'reactually thinking about something they want to say, or their minds are justwandering. Or they're looking at thatlittle box people hold in their hands thesedays. And people get discouraged, so theyquit trying. And the very quiet people,you may have noticed, are often the sadpeople."
15
"There's something so quietly contained in the moments when one reaches their hand out to support your tragedy. It's hardly ever spoken about, but the feeling of belonging to somewhere, or someone for a split second, gives you enough power to carry on a few more steps. When the world is full of compassionate people like this, the world will know Unconditional Love."
15
"When we are looking for the unexpected, we are not only looking for the unexpected in ourselves, but we are also curious about the unexpected in the behavior of the others. So as to know the others, we have got to learn how and where they differ from us. By understanding this, we are able to establish an uplifting link with otherness. ['Looking for the unexpected']"
15
"You didn't get past something like that, you go through it -- and for that reason alone, I understood more about her than she ever would have guessed."
15
"Maybe we have shoes so we can learn to walk in another's oath before judging their footsteps?"
15
"The pain of humanity's most maltreated victims echoes deep within each of us, in the form of our shame or ignorance."
15
"Any empathic person who knows how valuable time is will think twice before wasting another person's time, because losing time is losing a part of your life."
14
"The stories and pictures I make for the lives of the people closest to me are the forms of my empathy."
14
"Mostly we tell the story of our lives, or mostly we're taught to tell it, as a quest to avoid suffering, though if your goal is a search for meaning, honor, experience, the same events may be victories or necessary steps. Then the personal matters; it's home; but you can travel in and out of it, rather than being marooned there. The leprosy specialist Paul Brand wrote, "Pain, along with its cousin touch, is distributed universally on the body, providing a sort of boundary of self," but empathy, solidarity, allegiance--the nerves that run out into the world--expand the self beyond its physical bounds."
14
"Grover started to sniffle and I figured if I didn't cheer him up he'd either start bawling or chewing up my mattress. He tends to eat household objects whenever he gets upset."
14
"Compassion is a muscle that gets stronger with use."
14
"One of the greatest gifts we receive from dogs is the tenderness they evoke in us. The disappointments of life, the injustices, the battering events that are beyond our control, and the betrayals we endure, from those we befriended and loved, can make us cynical and turn our hearts into flint " on which only the matches of anger and bitterness can be struck into flame. By their delight in being with us, the reliable sunniness of their disposition, the joy they bring to playtime, the curiosity with which they embrace each new experience, dogs can melt cynicism,and sweeten the bitter heart."
14
"There are some great positive quotes out there that I can't quite share as I wonder how a victim in a war torn country could be expected to see from their perspective?"
14
"Just because an impressive storm doesn't touch you, you must not find it beautiful! Lend an ear to the voices of those which are under the storm!"
14
"As a kid my heart would break for the villains."
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"Sometimes all you can do is hug a friend tightly and wish that their pain could be transferred by touch to your own emotional hard drive."
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