Empathy Quotes

You can only see in others what is inside of you.

Mrs. Lammle's manner changed under the poor silly girl's embraces, and she turned extremely pale: directing one appealing look, first to Mrs. Boffin, and then to Mr. Boffin. Both understood her instantly, with a more delicate subtlety than much better educated people, whose perception came less directly from the heart, could have brought to bear upon the case.

When it seems that our sorrow is too great to be borne, let us think of the great family of the heavy-hearted into which our grief has given us entrance. And inevitably, we will feel about us their arms, their sympathy and their understanding.

Kind words do not cost much. They never blister the tongue or lips. They make other people good-natured. They also produce their own image on men's souls, and a beautiful image it is.

Trials make more room for consolation. There is nothing that makes a man have a big heart like a great trial. I always find that little, miserable people, whose hearts are about the size of a grain of mustard seed, never have had much to try them. I have found that those people who have no sympathy for their fellows — who never weep for the sorrows of others — very seldom have had any woes of their own. Great hearts can only be made by great troubles.

To become a man is to be responsible; to be ashamed of miseries that you did not cause.

The bottom line in managing your emotions is that you should put others – not yourself – first in how you handle and process them. Whether you delay or display your emotions should not be for your own gratification. You should ask yourself, What does the team need? Not, What will make me feel better?

Mirth cannot move a soul in agony.

In interactions with others, instead of trying to be right, why don't we try being kind?

The cheapness of man is every day's tragedy. It is as real a loss that others should be low, as that we should be low; for we musthave a society.

Please do not shoot the pianist. He is doing his best.

You're in there with me. Personally.

The enemy? His sense of duty was no less than yours, I deem. You wonder what his name is, where he came from. And if he was really evil at heart. What lies or threats led him on this long march from home. If he would not rather have stayed there in peace. War will make corpses of us all.

We would like you to reach the place where you're not willing to listen to people criticize one another... where you take no satisfaction from somebody being wrong... where it matters to you so much that you feel good, that you are only willing to think positive things about people... you are only willing to look for positive aspects; you are only willing to look for solutions, and you are not willing to beat the drum of all of the problems of the world.

Be tough minded but tenderhearted.

Anywhere I see suffering, that is where I want to be, doing what I can.

You've got audiences cheering at the prospect of somebody dying because they don't have health care and booing a service member in Iraq because they're gay. That's not reflective of who we are.

I will greet this day with love in my heart. For this is the greatest secret of success in all ventures. Muscles can split a shield and even destroy life itself but only the unseen power of love can open the hearts of man.

In the midst of economic recovery and global upheaval, disasters like this remind us of the common humanity that we share.

If you concern yourself mainly with others, the broader your thinking becomes, and life’s inevitable difficulties disturb you less.

Simply see that you are at the center of the universe, and accept all things and beings as parts of your infinite body. When you perceive that an act done to another is done to yourself, you have understood the great truth.

Most people don't know how to listen because the major part of their attention is taken up by thinking. They pay more attention to that than to what the other person is saying, and none at all to what really matters: the Being of the other person underneath the words and the mind. Of course, you cannot feel someone else's Being except through your own. This is the beginning of the realization of oneness, which is love. At the deepest level of Being, you are one with all that is.

Whatever folly men commit, be their shortcomings or their vices what they may, let us exercise forbearance; remember that when these faults appear in others it is our follies and vices that we behold.

Recall the face of the poorest and weakest man you have seen, and ask yourself if this step you contemplate is going to be any use to him.

Do you value people who won't benefit you or only those who might contribute in some way to your success? Great team players truly value others as people, and they know and relate to what others value.

Continue to plant a kiss of concern on the cheek of the sick and the aged and infirm and count that actions as natural and to be expected.

No man can become a great leader of men unless he has the milk of human kindness in his own heart, and leads by suggestion and kindness, rather than by force.

Any beast can cry over the misfortunes of its own child. It takes a mensch to weep for others' children.

It is very important for I think those of us who desperately want peace, who see war as, at some level, a break-down, a manifestation of human weakness, to understand that sometimes it’s also necessary – and you know, to – to be able to balance two ideas at the same time; that we are constantly striving for peace, we are doubling up on our diplomacy, we are going to actively engage, we are going to try to see the world through other people’s eyes and not just our own.

The squirrel that you kill in jest, dies in earnest.

Nobody, who has not been in the interior of a family, can say what the difficulties of any individual of that family may be.

One would give generous alms if one had the eyes to see the beauty of a cupped receiving hand.

I'm trying to get the terrorist out of the bugaboo category and into the category of a fellow human being.

To understand is to forgive.

To feed men and not to love them is to treat them as if they were barnyard cattle. To love them and not respect them is to treat them as if they were household pets.

I am the man, I suffered, I was there.

Whoever degrades another degrades me.

We only consult the ear because the heart is wanting.

You can't influence somebody when you're judging them.

It isn't safe to sit in judgment upon another person's illusion when you are not on the inside. While you are thinking it is a dream, he may be knowing it is a planet.

To become a leader, you must first become a human being

When we encounter suffering, it is important to respond w/ compassion rather than to question the politics of those we help.

I am proud of the fact there is not a human being that I have got it in for. I never met a man I didn't like.

Can't you recognize the human in the inhuman?

I penetrate the hearts of good kids and criminals

Onions make me sad, a lot of people don't realize that. When I'm cutting onions, I'm sad. Because the plight of onions, it's sad. But people don't realize I'm actually crying - they think I'm just reacting.

If a good person does you wrong, act as though you had not noticed it. If we practice and eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, soon the wholeworld will be blind and toothless.

To know of someone here and there whom we accord with, who is living on with us, even in silence - - this makes our earthly ball a peopled garden.

I cannot imagine anything nobler or more national than that for, say, one hour in the day we should all do the labor the poor must do, and thus identify ourselves with them and through them, with all mankind.

It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honoured by the humiliation of their fellow beings.

Take physic, pomp; Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel, That thou mayst shake the superflux to them And show the heavens more just.

I would rather feel compassion than know the meaning of it. I would hope to act with compassion without thinking of personal gain.

The sheer act of listening speaks volumes that even a great speech can't communicate.

A wretched soul, bruised with adversity, We bid be quiet when we hear it cry. But were we burd'ned with like weight of pain, As much or more we should ourselves complain: So thou, that hast no unkind mate to grieve thee, With urging helpless patience wouldst relieve me; But if thou live to see like right bereft, This fool-begged patience in thee will be left.

The comfort derived from the misery of others is slight.

... I'm much closer to the people at the bottom than the people at the top, and the latter won't forgive me for it.

Looking at various means of developing compassion, I think empathy is an important factor: the ability to appreciate others' suffering.

In a cabinet of natural history, we become sensible of a certain occult recognition and sympathy in regard to the most unwieldy and eccentric forms of beast, fish, and insect.

There was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife.Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said,“Nothing, I just helped him cry.²”“Even after all this timethe sun never says to the earth“You owe me”Look what happens with a love like that,It lights the whole sky..”

In the movie I realized, I had the luxury of getting to see how the other person feels.