If you approach a negotiation thinking the other guy thinks like you, you are wrong. That’s not empathy, that’s a projection.
Education leads to enlightenment. Enlightenment opens the way to empathy. Empathy foreshadows reform.
Who can listen to a story of loneliness and despair without taking the risk of experiencing similar pains in his own heart and even losing his precious peace of mind?
If we are to love our neighbours, before doing anything else we must see our neighbours. With our imagination as well as our eyes, that is to say like artists, we must see not just their faces but the life behind and within their faces. Here it is love that is the frame we see them in.
It’s the recognition that other people’s problems, their pain and frustrations, are every bit as real as our own – often far worse. In recognising this fact and trying to offer some assistance, we open our hearts and greatly enhance our sense of gratitude.
I think the act of reading imbues the reader with a sensitivity toward the outside world that people who don't read can sometimes lack. I know it seems like a contradiction in terms; after all reading is such a solitary, internalising act that it appears to represent a disengagement from day-to-day life. But reading, and particularly the reading of fiction, encourages us to view the world in new and challenging ways... It allows us to inhabit the consciousness of another which is a precursor to empathy, and empathy is, for me, one of the marks of a decent human being.
Courage, love, friendship, compassion, and empathy lift us above the simple beasts and define humanity.
Vulnerability is the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, courage, empathy, and creativity. It is the source of hope, empathy, accountability, and authenticity. If we want greater clarity in our purpose or deeper and more meaningful spiritual lives, vulnerability is the path.
When your own life is threatened, your sense of empathy is blunted by a terrible, selfish hunger for survival.
I do not ask the wounded person how he feels, I myself become the wounded person.
When people talk listen completely. Don’t be thinking what you’re going to say. Most people never listen.
Courage gives us a voice and compassion gives us an ear. Without both, there is no opportunity for empathy and connection.