1,354 Quotes About Empathy

Empathy, at its core, is knowing how not to hurt each other.

One of the criticisms I've faced over the years is that I'm not aggressive enough or assertive enough, or maybe somehow, because I'm empathetic, it means I'm weak. I totally rebel against that. I refuse to believe that you cannot be both compassionate and strong.

I am learning to “sit” with problems and own them instead of trying to bypass them. I am learning to empathize with people instead of trying to find a quick solution to their issues.

In the rocky future we have already made inevitable, an unshakeable belief in the equal rights of all people and a capacity for deep empathy will be the only things standing between humanity and barbarism.

We are empathic beings who feel for each other. Our very success as a species is rooted in our ability to be aware of each other's needs, to notice each other's pain and to experience deeply felt physiological and emotional empathy.

Empathy has become a misused buzz-word. It is transformed into a catch all term for everything good as a synonym of the morality, kindness and compassion. It is frequently mistaken for sympathy, which means aligning yourself with someone suffering, not inhabiting it.

Like courage, empathy and compassion are critical components of shame resilience. Practicing compassion allows us to hear shame. Empathy, the most powerful tool of compassion, is an emotional skill that allows us to respond to others in a meaningful, caring way. Empathy is the ability to put ourselves in someone else's shoes - to understand what someone is experiencing and to reflect back that understanding.

The first thing we do in my house is say do you want empathy or do you want a solution?

I felt sad, then, for her, and angry at myself. I took that moment, that short time, to mourn, to be sad, to be angry, to feel emotions for her that I never let myself feel for me and mine, because we'd been born to this but she hadn't, and because people who only know suffering from stories are never prepared to find themselves inside one.