Quotes about Empathy

As a Christian, I am not the least bit offended by the beliefs of Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, and so forth. In fact, I am delighted to know that they believe in something that is more likely to make them into a reasonable human being, as long as they don't allow the religion to be distorted by those seeking power and wealth.

I don't believe in being emotionally detached from patients. I work with and operate on human beings, all creatures of God, people in pain who need help. I don't know how I can work on a girl's brain--how I can have her life in my hands--and yet not become involved. I feel particularly strong attachments to children who seem so defenseless and who haven't yet had the chance to live a full life.

We long to find someone who has been where we've been, who shares our fragile places, who sees our sunsets with the same shades of blue. Soul mates. They somehow validate the depth of our experiences.

You want to know how to love me? Love my children. You want to be good to me? Be good to my children.

Your wealth of experience makes you rich. Spend it on hurt people. They need it so badly.

Paul didn't just see emotions. He saw the need they represented.

Whenever you feel alone, rejected, or misunderstood, stand your situation up next to David's. The boy had as pure a heart as humanly possible, and his own family blasted him. Ouch. I don't want to minimize your hurts, but in David you can certainly find someone who has been there, done that.

When we judge a brother's or sister's sin as so much worse than our own, we are like lepers counting spots. "She has more than I do.

Sometimes all you could do for the suffering was to make sure they knew someone was suffering right there with them. Someone who had also felt stricken, and smitten, and afflicted.

Aloneness exaggerates our emotions and sensitivity.

I've become increasingly convinced that those we need to forgive most often grasp the least how much they've hurt us. If they understood and took responsibility, it wouldn't have taken the Cross to forgive them. It could have just happened over coffee.

To extend hands of service without hearts of love is virtually meaningless.