Quotes about Empathy

And to be fully honest, I think your heart needs to be broken, and broken open, at least once to have a heart at all or to have a heart for others.

I'll say it again: God loves things by becoming them.

So long as we all cling to our prejudices and identify with our preconceived views and feelings, genuine human community is impossible. You have to get to the point where you can break free from your feelings. Otherwise in the end you won't have any feelings; they'll have you.

Your heart needs to be broken—and broken open—at least once to discover what your heart means and to have a heart for others.

The second insight about steps and stages is that from your own level of development, you can only stretch yourself to comprehend people just a bit beyond yourself.

One of the few generalizations we can make in the field of universal spirituality is this: No one else is your problem.

Live simply so that others may simply live.

Physicians, though they put their patients to much pain, will not destroy their nature, but will raise it up by degrees. Surgeons will pierce and cut but not mutilate. A mother who has a sick and self-willed child will not cast it away for this reason. And shall there be more mercy in the stream than there is in the spring? Shall we think there is more mercy in ourselves than in God, who plants the feeling of mercy in us?

Humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less. Humility is thinking more of others. Humble people are so focused on serving others, they don't think of themselves.

The purpose of influence is to speak up for those who have no influence. (Pr.31:8) It's not about you.

Your most effective ministry will come out of your deepest hurts.

Most important, you must learn to love lost people the way God does.