Empathy Quotes

“Intense and passionate love can be very demanding or exhausting, for it depends on vulnerability, empathy, and emotional investment to navigate the turbulent waters with awareness. (Another empty room)”
― Erik Pevernagie

“Does it make you selfish, paying attention to yourself? Definitely not! Especially when you’re a skilled empath. Non-empaths automatically treat themselves as The Most Important Person in the Room. And it’s perfectly fine for you to do it too.”
― Rose Rosetree, Empath Empowerment in 30 Days

“What kind of skill matters for an empath?

Not psychological boundary work or anything about behavior. Not energy work to clean up the mess from being an unskilled empath. Not avoiding energies of negative or overwhelming people. (With appropriate skill, an empath can go anywhere while remaining energetically protected.)

The kind of skill empaths need comes from using your AWARENESS, a gentle way of being awake inside. Ever since you were born, all your waking hours, you have had awareness.”
― Rose Rosetree, The Empowered Empath — Quick & Easy: Owning, Embracing, and Managing Your Special Gifts (An Empath Empowerment® Book)

“NON-EMPATHS naturally put themselves first. They experience themselves in vivid color, brighter and more interesting than everyone else.

Granted, a non-empath will occasionally have an insight, such as “I notice things going on beneath the surface of the conversation.” While an unskilled empath has insights constantly, and to such an extent that it’s like living grayed out—fascinated by everyone else, because even random people appear so much more colorful.

Yet a SKILLED EMPATH gets to be in full color, just like everyone else, and going deeper when we choose. Yes, going deeper as a matter of choice. Otherwise we stay on the surface of life, enjoying the very human privilege of personal vividness in living color.”
― Rose Rosetree, Empath Empowerment in 30 Days

“This is where the will to grapple with our hard and pressing environmental problems begins: in relationship to something other that you love beyond any utility, beyond any logic.”
― Susan Freinkel, American Chestnut: The Life, Death, and Rebirth of a Perfect Tree

“He had told Tristan once that they all had the exact curses they deserved. He understood his own, that he felt everything because he wanted terribly, with all of his being, to feel nothing. Because to feel nothing would be to finally no longer feel pain.”
― Olivie Blake, The Atlas Paradox

“BRAVE EMPATH, that is what I will be calling you in this book as I coach you in empath skills.

You are brave. Otherwise you wouldn’t have been attracted to this system for helping empaths. Plenty of other books exist to console empaths who feel like victims. It takes uncommon courage to embrace who you are, to pursue skills that can abolish empath-related suffering, and to claim the leadership role that is rightfully yours.

Yes, leadership role. Of all the skill sets I teach, Empath Empowerment is my very favorite because that leadership is so important. Granted, before you gain skills as an empath, you may not feel much like a leader at all.”
― Rose Rosetree, The Empowered Empath — Quick & Easy: Owning, Embracing, and Managing Your Special Gifts (An Empath Empowerment® Book)

“Beauty will save the world”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Idiot

“The loss of empathy is also the loss of humanity, and that's no small tradeoff.”
― Barbara Kingsolver, High Tide in Tucson : Essays from Now or Never

“Empathy should apply to all stakeholders, including oneself. Balance is key. It's often a bad idea to empathize with one stakeholder to the detriment of other stakeholders. You may not want to give that employee criticism, but what about the customers who are negatively impacted by that employees insufficient performance? You may not want to reject that clients particular request, but what about the employees who would be negatively impacted if the request is honored? You may want to put in 20 more hours for the client this week, but what about the self-care you need to remain healthy so that you can bring your best self to work? Empathy is good - but it should be Multi Stakeholder Empathy. Balance is key.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr.

“The pain I absorbed seemed to float toward me like mist on a cool spring morning. It was a mix of melancholy love for the timbered mountainous country that surrounded us, the grief of separation from family, and a wound within the soul that agonizes beyond the words that describe love. These feelings permeated my skin, seeping deep within the cells of my body.”
― Monica Nelson, Mere Sense: A Memoir of Men, Migraine, and the Mysteries of Being Highly Sensitive

“I palpated her broken heart. It beat within me. Slow and hobbled. Her begging heart wanted healing. Her begging eyes would not let me go.”
― Monica Nelson, Mere Sense: A Memoir of Men, Migraine, and the Mysteries of Being Highly Sensitive

“Brain is there to think human,
Heart is there to feel human.
Eyes are there to see human,
Hands are there to be human.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Yüz Şiirlerin Yüzüğü (Ring of 100 Poems, Bilingual Edition): 100 Turkish Poems with Translations

“empathy without boundaries is self-destruction”
― Silvy Khoucasian

“What type of steward would I be," Boaz said. "If I didn't use the blessings God gave me to care for those in my power to help?”
― Elizabeth Faye, Hills of Moab

“Even he who deserves to die, who deserves to be killed, doesn't deserve to be killed like that.”
― Grégoire Courtois, The Laws of the Skies

“But the fact that a man who dealt with the absolute worst of humanity every single day could still find a moment to be charitable gave me a glimmer of hope.”
― Duncan Ralston, Where the Monsters Live

“I don't know, humane or not, man, a life is a life. Push a button half a million miles away or stick a shiv in a man's kidney while the dude stares you in the eye, you still got blood on your hands.”
― Duncan Ralston, Dead Men Walking: a Novelette

“The thing Jesus said about forgiveness? 'When we forgive men for their sins, God forgives us for ours.' We have to remember that, man. Hold it close to our hearts.”
― Duncan Ralston, Dead Men Walking: a Novelette

“To share and to care are the sign of life, to hoard and to hate are the sign of animal.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Yüz Şiirlerin Yüzüğü (Ring of 100 Poems, Bilingual Edition): 100 Turkish Poems with Translations

“Your wound is my wound,
Your heartbreak is my heartbreak.
Iceage apes pleasure pouring salt,
To human wounds I am bandaid.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Yaralardan Yangın Doğar: Explorers of Night are Emperors of Dawn

“We know from research (and common sense) that people who understand and manage their own and others’ emotions make better leaders. They are able to deal with stress, overcome obstacles, and inspire others to work toward collective goals. They manage conflict with less fallout and build stronger teams. And they are generally happier at work, too. But far too many managers lack basic self-awareness and social skills. They don’t recognize the impact of their own feelings and moods. They are less adaptable than they need to be in today’s fast-paced world. And they don’t demonstrate basic empathy for others: they don’t understand people’s needs, which means they are unable to meet those needs or inspire people to act.

One of the reasons we see far too little emotional intelligence in the workplace is that we don’t hire for it. We hire for pedigree. We look for where someone went to school, high grades and test scores, technical skills, and certifications, not whether they build great teams or get along with others. And how smart we think someone is matters a lot, so we hire for intellect.

Obviously we need smart, experienced people in our companies, but we also need people who are adept at dealing with change, understand and motivate others, and manage both positive and negative emotions to create an environment where everyone can be at their best.”
― Annie McKee

“When I apologize, I try to make my understanding, my responsibility, and my intention clear. Even if the follow-through is not completely consistent, the exposing itself with no excuses at least gives me--gives us--a chance.

Which is why the first words from me when someone apologizes, often, is, 'For what?' That is the only way the unraveling of accountability, empathy, complicity, and commitment to revision can begin.”
― Shellen Lubin

“Those who don't have empathy for themselves won't have empathy for others.”
― Geverson Ampolini

“Understand: we can never really experience what other people are experiencing. We always remain on the outside looking in, and this is the cause of so many misunderstandings and conflicts. But the primal source of human intelligence comes from the development of mirror neurons (see here), which gives us the ability to place ourselves in the skin of another and imagine their experience. Through continual exposure to people and by attempting to think inside them we can gain an increasing sense of their perspective, but this requires effort on our part. Our natural tendency is to project onto other people our own beliefs and value systems, in ways in which we are not even aware. When it comes to studying another culture, it is only through the use of our empathic powers and by participating in their lives that we can begin to overcome these natural projections and arrive at the reality of their experience. To do so we must overcome our great fear of the Other and the unfamiliarity of their ways. We must enter their belief and value systems, their guiding myths, their way of seeing the world. Slowly, the distorted lens through which we first viewed them starts to clear up.
Going deeper into their Otherness, feeling what they feel, we can discover what makes them different and learn about human nature. This applies to cultures, individuals, and even writers of books. As Nietzsche once wrote, “As soon as you feel yourself against me you have ceased to understand my position and consequently my arguments! You have to be the victim of the same passion.”
― Robert Greene, Mastery

“One of the reasons hard conversations are necessary is that we have to ask other people the obvious questions - How do you see this? - if we're going to have any hope of entering, even a bit, into their point of view. Our differences of perception are rooted deep in the hidden kingdom of the unconscious mind and we're generally not aware how profound those differences are until we ask.”
― David Brooks, How To Know a Person

“Yaoyao reached out involuntarily as if by instinct and drew him to her in a tight embrace. His love for his mother reminded her of her loss. Holding him was a way to anchor herself. Perhaps he felt the same. The gap, the hole, the emptiness. It threatened to consume them. Only within his arms and her embrace could they find wholeness. In her imagination, he had leaned down to kiss her lips, but in his recollection, she had leapt into his arms, wrapping her legs around his body as she hungered for his warmth. There was a certain dichotomy to the act of giving and receiving, of loving and being loved. Even as they explored one another for the first time—an awkwardness here, an apology there—and through the giggles, laughter, and tears, they made one another complete.”
― J. Lam, Duel on Mount Taiyuan

“What does the world look like? It depends on who's looking. And the wonderful thing is, it takes more than one set of eyes to get a full picture.”
― Carol Matas, Who's Looking?: How Animals See the World

“Many unskilled empaths interpret their talent negatively, inappropriately calling themselves names like “Over-sensitive,” “Neurotic,” or “Co-dependent.” Ridiculous, Brave Empath! You have a gift. It’s tricky but, with skill, you can purposely use that gift to fly in spirit.”
― Rose Rosetree, The Empowered Empath — Quick & Easy: Owning, Embracing, and Managing Your Special Gifts (An Empath Empowerment® Book)

“When you’re an unskilled empath, other people in the room can seem way more vivid than you. Is it common for you to have one or more of the following experiences while you’re with others?

Wondering what it is like to be someone else.

Experiencing at depth what it feels like to be that person. Finding problems, pain or fears, in others. No trying!

Wishing that things could be better for that other person.

Wishing that somehow you could help.

Observing someone’s conversation (even if it isn’t yours), you automatically notice what’s going on beneath the surface.

When somebody has a negative judgment of you, it may be seem overwhelmingly obvious, no more a secret than if he or she started singing “La Bamba” in a very loud voice.

You might even slide into acting differently, more like the way you’re expected to act.

Come to think of it, you may define yourself in that room much as a bat would. Why? You’re doing a human version of echolocation. Depending on how you sound to others, that’s how you find yourself.”
― Rose Rosetree, Empath Empowerment in 30 Days