Empathy Quotes

“Listening is about being present, not just about being quiet.”
-Krista Tippett

“Whenever you are about to find fault with someone, ask yourself the following question: What fault of mine most nearly resembles the one I am about to criticize?”
-Marcus Aurelius

“Anytime we can listen to our true self and give the care it requires, we do it not only for ourselves, but for the many others whose lives we touch. ”
-Parker Palmer

“The nature of humanity, its essence, is to feel another’s pain as one’s own, and to act to take that pain away. There is a nobility in compassion, a beauty in empathy, a grace in forgiveness.”
-John Connolly

“Empathy is seeing with the eyes of another, listening with the ears of another, and feeling with the heart of another.”
– Alfred Adler

“True compassion means not only feeling another’s pain but also being moved to help relieve it. ”
-Daniel Goleman

“The word ‘listen’ contains the same letters as the word ‘silent’.”
-Alfred Brendel

“There is a loftier ambition than merely to stand high in the world. It is to stoop down and lift mankind a little higher.”
-Henry van Dyke

“Great things can be achieved by leading through wisdom, empathy, and integrity—with no other agenda than humanity.”
-Richard Branson

“The opposite of anger is not calmness.  It’s empathy.”
– Mehmet Oz

“When you start to develop your powers of empathy and imagination, the whole world opens up to you.”  
– Susan Sarandon

“Learning to stand in somebody else’s shoes, to see through their eyes, that’s how peace begins.  And it’s up to you to make that  happen.  Empathy is a quality of character that can  change the world.”
– Barack Obama

“Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other’s eye for an instant?”  
– Henry David Thoreau

“If speaking is silver, then listening is gold.”
–  Turkish Proverb

“I do not ask the wounded person how he feels, I myself become the wounded person.”
– Walt Whitman

“The finest qualities of our nature, like the bloom on fruits, can be preserved only by the most delicate handling. Yet we do not treat ourselves nor one another thus tenderly.” 
-Henry David Thoreau

“Empathy is a respectful understanding of what others are experiencing.”
– Marshall B. Rosenberg

“Listening is where love begins: listening to ourselves and then to our neighbors.”
-Fred Rogers

“We think we listen, but very rarely do we listen with real understanding, true empathy. Yet listening, of this very special kind, is one of the most potent forces for change that I know.”
-Carl Rogers

“When you take care of yourself, you’re a better person for others. When you feel good about yourself, you treat others better.”
-Solange Knowles

“Empathy is the starting point for creating a community and taking action. It’s the impetus for creating change.”
-Max Carver

“Life’s most urgent question is: What are you doing for others?”
-Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Deep listening is the kind of listening that can help relieve the suffering of another person… You listen with only one purpose: to help him or her to empty their heart. ”
-Thich Nhat Hanh

“Listening is an art that requires attention over talent, spirit over ego, others over self. ”
-Dean Jackson

“I feel the capacity to care is the thing which gives life its deepest significance.”
-Pablo Casals

“You don’t have to accept the invitation to get angry. Instead, practice forgiveness, empathy and encouragement.”
-Dan Fallon

“Empathy grows as we learn.”
–  Alice Miller

“The great gift of human beings is that we have the power of empathy, we can all sense a mysterious connection to each other.”  
– Meryl Streep

“One friend, one person who is truly understanding, who takes the trouble to listen to us as we consider a problem, can change our whole outlook on the world.”
– E. H. Mayoli

“Yet, taught by time, my heart has learned to glow for other’s good, and melt at other’s woe.”
– Homer

“Empathy fuels connection.” 
-Brené Brown

“Each one of us has lived through some devastation, some loneliness, some weather superstorm or spiritual superstorm, when we look at each other we must say, I understand. I understand how you feel because I have been there myself. We must support each other and empathize with each other because each of us is more alike than we are unalike.”
–Maya Angelou

“Your education has been a failure no matter how much it has done for your mind, if it has failed to open your heart.”
-J.A. Rosenkranz