Prince
Musician, Singer, Songwriter
"Compassion is an action word with no boundaries."
Empathy quotes
Empathy
672 quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Marcus Aurelius
Philosopher, Emperor
"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?"
Jane Goodall
Primatologist, Ethologist, Anthropologist
"Empathy is really important.. Only when our clever brain and our human heart work together in harmony can we achieve our full potential."
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Theologian
"We must learn to regard people less in light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer."
Brené Brown
Researcher, author, speaker
"Vulnerability sounds like truth and feels like courage. Truth and courage aren't always comfortable, but they're never weakness."
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Topics related to Empathy
Browse quotes that often appear alongside empathy — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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Empathy quotes (page 1 of 34)
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"It is through weakness and vulnerability that most of us learn empathy and compassion and discover our soul."
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"Know how to listen, and you will profit even from those who talk badly."
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"Behavior is the mirror in which everyone shows their image."
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"seeing with the eyes of another, listening with the ears of another, and feeling with the heart of another."
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"If we took the time to learn more about different places and people, perhaps we would have more empathy for each other."
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"nothing is more important than empathy for another human being's suffering. Nothing. Not a career, not wealth, not intelligence, certainly not status. We have to feel for one another if we're going to survive with dignity."
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"Man wishes to be confirmed in his being by man, and wishes to have a presence in the being of the other…. Secretly and bashfully he watches for a YES which allows him to be and which can come to him only from one human person to another."
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"You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read."
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"Try to see it my way, only time will tell if I am right or I am wrong. While you see it your way, there's a chance that we might fall apart before too long. We can work it out. W e can work it out."
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"Just as white light consists of colored rays, so reverence for life contains all the components of ethics: love, kindliness, sympathy, empathy, peacefulness and power to forgive."
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"Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity."
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"When you show deep empathy toward others, their defensive energy goes down, and positive energy replaces it. That's when you can get more creative in solving problems."
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"When were you born, who are your parents, where did you grow up? None of us earns these things. These things were given to us. So when we strip away all of our luck and our privilege, and we consider where we'd be without them, it becomes much easier to see someone who's poor and say, "That could be me." And that's empathy."
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"My knowledge of myself is direct, synthetic, from within outwards; my knowledge of other persons is indirect, analytical, from outside inwards. My knowledge of myself starts at the core; that of others at the crust."
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"Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It’s a relationship between equals."
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"For the great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearances, as though they were realities, and are often more influenced by the things that seem than by those that are."
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"Accustom yourself not to be disregarding of what someone else has to say: as far as possible enter into the mind of the speaker."
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"You know when ubuntu is there, and it is obvious when it is absent. It has to do with what it means to be truly human, to know that you are bound up with others in the bundle of life."
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"Every difficulty slurred over will be a ghost to disturb your repose later on."
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"Build bridges of insight through empathy, see the world through the eyes of others, understand the world through their experiences, and feel the world through their emotions."
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