empathy

Three-fourths of the miseries and misunderstandings in the world will disappear if we step into the shoes of our adversaries and understand their standpoint.

And another local journalist wrote an op-ed wondering if this trend of empathy had gone too far. Wondering if this trend of empathy had gone too far?To erase the possibility of empathy is also to erase the possibility of understanding.

What we understand and love understands and loves us also.

She seems to always get itTo have become adept at empathyAlways giving excuses for people who__e aggrieved herTo the point it__ hard for her to hit back when necessary All because she assumes she __nderstands__hen, one day . . .She finally stands up for herselfAt that moment, she revels in the natural instinct of self-preservationShe realises all this while the power she__ been withholdingIn a transcendent moment of epiphanyIt__ all beautiful __auseNow, she can get back to empathy with understanding, rather, than without.

the whole point of literature, I think, is that it__ the best technology we have for communicating what another person__ life feels like from the inside.

Self-awareness - the commendable ability to be yourself without being a nuisance to someone else.

When your view is criticized or even ridiculed on television, on radio talk show, or in a newspaper editorial, don't just react angrily. Take a moment to jot down on paper the person's main thesis and how that thesis was supported. Then do two things. First, assume the person is expressing at least some good points and try to identify them. This assumption may be false, but the search for common ground with intellectual opponents is a good habit. In the process of identifying these good points, try to argue against your own view. Second, try to state on paper exactly how you would argue against the view being expressed in an intellectually precise yet emotionally calm way.

Resolve to be tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and the wrong. Sometime in life you will have been all of these.

Whenever you feel like criticizing any one...just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had.

What dooms our best efforts to cultivate empathy and compassion is always, of course, other people.

Nothing changes until people decide to do the things they must, in order to bring about peace.

One reason we rush so quickly to the vulgar satisfactions of judgment, and love to revel in our righteous outrage, is that it spares us from the impotent pain of empathy, and the harder, messier work of understanding.