#empathy

I couldn’t think of anyone I’d ever felt sorry for. There were plenty of kids I was envious of. There were others I achingly admired, but that might simply be another form of jealousy. Then there were those I feared, dreaded. And the worst of them, the man who shamed me. I could see my father’s angry features looming over my mother. I could clearly picture her beside him in his truck, cowering against the door while he belittled and assaulted her. I guess I did know someone I felt sorry for. ↗

— Richelle E. Goodrich

#empathy #envy #jealousy #pity #richelle

It’s not so much the journey that’s important; as is the way that we treat those we encounter and those around us, along the way ↗

— Jeremy Aldana

#journey #life #love #respect #life

Sooner or later in life, we will all take our own turn being in the position we once had someone else in. ↗

— Ashly Lorenzana

#fairness #karma #life #role-reversal #life

When your own life is threatened, your sense of empathy is blunted by a terrible, selfish hunger for survival. ↗

— Yann Martel

#survival-instinct #life

This is the most enormous extension of vision of which life is capable: the projection of itself into other lives. This is the lonely, magnificent power of humanity. It is . . . the supreme epitome of the reaching out. ↗

— Loren Eiseley

#imagination

When someone says to us, as Thich Nhat Hanh suggests, "Darling, I care about your suffering," a deep healing begins. ↗

— Tara Brach

#empathy #healing #suffering #life

As the pain that can be told is but half a pain, so the pity that questions has little healing in its touch. What Lily craved was the darkness made by enfolding arms, the silence which is not solitude, but compassion holding its breath. ↗

— Edith Wharton

#empathy #love #love

I think it's impossible to really know someone, what they want, what they believe, and not love them the way they love themselves. ↗

— Orson Scott Card

#love #love

Maybe this is kind of cliche, but animals, well, dogs, are what I do for a living. One reason I like spending time with them so much is they seem to think people are really good. They live with us, and obey our rules, most of which make no sense to them. And the main reason they do it is because they like us. When I watch them, sometimes I'm so blow away by how enthusiastic they are about everything we do that I have to go out and buy them something squeaky or chewy. Just because I love proving to them that it's not a mistake to see the world as a great benevolent place. I hope one day to react to something with as much pure ecstasy as I see in Chuck's face every time I throw the ball. Sometimes he looks so happy, it reminds me of the way blind people smile way too big because they can't see themselves. And if none of this links to anything in you, well... I think you don't know who I am. ↗

— Merrill Markoe

#empathy #pets #love

Humans have long since possessed the tools for crafting a better world. Where love, compassion, altruism and justice have failed, genetic manipulation will not succeed. ↗

— Gina Maranto

#empathy #love #love